Insect expert Frode Ødegaard is worried about bees, but not in the way you might think. He is not worried about honeybees dying out. “They’re domesticated animals,” he explained.

This article was written by Steinar Brandslet and first published on . It has been republished here with kind permission.

This means we humans more or less decide how many of them we should have. His worries about honeybees are not what you might think.

“Honeybees can outcompete wild bees. They often compete for the same flowers, which are only diminishing in number. They can also infect wild bees with diseases,” said Ødegaard, whose day job is as an associate professor at NTNU’s University Museum in Trondheim.

Numerous species of wild bees are endangered, and setting up beehives with honeybees can actually make the situation worse. This is because the wild bees may be forced to fight for the same food or be infected with previously unknown diseases.

Ødegaard has been trying to spread this message for years, but the myth of the imminent demise of the honeybee is proving hard to dispel. However, other species give him much greater cause for concern.

Fewer insects everywhere, including in Norway

“In recent years, we have seen a decline in the number of insects in Norway,” said Ødegaard.

This is in keeping with a global decline in insect numbers. From one year to the next, this may be due to random variations in the weather, but that’s not true over the long term.

Yet, the total number of insects does not give the whole picture either. It may be even worse.

“Some species may be doing so well that they are increasing in number, perhaps at the expense of certain other species. This may mask the fact that some species are struggling,” Ødegaard said.

The myth of the imminent demise of honeybees is proving hard to dispel.

In other words, there might be many more specimens of a handful of species, but fewer or even no specimens of another species. That is what is meant by ‘a decline in biodiversity’.

Some of the species that are struggling the most are bees.

How many species of bees are there, did you say?

Ødegaard knows what he is talking about. He even has two insect species named after him. He has personally given Norwegian names to several bee species, and has discovered many past and present species in Norway, either on his own or in collaboration with others.

“Around the year 2000, we thought we had about 180 bee species in Norway,” he said.

But this was not the case. Ødegaard was pivotal in the work of putting things straight.

Some species had been classified incorrectly and were not actually found here, while he and his colleagues found other species than had not previously been recorded in Norway.

Ødegaard is therefore not just anybody when it comes to bumblebees and other bees.

All bumblebees are bees, but not all bees are bumblebees.

What was that? Bumblebees and other bees?

“All bumblebees are bees, but not all bees are bumblebees,” Ødegaard said.

You learn something new every day!

212, approximately

As per 2025, the researchers estimate that there are 212 bee species in Norway. Some of these have only recently been observed for the first time.

“Three or four new species of bees have come to Norway in recent years, perhaps as a result of climate change,” Ødegaard said.

By contrast, other species are disappearing. In the hundred years leading up to 2015, around 10 species disappeared.

Over the past 10 years, Norway has probably lost another four species.

The downland furrow bee, four-spotted furrow bee, Kirby’s Nomad bee and the bear-clawed nomad bee have not been seen in Norway during this period.

It will probably never be possible to put a precise figure on the number of species that are present inside the country’s borders at any given time.  There are not that many bee experts in Norway, so it is not easy to keep track. However, the experts that are in Norway are often very enthusiastic.

Ødegaard and his wife Åslaug Viken recently went on an excursion to Northern Norway to do a survey of the situation in the Bodø area.

Specialists struggling the most

Some of the species that are struggling the most have unusual diets and lifestyles. They may only feed from a single, specific flower, which may also be rare and must be situated within a reasonable distance of a habitat in which the bee thrives. In other words, a lot of different factors have to come together.

“The specialists are facing the biggest problems. The generalists are doing better,” Ødegaard said.

Another reason for the declining numbers may also be that Norway is at the very edge of the range for a number of bee species. Conditions in Norway can be challenging, and some species come and go. Fortunately, none of the species that have disappeared from Norway have become extinct everywhere else too. In other words, the species still exist, just not here.

The most important thing to do first is to provide emergency assistance for the species for which the situation is most dramatic.

Warmer climates are enabling some new species to come to Norway. Other species have been introduced intentionally. This includes the buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris).

“Although it’s a species we don’t want in nature, it has become one of the most common species in recent years,” Ødegaard said.

This species has been intentionally introduced for use in greenhouses in order to pollinate vegetables. It’s not difficult to escape from a greenhouse. As a result, they outcompete local species in the natural environment.

Some species are in need of emergency assistance

“The most important thing to do first is to provide emergency assistance for the species for which the situation is most dramatic,” said Ødegaard.

A few years ago, action plans were actually drawn up for the species that were struggling the most in Norway. The authorities allocated resources to saving the most vulnerable species.

“It worked. However, for the past ten years, no more action plans of this type have been drawn up,” he said.

This is because confrontations between bee needs and human needs were commonplace. The interests of insects do not necessarily always coincide with those of humans. And this brings us to another matter.

Why do the fortunes of insects fluctuate so much?

“There are three main reasons for the decline in insect numbers,” Ødegaard said.

1. Habitat loss

Loss of habitat is the most common reason why insect species struggle. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) holds that this is the world’s most pressing environmental problem.

Habitats are disappearing due to the development of new roads, residential areas and commercial areas. A wind farm here and an area cleared for holiday cabins there.

The most popular areas for humans are often in mild, sun-facing coastal districts. These are precisely the same areas that most bees like.

“Humans and insects often compete for the same areas. Habitats have probably never been declining as fast as they are at present,” Ødegaard said.

