Science Stories

Center for Exolife Sciences at the Niels Bohr Institute at University of Copenhagen organised a conference under the theme "Are we a unique species on a unique planet or are we just the ordinary standard?" We may already have detected traces of life in the atmosphere of the distant planet called K2 18b. During four days in Copenhagen 100 researchers were discussing how we interpret signs of life outside our planet. In this podcast Science Journalist Jens Degett is interviewing Professor Nikku Madhusudhan from University of Cambridge on exoplanetary atmosphere analysis. and former NASA Chief Historian and Director of the NASA History Officer Steven Dick on conspiracy aliens in the media. Follow Science Stories on: Apple Podcast, SoundCloud, Spotify, Spreaker, Google Podcasts, Podimo, and Instagram.

Though we may not hear so much in the media about Mars these days, there is still a lot of really interesting research on the red planet. The two Mars rovers, Curiosity and Perseverance are more than living up to their mission expectation but there are 7 other missions making new discoveries every day and a handful of new missions are on their way. Science Journalist Jens Degett is interviewing PhD Fellow Katrine Wulff Nicolaisen from Centre for Star and Planet Formation at the University of Copenhagen. She is working on a daily basis with the two rovers on mars and she is also working on a meteorite called Black Beauty which originates from mars.

During the summer particle research at CERN has been speeding up. After the Higgs particle was discovered and analyzed more particles at higher energies are needed to reach new levels of understanding of the universe. The top Quarks and the Di-Higgs particle are examples. Science Journalist Jens Degett is interviewing Associate Professor Troels Christian Petersen from the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen on how success in smashing particles at CERN can change our view of the universe.

It is more than a quarter Century since Denmark took its first steps into space age with the first satellite called Ørsted with the purpose of measuring the magnetic fields around the Earth. The mission was a great success in many ways and paved the way for several research groups working with different astrophysical problems. But it was also the beginning of satellite production in Denmark and that is the theme of the podcast today. I was there in 2000 when the first Danish satellite was launched from The Vandenberg airbase in The USA - or rather I waited at the Launch-site but due to weather and technical problems it took a long time before the satellite went up. Today many universities and technical schools are producing satellites for different purposes. The price for launching is going down very fast. For about 2000 US$ it should be possible to buy space for a one kilo satellite to go to space. Then comes all the development and communication devices you need to control your satellite. Chief consultant Per Lundahl Thomsen from Denmarks Technical University explain to Jens Degett what you need to make your own satellite. DTU SPACE Institut for Rumforskning og Rumteknologi

If you look at flight maps you can see small stipulated lines with magnetic field direction - on the map. The journalist was told that these lines were moving over time, so as a pilot he had to buy new maps once in a while. The magnetic lines are not static they are moving. This means that the magnetic north is moving too and in fact there has been a movement of the magnetic North of more than 40 km/year, moving north from Alaska to Siberia. In this podcast science journalist Jens Degett is asking Professor Chris Finlay questions on how the magnetic field is created on our earth. Why it may shift or reverse and what importance magnetic fields are protecting our planet from having our atmosphere blown away by the solar wind particles. There is a lot of interesting stories on how we can use manometers in mobile phones to measure direction and finally Chris Finlay reveal how different the magnetic fields are on other planets. in our solar system and beyond.

3iATLAS is the third interstellar object or "Interloper" that has been observed in our solar system. The first object of this kind was Oumuamua which was discovered on its way out of our solarsystem in 2017. This time we are more lucky as the interstellar object 3iATLAS has been observed early in its path through our solar system in the beginning of july. 3iATLAS is a rare guest and will disappear out of our solar system in a few month. Until then, we may study the object via telescopes and other sensors and discover new scientific secrets about the development of our galaxy, the universe and maybe even organic material which is needed for development of life as we know it. There are even researchers who think the new interstellar object is formed by intelligent life, but there are currently no proven signs of that. Professor in astrophysics Uffe Gråe Jørgensen from the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen is interviewed by Science Journalist Jens Degett.