The planet’s eight billion people are taking up ever more space, especially since almost everyone now also wants a higher standard of living. Norway’s population long remained stable at around 4 million. The country has now passed 5.6 million in just a few years. As a result, other species often have to give way.

2. Use of poisons

People still use large quantities of poisons to control weeds and pests. Last year, Norway approved glyphosate for use for a further ten-year period. This chemical can be found in the notorious Roundup, which is known to harm biodiversity, not only where it is used, but also in surrounding areas.

“Agriculture still uses large quantities of insecticides,” said Ødegaard, and stopping using it in private gardens may actually not help that much.

Additionally, of course, people need food.

3. Climate

It can be difficult to interpret the impact that climate has on insects, Ødegaard admits.

“However, some species that are already on the brink may collapse during periods of drought or heavy rainfall,” he said.

For example, summers that start with a long drought, followed by a cold, rainy spell are very unfavourable. The drought makes the flowers fade faster, and most bees do not like the cold and the rain. Norway has experienced summers like this over the past couple of years.

So, what can you do?

It might be easy to despair. Is there any good news among all this doom and gloom?

“The good news is that many people have become more aware of the situation,” he said.

As a result, more people are willing to do something to help their six-legged friends. Here are some recommendations.

• Do not mow your lawn, or at least leave a corner of it for flowers. This must be the easiest measure for people who are not very keen on gardening!
• Plant local flowers in your pots and garden. Use local seed mixes that thrive in your particular area. These mixes have been developed by the 
• Leave roadside ditches alone. Plants that insects like can often be found in these ditches.
• Insect hotels are an excellent addition. If you want to help bees, the holes should have a diameter of between 4 and 8 millimetres. You can drill these yourself. Just make sure the holes are not too big. If you buy a readymade hotel, buy one without pine cones and twigs, because these are of no use in this context.
• The most enthusiastic people with the most space can set aside a corner of their land with felled trees and perhaps a sun-facing slope with sand, although this is not something most people will be able to do.

This article was written by Steinar Brandslet and first published on . It has been republished here with kind permission.

You can find out more about what you can do in  from Norwegian SciTech News from few years ago. Good luck!

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Nobelmen and women, in fancy clothing and pearls – but with dragon wings and tails. A laughing man with a full head of curly hair. Lions biting the ears off a man whose mouth is full of writhing serpents.

This article was written by Nancy Bazilchuk and first published on . It has been republished here with kind permission.

These may sound like a weird combination of a gothic novel and a nightmare, but it’s something completely different – a description of some of the eerie and surprising sculptures in Nidaros Cathedral, the northernmost gothic cathedral in the world.

But what were the messages that stonemasons and religious leaders were trying to send visitors to the cathedral – and how do we interpret these messages hundreds of years later?

The Cult of St. Olav

Nidaros Cathedral’s long history is part of the reason it has been an attraction for both pilgrims and now, researchers.

The first stones for the cathedral were laid in the late 1100, when a church was built over the shrine of Saint Olav, the Norwegian Viking king who is generally credited with bringing Christianity to the country.

Olav was killed in the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030 and canonized a year later, in 1031.

“The high altar still today stands on the place, pointed out as where St. Olav was buried after he was killed in the battle of Stiklestad on the 29th of July 1030,” said Øystein Ekroll, chief archaeologist and researcher at the Nidaros Cathedral Restoration  Workshop, on the latest episode of.

The high altar is surrounded by the Octagon, an eight-sided structure that is quite unusual as gothic cathedrals go, Ekroll said.

“You can find parallels, especially in English cathedrals, and you can connect them, but the Octagon has no parallel. Not in Northern Europe, at least not north of the Alps. So there is something special about this. Why build an octagon? Why not a square or a circle? We have round churches, we have square churches, we have cruciform churches and so on. Why an octagon?” he said.

Ekroll thinks the Octagon was built – and subsequently re-constructed stone by numbered stone in the 1500s – as recognition that it was a martyrium, a place where St. Olav’s holy remains had been buried.

Pilgrims would come to the cathedral because of Olav, so the sculptures in and around the Octagon, where visitors would walk to be near the shrine, took on extra special significance.

It was a place where the most important messages would reach the greatest number of people – in theory, at least.

Dramatic Events Help Date Sculptures

But that’s not the only reason this special subset of sculptures is so interesting.

Margrete Syrstad Andås is an art historian and associate professor at NTNU’s Department of Art and Media Studies who is at work on a book about cathedral’s sculptures.

Unlike many other parts of the cathedral, she says, two dramatic events enable researchers to actually date the sculptures. So what happened?

“In 1328 disaster strikes,” Andås said on the podcast. “It’s a huge fire and it takes everything of wood inside, probably the shrine is damaged, bells are damaged. Letters are preserved where the bishop writes to other bishops to encourage them to send money because they need to redo his cathedral. And that’s when the restoration of the Octagon takes place. So it is originally 12th century, but then they start restoring in 1328.”

The importance of the cathedral, at the known limits of the Catholic world, was such that the Pope himself promised 100 days of indulgences to anyone who would contribute to the reconstruction.

The stone masons must have begun almost immediately to carve the intricate and weird sculptures around the Octagon. Because not long afterwards, in 1349…

The Black Death

“Disaster really, really strikes because then the Black Death comes and 70% die in Trondheim. And we have a very defined period of time from 1328 when we know exactly when the sculptures here are done,” Andås said.

Read more: The Story of the Black Death in Norway

That makes the carvings a kind of snapshot in time, underscoring what religious leaders might think were the most important things people needed to know to save their souls, for example.

In this case, the person behind the messages was  At the time, Andås said, Nidaros Cathedral was seen as a remote but important outpost of the Catholic Church – so remote they called it Ultima Thule, meaning the farthest known reaches of the modern world.

“In the Catholic church, in the medieval times, Ultima Thule is this place,” she said.

“It’s the frontier against the north, against everything that is unknown and terrifying, and also not Christian. They talk about that themselves in Norse sermons, that’s where evil comes from, and it’s against the Samis, it’s against the unknown, those who are not Christianized. So they see themselves as a frontier as well, as part of the Catholic church.”

Souls of the Faithful

Andås said it’s hard to overestimate the importance of religion in medieval Europe.

“I don’t think we can quite imagine what that kind of a life was like, and how much more today, you don’t necessarily feel that you’re standing on the edge of death at all points in time. But I think within a society like that, you will be much more aware that you never know how much time you have,” Andås said.

“And I think that’s sort of a backdrop, when you look at the sculptures, reminding you about all the sins that you need to keep in mind right now, you can’t wait until tomorrow.”

So one thing these strange half-human, half mythical creatures do is to warn pilgrims and the clergy how not to behave.  To our 21st century eyes, these sculptures are puzzling – what message can they possibly send?

But AndĂĽs says the imagery, of a hybrid creature, was well known in medieval times.  And part of the message they were sending was about sex.

“Archbishop Eiliv, the guy who started the restoration works, has regulations for the lay people on how to behave. And the sin of sexuality is of course, a recurring theme,” she said.

“Of course they’re humorous and they’re playful, so they’re funny in a sense. But they’re also a sense that we are in a decayed moral state. You’re not this and you’re not that, which it ain’t good. And having a tail can never be good in medieval Christianity. It refers  to everything that is bad, essentially, the devil’s work,” AndĂĽs said.

To learn more about the sculptures and what they tell us about about life in the Middle Ages, listen to the .

This article was written by Nancy Bazilchuk and first published on . It has been republished here with kind permission.

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Solar storms are no joke. It may get cold and it may get very dark. Our mobile networks may be severely disrupted.

This article is written by and originally published by our friends at Gemini. It has been republished here with kind permission.

Such are the times we live in – we should be prepared for the worst and take adequate precautions. We should wear a helmet when out on our bikes, and knee braces if our feet can no longer support our weight. In winter, we must salt the pavements and preferably wear a scarf.

And to think that there are people in the world interested in things happening as far as 400,000 kilometres away! Kristian Solheim Thinn is one of them. He is a research scientist at SINTEF Energy Research working with . 

“The only real protection from solar storms is to switch off the electricity. Is that tabloid enough for you?”, he asks, before adding:

“If a major storm occurs, we must either live with it and hope that our distribution grids will not be severely damaged, or simply prepare for the fact that we will all be without electricity”, he says. These are the two extremes.

Vulnerable transformers

Solheim Thinn has been talking for some time and explaining the situation slowly and very patiently. He tells us how in 2019 he installed sensors in a transformer in Ogndal in Trøndelag county.

The intention was, and still is, to measure and analyse what happens when solar storms collide with the Earth’s magnetic field, creating problems for all of us – not least in northern latitudes where the field protects us far less than at the equator.

As Solheim Thinn puts it, the problems caused by solar storms are the result of what he calls geo-magnetically inducted currents (GICs).

It was, of course, no coincidence that the transformer at Ogndal was chosen. Since the distance between neighbouring transformers is so great, it is easier for the solar storms to create problems.

After two hours, the batteries at the base stations supporting the mobile network will run out. We will then lose mobile coverage and things will really begin to go downhill. First of all, it will start to get cold.

“We are currently as well prepared as we can be”, says Solheim Thinn. “Overhead cables are resilient in the face of solar storms, but we have to consider the transformers because they represent the weak link in the chain.

In Norway, our transformers are connected to the main distribution grid, operated for the most part by Statnett, and it is these that are the problem.

– Why is this?

“They are connected to earth, which means that any current induced in the cables passes through the transformers and onward to ground. This creates no problems at lower voltages. However, things are very different during solar storms.

Solheim Thinn explains that our transformers are designed for alternating current. So, when direct current is geomagnetically induced during solar storms, they may start to generate internal heat.

This results in increased, or so-called reactive, power consumption that disrupts the distribution grid. This then causes high frequency noise that may result in problems for the control system. Eventually, the transformer cores may become what is known as ‘saturated’.  

This in turn causes safety mechanisms to cut in, hopefully disconnecting the transformer before it is badly damaged.

But it doesn’t end there. If one transformer is in trouble, the next in line has to take over. But this means that the second transformer must carry twice the load. This may be more than enough to cause it to throw in the towel as well – and in this way a domino effect will develop.

 â€œIn the worst case, we’re talking about a total blackout”, says Solheim Thinn.

First of all, it will start to get cold

This is why the grid operates under a number of precautions. In 2019, the Directorate for Civil Protection and Emergency Planning (DSB) compiled a list of ‘things that can go wrong’ here in Norway.

The list includes issues such as the impacts of extreme weather events, flooding, pandemics, cyberattacks, and not forgetting the mother of all catastrophes – solar storms, which were classified as a real threat.

Petrol pumps also rely on electricity

It’s patently obvious that there isn’t a lot we can do about solar storms. When they arrive, we have anything from between 18 and 72 hours to prepare ourselves for something that cannot be stopped.