Superstrings was a very popular topic among physicists in the 1980ies. They had a renaissance in 1995 but then the researchers changed focus to other things. Now superstrings have gained new momentum in physics again. Professor Niels Obers from the Niels Bohr Institute explains what superstrings and string theory is. He also explains why superstrings are popular among researchers again. Science journalists Jens Degett is interviewing.

Gravitational waves is a strange phenomena which was predicted already by Albert Einstein. To understand gravitational waves you need to understand gravitation. In this podcast professor Niels Obers describe gravitation in Newtonian terms and in the frame of Einstein's general theory of relativity. Both descriptions are incomplete but due to research with gravitational waves we may reach to a better understanding of these phenomena. Since 2015 where gravitational waves were first detected with certainty, a number of new gravitational wave detectors are being build and researchers are learning more about the ripples in time, space and the fabric of the universe. Science Journalist Jens Degett from Science Stories is interviewing professor Niels Obers from the Niels Bohr Institute at University of Copenhagen.

When someone begins to study the evolution of the universe and the laws of physics, one easily comes to wonder how strange it is that humans and life exist, and we are able to observe the universe. If the laws and constants of nature were just a little bit different, the occurrence of life is unthinkable. However, we can state that we are here, and this raises a number of other issues, such as: Has the universe always been able to sustain life? Will the universe continue to sustain the existence of life in the future ? Are we just one of many universes that exist in parallel? Science Journalist Jens Degett from Science Stories talks to Professor Niels Obers, Director of the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics (NORDITA) and professor at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, to try and get to the bottom of the matter. This podcast is a continuation of their conversation in a former story "Big Bang challenged by Conformal Cyclic Cosmology".

We are used to think about the universe as a structure which started with a Big Bang and then expanded. Sir Roger Penrose, who received the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics, has developed an alternative theory of the universe based on Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity which is called "Conformal Cyclic Cosmology". In this new model we don’t have one single Big Bang, but an iteration of infinite cycles (or aeons) of expansion and cooling, each beginning with a “big bang” and ending in a “big crunch”. Science Journalist Jens Degett interviews Professor Niels Obers, Director of the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics (NORDITA) and professor at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, on Roger Penrose’s theory and how much evidence is needed in order to change the general view of a central paradigm which is written in our school textbooks. What if Penrose is right? What consequences or perspectives will it have for us?

This podcast on our living universe is recorded in Danish. We will try to make an English transcription as soon as we we can get a suitable transcription tool. Vores levende univers Der sker i disse år så meget inden for forskning især inden for biovidenskaberne. Vi studerer på livet løs hvordan liv fungerer, men hvad liv egentligt er, det er stadig et godt spørgsmål. Hvis man føler sig hægtet af, så er der en god anledning til at få et overblik over emnet lige nu - for Gunver Lystbæk Vestergård har skrevet en bog, som udkommer på Peoples Press i disse dage med titlen Vores Levende Univers - videnskabens søgen efter rumvæsener og alt livs oprindelse. Hør videnskabsjournalist Jens Degett interviewe forfatter og videnskabsjournalist Gunver Lystbæk Vestergård om hendes bog og hvad der i øvrigt sker med vores erkendelse af liv i universet.

This Is an original interview with one of the great Nobel Laureate who is talking about the development of life in the universe.

One of the most powerful and advanced laser research institutions in the world is situated in Hungary. It is called the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) The Lasers of ELI can generate light pulses so bright that they can capture femtosecond and attosecond events in the molecular and atomic range. This can be used in a number of very different research disciplines from medicine and life science to climate and material research. More than 600 researchers work here, but many more are visiting from all over the world.

More than 100 years ago August Krogh received the Nobel Prize for showing how oxygen is transported from the lungs through the blood into the small capillaries in the muscles. Details of the mechanism and how it is regulated are still central topics of research a hundred years after and understanding respiration is still a matter of life or death. In this interview science journalist Jens Degett had the opportunity to talk to, one of the world's leading physiologists professor Christopher Ellis from the University of Western Ontario (Canada) about how August Krogh's 1920 Nobel Prize greatly influences physiological research even 100 years later. In addition to Nobel Prize class research, August Krogh founded one of the first biomedical companies in Denmark. The company would later become Novo Nordisk, which is now among the world's largest manufacturers of biomedicine and insulin. Photo credit: Jens Degett