Let me explain. We will only find out how big a solar storm is one or two hours before it strikes the Earth. They can arrive very suddenly.

A recent SINTEF report reveals that there is currently no Norwegian system for solar storm warnings.

“The upside is that during the most intense storms we will get to see some fantastic displays of the northern lights, even as far south as Florida”, explains Solheim Thinn.

The downside is that the impact will be felt for many long months afterwards, and the researcher has no shortage of issues on his list. Disruptions to satellite navigation systems will make things very difficult, even for ordinary vehicle traffic.

The vessels that we rely on to maintain oil and gas production in the North Sea will not be able to operate as they should. Excavators that depend on GPS guidance systems will grind to a halt.

Both high and low frequency radio transmissions will cease, and you will not be able to fill your car with fuel. “Petrol pumps also rely on electricity”, says Solheim Thinn.

“After two hours, the batteries at the base stations supporting the mobile network will run out. We will then lose mobile coverage and things will really begin to go downhill”, he says.

First of all, it will start to get cold. And when this happens, it will be up to us ordinary folk to have done our homework in advance. The DSB has compiled a for households.

Nine litres of water, two packets of crispbread, a packet of porridge oats, three packets of dried foods, or tins, per person, as well as warm clothes, blankets, sleeping bags and a battery-powered DAB radio.

The solar storm of 1859

One of the most famous solar storms in recorded history was the Carrington event of 1859, named after the British astronomer Richard Carrington, who was observing some intense sunspots.

“The event occurred during one of the famous Californian gold rushes, and one urban myth suggested that the light was so intense that miners were able to pan for gold at night”, says Solheim Thinn. “The telegraph lines glowed red in the dark and the terminals caught fire”, he says.

In 1921, we saw evidence that solar storms could create problems even when technological infrastructure was in its infancy. For the three days during which this storm continued, electrical fires were started all across the world. The worst examples were in New York. Trains were brought to a standstill, so the storm became known as the ‘New York Railroad Storm’.

In 1972, a solar storm detonated several thousand sea mines along the coast of Vietnam. “This was the first occasion on which problems were reported with satellites”, says Solheim Thinn.

In 1982, problems with as many as four transformers and 15 power lines were recorded in Sweden. This event also caused disruptions in Norway, but no blackouts occurred. In 1989 a solar storm caused a nine-hour outage in Quebec.

“We also experienced solar storms in 2003, 2017 and most recently in 2022, when the company Space X lost 40 of its satellites”, says Solheim Thinn.

According to the , the storm cost Elon Musk more than one billion kroner.

Things could have been much worse. In 2012 the planet experienced a near miss.  It is calculated that if this storm had struck the USA, it would have caused in the region of 20 trillion dollars of damage.

This is equivalent to twice the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global, and would have been as catastrophic, in financial terms, as a large asteroid colliding with the planet, less the social and human costs and loss of life.

But enough of these horror stories. Let’s get back to Ogndal in Trøndelag, and what has been discovered there.

The unpredictability of space

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t prove that it exists”, says Solheim Thinn. â€œWe’ve installed sensors in the transformer at Ogndal in order to take measurements and calibrate our data models”, he says.

Several factors have to be considered, one of which is solar activity, which is not too difficult to monitor. The US Space Weather Prediction Center () is a mine of information, but there is one problem – the difficulty of making reliable long-term predictions.

The Tromsø Geophysical Observatory has deployed several magnetometers with the aim of measuring the strength of the Earth’s magnetic field. One of them is in Røyrvik, which is between 150 and 160 kilometres away. The magnetometers measure both the natural geomagnetic field and the magnetic perturbations generated by solar storms.

Naturally, these measurements are in real time, but they can also help us to understand how the geomagnetic field is influenced by events in space, including the solar storms that induce currents in our distribution grids and transformers.

We expect to see four G5 solar storm events during every 11-year cycle. The current cycle is expected to display its highest levels of activity in 2024 and 2025.

“We also have to know about the electrical conductivity at depths of several hundred kilometres below the Earth’s surface”, says Solheim Thinn. This is because the geo-magnetically inducted currents also penetrate deep into the Earth’s crust, and in turn impact on the inducted currents flowing through the transformers”, he says.

Solheim Thinn explains that it is difficult to construct reliable predictive models because electrical conductivity in the different geological layers within the crust is very variable. It is especially difficult to assess electrical conductivity at the transition between the sea and land. The ocean exhibits relatively high conductivity, while the opposite is true for land areas.

“On the other hand, it is not difficult to identify correlations between magnetic field measurements and actual geo-magnetically inducted currents in our distribution grids, provided that both are being measured at the same time”, says Solheim Thinn. It is possible to calculate a ratio that describes their inter-relationship”, he says.

Long seabed cables installed on the continental shelf are very vulnerable to solar storms.

One of the studies cited in the SINTEF report focused on the influence of the conductivity of shallow offshore continental shelves, similar to the situation in the North Sea. It demonstrated that the geo-magnetically inducted current would be three times as strong if the ocean had not been there.

Solheim Thinn has also made a couple of other finds. The ionospheric electrojets that circle the Earth’s magnetic poles travel for the most part in an east-west direction.

Researchers have believed for some time that solar storms impact on electrical power lines in different ways, depending on the direction from which the current is travelling. But this has now been shown to be untrue.