DNA and RNA sequence analysis enable researchers to form a total overview of which species of microorganisms and parasites live with humans, animals and plants. It is not just in our gut where microorganisms are playing a role in our digestion. Also on the skin and all mucous membranes, in the mouth and all the way down into the hair follicles, we live together with parasites and microorganisms which help to shape our lives and our development. This knowledge makes it possible to see organisms in a far more holistic perspective, which provides a far better understanding of the factors that have evolutionarily shaped the species as they now appear in nature. In this podcast, Science Journalist Jens Degett talks to Professor Marcus Thomas Pius Gilbert from the Center for Evolutionary Hologenomics (CEH) at the University of Copenhagen. The center has recently received DKK 67.7 million from the Danish National Research Foundation. Photo credit: Jens Degett

Obesity, mobility, exercise and cancer are in the spotlight for researchers as there is an increasing amount of evidence pointing at the metabolic mechanisms which bind them together. Associate Professor Lykke Sylow from the Department of Biomedical Sciences, Molecular Metabolism in Cancer and Ageing at the Health Faculty at University of Copenhagen Is being interviewed by science journalist Jens Degett from Science Stories about why it is important to be in a good shape, and all the benefits of exercise.

The first quantum computer has arrived. The version of a quantum chip that recently came out of the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen is now for sale, but it has already been sold out. The price is cheap according to professor Peter Lodahl from Sparrow Quantum who has recently moved out of the old Niels Bohr Institute to the other side of the street. Not a big move but a quantum leap. Science journalist Jens Degett is talking to Peter Lodahl in this podcast trying to understand what a quantum computer can do, how it works and what purpose it will serve.

Professor Birger Lindberg Møller from Center for Synthetic Biology, Denmark, has always been impressed with the plant world and how plants can act as sun driven biochemical factories which can generate all the substances needed for growth and development of the plant. Plants can defend themselves with poison, they can signalise to each other and protect themselves against being eaten. Humans have domesticated plants for thousands of years. With genetic engineering plants can be developed to produce a large amount of different substances from medicine to food and they can protect themselves better against environmental changes and diseases. But the GMO approach has been controversial since the first GMO plants were launched in the 1990ies. Now Birger Lindberg Møller has another solution. Why not let the plants make their own natural mutations and select those which have the right genetic traits? It is possible to plant thousands of plants and select the very best with modern PCR screening. Photo credit: Jens Degett, © Science Stories ApS.

En af Science Stories hyppige gæster er læge og professor Anders Fomsgaard fra Statens Seruminstitut, som hjalp os igennem COVID pandemien og siden da har bidraget med masser af viden om infektionssygdomme. Anders Fomsgaard skrev for nylig en bog om sit liv som læge. Bogen hedder Syge Historier, og i denne podcast fortæller Anders Fomsgaard historier fra bogen til videnskabsjournalist Jens Degett. Foto kredit: Jens Degett, © Science Stories ApS

Another year has passed - so welcome to the Science Stories New Year podcast 2025. My name is Jens Degett and as tradition dictates, in this New Year's program, I play soundbites and tell stories about a selected sample of the last year's podcasts from Science Stories. One of our limitations is language. Our podcast in Danish has by definition a very small audience. In the course of the years, we have a total number of podcasts plays on our own portal of more than 400.000 plays since we started. Listeners were mostly from Denmark, the Nordic countries and Greenland. I mentioned last year that we have an increasing audience around Europe and not least in Ohio-USA, and the rest of the world where our podcasts are listened to when they are published in English. As an experiment we have decided to make English the primary language of Science Stories. I cannot guarantee that all podcasts will be in English, but most of them will. If we find support for it we will switch permanently to English. An alternative solution could be that we publish in two languages with an AI translation. In 2024 I received a Maria Leptin Science Journalism Fellowship. I spent two month at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen and one month at EMBL in Heidelberg. There is a lot to talk about and I can really recommend to spend time with the researchers and get closer to the research institutions, There is a lot to tell from 2024 so if you missed it you may go back and find the stories in our archive. Enjoy. Foto kredit: Jens Degett © Science Stories ApS