“It makes no difference at all whether power lines are oriented in a northerly, southerly, easterly or westerly direction”, says Solheim Thinn. They still remain just as vulnerable”, he says.

During moderate effect activity, our transformers will remain resilient, but this may not necessarily apply to the grid.

Solheim Thinn also believes that there are differences in resilience between different transformers. In recent years, transformers have been purchased that are resilient to solar storms for a given period because they are designed not to overheat too quickly. It has been shown that three-phase transformers installed with five-limbed iron cores become saturated more quickly than the three-limbed type.

“For this reason, it is now recommended to install three-limbed three-phase transformers in the most important and most vulnerable substation facilities.

Approaching a solar maximum

Most people are aware that the sun exhibits periods of greater and lesser activity, defined within an 11-year cycle. Solheim Thinn explains that during the first two years after the sensors were installed at Ogndal, only very low levels of activity were recorded. However, starting in 2021, and during the remainder of that year, six measurements were made indicating so-called moderate effect activity.

“During moderate effect activity, our transformers will remain resilient, but this may not necessarily apply to the grid”, says Solheim Thinn.

On 4 November 2021, a transformer went down at a neighbouring substation in Namsos, about 70 kilometres from Ogndal.

“The safety mechanism was tripped, and this disconnected the transformer”, says Solheim Thinn. “Our findings indicate that there is a connection between reactive power consumption, geo-magnetically inducted current, and changes in the magnetic field as recorded by space meteorology instruments. In other words, when we measure strong currents, we observe a simultaneous and major peak in reactive power consumption. If we exceed the safety mechanism threshold value, this trips the transformer’s circuit breaker”, he says.

However, even if a transformer takes a time-out and goes down, as happened in Namsos on that late autumn day, this was hardly noticeable to electricity consumers. This was because other transformers stepped in to do the job. The electricity grid operates with a so-called ‘buffer’, or reserve capacity, which in this case kicked in to avert a crisis.   

“However, it was a close call and a stroke of luck that the Ogndal transformer remained in operation”, says Solheim Thinn.

“In 2024 we will be entering a period in the cycle when solar activity is at its highest. Solar storms are classified on the basis of their intensity. A G1 storm is a small one, while the most intense is classified as G5. 

“We expect to see four G5 solar storm events during every 11-year cycle”, says Solheim Thinn. “The current cycle is expected to display its highest levels of activity in 2024 and 2025”, he says.

– What will this mean?

“We will most likely experience control and safety issues in the electricity grid”, says Solheim Thinn. “We may experience a collapse or blackout of the grid, and some transformers may be damaged. We will also experience problems with satellite navigation”, he says.

We can in fact only hope that the worst doesn’t really come to the worst.

This article is written by and originally published by our friends at Gemini. It has been republished here with kind permission.

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Gemini has been quizzing doctor Sigurd Mydske and Øystein Wiggen, a research scientist at SINTEF and a cold temperature physiologist, all about what you need to know if you have an accident in the mountains during your Easter holidays, out on the road or in other cold situations.

As a physiologist, Wiggen conducts research into what the human body can tolerate under low-temperature stress. Mydske is a doctor and researcher at the Mountain Medicine Research Cluster at the Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation (SNLA). The research cluster is a joint undertaking involving the Bergen Health Trust, the University of Bergen and the SNLA.  

Together with their colleagues, Mydske and Wiggen are carrying out important work looking into finding the most optimal way of treating patients suffering from hypothermia.

Mountain medicine involves the prevention and treatment of medical issues that may arise in mountainous terrain. It is based on the premise that in the mountains, external conditions create challenges that can make even simple medical examinations and interventions very challenging.

Mountain medicine skills may be useful for a number of specialists, but are particularly applicable to physicians working outside hospitals such as municipal doctors, anaesthesiologists or those simply taking part in day trips or longer expeditions.

Medical conditions subject to research in this context may include hypothermia, frostbite, altitude sickness and physiological issues related to altitude, as well as topics such as expedition medicine, avalanches, anaesthesia and analgesia under primitive conditions, toxicology and traumatology.

In international terms, research and development topics linked to mountain medicine are brought together under two organisations in particular – the International Society for Mountain Medicine, and the Medical Committee of the International Commission for Alpine Rescue ().

“Recent and robust knowledge in this field may have life-saving significance for patients who become involved in anything from avalanches to traffic accidents, as well as those who find themselves injured and unable to move on a cold cellar floor”, says Wiggen.

Life saving FAQ

However, there is already a lot that doctors and researchers are certain about when it comes to applying know-how to save lives in cold environments.

How cold do we have to be before we can say it is dangerous?

“A person can be said to be hypothermic when his or her body temperature falls below 35°C”, says Øystein Wiggen. “To be precise, our core temperature is defined as that of the blood in our right cardiac ventricle. Hypothermia can develop into something very dangerous, but it usually takes some time before our core temperature becomes so low”, he says.

Why can it be so dangerous to get cold? After all, some people swear by a cold bath.

According to Sigurd Mydske, a large drop in body temperature can be dangerous for many reasons.

Firstly, our blood platelets cease to function normally when our bodies become hypothermic. This makes it difficult to stop both external and internal bleeding. No wonder that sustaining an injury in cold conditions can be very serious.

Secondly, low temperatures can be harmful in their own right. In the event of an accident, keeping the injured person warm is one of the most important things you can do.

“Even a drop in core temperature from 36 to 35 degrees may have serious consequences”, says Mydske. “Our body temperature helps to control the speed of all the chemical processes taking place in our bodies. When we become hypothermic, everything begins to slow down. Our vital organs such as the heart, lungs and brain function less efficiently, and the blood’s ability to coagulate is impaired.  There is also a significant increase in the risk of cardiac arrest”, he says.

So, what is really happening in a hypothermic body?

Researcher Øystein Wiggen explains: “Firstly, the body has built-in mechanisms that work to prevent it from becoming seriously hypothermic. These include reducing blood supply to the peripheral parts of the body while increasing supply to the internal organs. The most important parts of the body are thus kept warm and continue to receive oxygen and nutrients.”

Read more: Understanding Avalanche Risk in Norway

“This also means that we feel the cold first in our noses, hands and feet. Secondly, the body starts to shiver. Shivering stimulates energy use and leads to increased heat production,” he adds.

“Shivering in itself is not dangerous. It is in fact a sign that the body is doing its job”, says Mydske. “Danger arises when a person has become so cold that he or she stopsshivering”, he says.

“Our temperature controls most of the processes that take place in our bodies”, says Mydske.

“When we get very cold, our heartbeat and breathing slow down and become less stable. This also applies to the brain and our levels of consciousness. The brain gradually functions less effectively, and we become confused, lethargic, aggressive in part, and eventually unconscious. Our rate of metabolism, which uses oxygen to convert our food and drink into energy, declines. Our blood platelets become less viscid and stick together less well, which increases the risk of bleeding. This is why, after ensuring that a patient’s airways are clear and applying CPR, the most important thing is to keep her warm”, he says.

How long does it take to become dangerously cold?

“It’s impossible to say”, says Øystein Wiggen. “It depends on so many factors such as air temperature, wind conditions, your clothing, age and body shape. So, together with your first aid kit, it’s just as important to carry a good insulating mat, extra clothes and a bivouac bag in your pack”, he says.

“A good rule of thumb for a healthy person is that if you fall into cold water and manage to keep your head above the surface, you will have about 30 minutes before you become hypothermic (where your body temperature falls below 35° C)”, says Wiggen  “This is why it is so important to be accompanied, and to carry a rope, ice safety picks and warm clothes when skiing or skating across a frozen river or lake. In the spring, when the snow and ice are starting to melt, it makes sense to bear these things in mind”, he says.

Some say that you shouldn’t try to warm up hypothermic patients. Others say the opposite. What is the right thing to do?

“The established idea that you shouldn’t try to warm up hypothermic patients goes back to the 1950s”, says Mydske. “This so-called knowledge is derived from old myths for which there is no scientific evidence. Unfortunately though, many people still believe this to be true”, he says.

According to Wiggen, contemporary advice is to adhere to the following drill:

1. Insulate the patient from the cold by removing him or her from contact with any snow or ice. Use a rucksack or a mat as insulation. Everything helps. 
2. Place a moisture barrier as close against the patient as possible. In practice: Place the patient in a zipped-up wind sack to prevent losing moisture from the body.  Evaporation cools the body down. This is why we sweat when we become too hot. Then get the patient into a sleeping bag or under a wind sack. The more insulation you can provide, the better. 
3. In all situations you must try to provide the patient with ‘active warming’.  Active warming means providing warmth using devices such as heating mats. However, we still do not know exactly what effect this has. But, because it is normal for the body to be warm, we should always be looking to insulate the patient and provide active warmth. 

“But be careful. A patient being warmed in this way must be closely monitored in order to prevent burns”, says Mydske.

“If you’re caught in bad weather in the mountains and are becoming hypothermic, you may only need a couple of rubbish bags to save your life. Jump into a bag, pull it over your head and make a hole to breathe through. Plastic bags can withstand harsh conditions much better than thin rescue blankets. They are windproof and cost next to nothing. Doing this will prevent heat loss due to evaporation and will have a big impact on your temperature”, he adds.

“If we can keep the wind out, we can create a safe microclimate in the bag”, says Wiggen. “A lot will then have to happen before you freeze to death”, explains Wiggen. “A bivouac bag can save your life. Be aware that thin foil emergency blankets do not have the same effect. They are difficult to use both as a moisture barrier and as protection against the elements because they tend to become caught by the wind.

“Foil blankets may be effective in reflecting radiated heat, but when we are clothed the amount of heat we lose by radiation is very small, so the effect is minimal”, says Wiggen. “This is why more and more rescue services are no longer using the foil blankets that we commonly see in the news coverage of disasters such as the recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. However, specially-designed bags are available that are well suited to this purpose. They are light, thin and moisture-proof, and reflect the heat radiated from the body. They are sold in sports retailers that offer a good selection of mountain equipment”, he says.

“But, remember”, says Mydske. “We doctors always say that a patient isn’t dead before he or she is both warm and dead. If a patient is becoming hypothermic, but the heart is still beating on its own, it is important to provide him or her with as much warmth as possible. If the patient’s heart has stopped beating, then you must start CPR. It is important not to give up before the patient has arrived at the hospital. In any event, it will not be possible to warm up such patients outside a hospital, so it is less important to make the effort to provide them with warmth.

Why is it that some people survive because of the cold?

“Paradoxically, it can happen that cold temperatures actually contribute towards a person surviving, for example in cases of falling into cold water”, says Wiggen. “When our bodies are cooled down, all our internal processes function more slowly. Our brains are able to tolerate long periods starved of oxygen before our condition becomes critical. However, in spite of the fact that the cold can save us in some situations, most incidences of prolonged submergence in cold water will result in unfortunate outcomes”, he says.

Is there anything we don’t know about the treatment of hypothermic patients?

“We can’t say for certain that we have identified the optimal treatment approach to so-called pre-hospital warming of hypothermic patients”, says Wiggen.  â€œWe are aware of the basic principles, but we need better equipment to facilitate active warming and, not least, methods for the easy and accurate measurement of body temperature out in the field. This is exactly what we are currently working on. In a few years’ time, we hope that it will be possible for mountain rescue personnel to reverse hypothermia even more effectively so that they can deliver warm patients to our hospitals”, he says.

Why do we sometimes feel warm immediately before we actually die of cold?

“Our brain controls the body’s physiological processes”, says Mydske. “It regulates the dilation of our arteries when we are hot, and their contraction when we are cold. But when this centre in our brains becomes cold, this mechanism stops working. In a seriously hypothermic body, the ‘sluices are opened’ and blood flows out into the hands and feet. Tense muscles are allowed to relax. The patient experiences this phenomenon as warmth, but in fact the body is losing heat. This, in combination with loss of brain function, explains why some people who have frozen to death have been found with their clothes  removed”, he says.

This article was originally published by . It has been republished here with kind permission.

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Many children and teenagers spend several years as refugees and have their lives put on hold.

NTNU researchers Tone Brendløkken and Ragnhild Liland went to a refugee camp to learn more about how to best welcome students with a refugee background to Norway. They collected their data from 2018 to 2021, which consists of conversations with teachers, aid workers and refugees in Moria.

Their findings have been compiled in an  (in Norwegian), which also describes their experiences in Moria. Their article is the basis for this article.

Moria – “Welcome to Prison”

It is October and it’s raining when the researchers get off the plane on the Greek island of Lesbos. Researchers Tone Brendløkken and Ragnhild Liland are on their way to visit the Moria refugee camp, which is reputed to be one of the world’s worst.

The next day the sun is shining. Graffiti on a wall outside the refugee camp reads “Welcome to Prison.” A mountain of rubbish lies at the entrance to the camp, stinking in the heat, and yesterday’s rain has turned the place into a mud pit.

A boy in his teens comes over and wants to say hello. His name is Samir. The researchers ask Samir if he thinks it’s okay for them to go in.

“Come in and tell Europe what you see. People need to know how we’re doing here,” he replies.

Schools need refugee-competent teachers

Today, about 100 million people have been forced to flee their homes, including many children and adolescents who have spent all or part of their upbringing in a refugee camp.

When these children come to Norway, they bring challenges and experiences with them into the classroom that few teachers have experience handling.

Even more pupils will come to school with a refugee background in the future. Research shows that school staff in Norway have little knowledge of the issue, and schools and teachers-in-training are asking for information about pupils with a refugee background.

Read more: How the Refugee Process Works in Norway

Tone Brendløkken and Ragnhild Liland are researchers at NTNU’s Department of Teacher Education. After a trip to Moria in 2018, the researchers understood that schools need to better understand what it means to be a refugee. This became the start of the project  (The refugee-competent teacher).

Internship in a refugee camp

The researchers have been learning about refugees and their educational situation through conversations with teachers and aid workers who spend time with them on a daily basis, and by talking to the refugees themselves.

In addition, Brendløkken and Liland provide student teaching internship opportunities with children and teens who have been displaced.

One of the student teachers who has had the chance to try out his teaching hand is Harald Aksnes Karmhus. He had a school internship at the Mosaik Support Center on Lesbos, where refugees come to receive education.

“As soon as I heard that we could have an internship in, or associated with, a refugee camp, I wanted to go. I thought it would be a useful experience to have, especially since I wanted to become a teacher and would certainly be encountering students with a refugee background,” says Karmhus.

Life loses value

Samir invites the researchers into the tent he shares with his brother, sister-in-law and their two children. Inside the tent, the floor is covered with cardboard sheets and wool blankets to protect against the mud. Samir and his brother say that they spend a lot of time standing in food queues. They wait for up to nine hours every single day.

As a refugee, you experience having your life put on hold. You lose the right to have rights. In the refugee camp, your opinions don’t count, and you have no opportunity to influence the environment you are in.

You never know when the documents you need will be ready, and people sit for years without knowing. It is precisely this knowledge that Karmhus says he will take with him into his subsequent jobs.

“I’ve gained an understanding of what it’s like to be stuck in a refugee camp, in a country you don’t know, a country you don’t want to live in, and without the opportunity to move on. You’re stuck in a situation that doesn’t give your life any value,” says Karmhus.

Education improves people’s lives

All children have the right to education, including asylum seekers and refugees. According to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, education is seen as a foundation for improving people’s lives.

“National and international studies point to the importance of school for refugee children and teens. If these children and youth do not have access to education, they are deprived of the opportunity to acquire linguistic, professional and social competence. Education is about knowledge, but also about mental health and quality of life,” says Brendløkken.

Research shows that 25 per cent of students in Norwegian schools who were not born in Norway drop out part way through their education. A large proportion have never started upper secondary education. Many of these students have a refugee background.

“Bodily experience”

The researchers travel on to the refugee training centre. The pupils have decorated trees and walls with drawings of freedom, equality and human rights. Teachers Mikis and Lefteris come out, together with Maria, an aid worker.

Mikis was born and raised in Greece and had read about the refugee camps in his home country, but they felt distant from his everyday life, as if they didn’t really exist. It was only when he started working there as a teacher in 2012 that he understood that the camp actually existed. He needed to have a bodily experience of it.

“The refugees are people like you and me who come across the sea. They risk their lives to get across. You have to be in it to understand. Experience it. You have to feel it in your body,” says Mikis.

Mikis is referring to one of the three practices that Brendløkken and Liland have concluded are necessary when teaching refugees. Bodily experience is one of them.

Bodily experience means that you gain knowledge through your senses and emotions. In meeting the refugees, you experience how their situation affects their lives, and why they might experience challenges in learning.

“Bodily learning has remained somewhat under the radar when we discuss learning. For example, our student teachers always bring up the importance of the practicum in teacher education. They’re experiencing things in their body, and that knowledge can be said to be physically rooted. Bodily learning emphasizes the subject’s encounter with others and the outside world,” says Brendløkken.

Brendløkken and Liland believe that it might be crucial for teachers to gain an understanding of refugees through physical experience in order to be able to effectively plan for and teach pupils with a refugee background.

“When we were asked after the trip about what our meetings with the refugees and their situation were like, we had a hard time putting it into words, because the meetings and experiences had touched our emotions, and the experiences were in our bodies,” says Brendløkken.

“Closeness and distance”

Aid worker Maria tells the researchers that she has had to learn to what extent she should involve herself in the lives of the people she meets. There are so many people who want to tell their stories and so much suffering. She shares her experience:

“At the beginning I was angry, angry because these people had to suffer. But then I realized the importance of choosing an appropriate level of involvement. I can listen to one or two stories, but I can’t listen to all of them. I need to be a fellow human being for the refugees, a close person that they can trust, but at the same time I have to maintain a certain distance, which is necessary to be able to help them.”

Maria is involved in the practice that Brendløkken and Liland call Closeness and distance. Teachers need to be close enough to understand the pupils’ feelings, but have enough distance so that they are not left with the same feeling themselves.

By maintaining distance, you take care of yourself, and only then is a teacher able to help the youngster and offer strength. In other words, it is important that as a teacher you place yourself somewhere between rejecting the refugees and identifying with them.

“Offer power and strength”

Lefteris is glad to see that the pupils change when they are at school. They become more assertive, they learn to work together and gain new experiences and knowledge that they can put to use.

“So the most important thing for us as teachers is to help them become stronger,” says Lefteris.

Many of the pupils have been refugees for several years. They are used to following orders, and not asking or expressing their own opinions. Going to school is unfamiliar to them. School is a place where their opinion counts, where they can ask questions and where they can participate.

The teachers help pupils believe that they have a future, that they have value and will be able to influence their own lives again.

The assistant and teachers point out that they are able to do this since their school is a democratic organisation. The students are asked questions, listened to and given the opportunity to influence a small part of their own lives. The school provides students with the belief that they have opportunities and the tools they need to trust in a new future.

Eager to support but without lived experience

Since 2018, “The refugee-competent teacher” project has evolved to also include teachers who work in schools.

The project organizes professional days where teachers meet to talk about educational practices for pupils with a refugee background. In this way, the schools and teachers who have experienced receiving pupils with a refugee background can share their knowledge.

“Some schools and teachers have extensive experience and expertise in working with pupils with a refugee background. Their experiences should be shared and discussed, because many effective educational practices already exist. The work with this group of pupils is still largely happening by individuals who bring a strong desire to the task, but we have a responsibility to bring competence to schools and to share the work of experienced teachers,” Brendløkken says.

Karmhus, the former student teacher, offers the following tips for teachers in schools that have students with a refugee background:

“Talk to pupils and get to know them. I also had pupils with a refugee background when I was practice teaching in a Norwegian school, and if you engage in a good way, there’s no problem with talking openly about this. These students experienced being a resource for the rest of the class,” says Karmhus.

In the tent of Samir and his family

Samir’s nieces are healthy and happy. They are like any other children, but their mother is afraid for the girls’ future and whether being a refugee will destroy the most beautiful thing she has.

Refugees’ daily life is often characterized by psychological pain, anxiety, grief, loneliness, worthlessness, and loss of meaning and connection in life. People need other people. We need to have people around us who show care and responsibility.

By being allowed to go to school while being a refugee, children have the opportunity to hope and dream for the future, and that they will one day be able to themselves contribute.

Karmhus now works at the . There he engages with pupils on school visits, visits schools and teaches on the topics of dialogue, conflict resolution, democracy and racism.

This article was written by Monika Nyhagen and originally published on . It has been republished here with kind permission.

Source: Brendløkken, T. and Liland, R. (2022). Du mĂĽ vĂŚre i det for ĂĽ forstĂĽ. Profesjonelt lĂŚrerarbeid med flyktninger (“You have to be in it to understand.” Professional teaching work with refugees.) In J. Klein, A. Bergersen and A. S. Larsen (Eds.), Utenlandspraksis for lĂŚrerstudenter (Foreign practicum for student teachers). Universitetsforlaget.

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This article was written by Ingebjørg Hestvik and first published on . It has been republished here with kind permission.

Since 2017, nearly 3000 young people aged 17 to 20 have shared in their own words what they consider important in Norwegian society, and whom they regard as good role models.

The survey showed a clear shift in Norwegian youth in autumn 2019, when Greta Thunberg received extensive media attention, and the “Fridays for future” movement spread with school strikes in several countries.

“What we see is that Greta Thunberg has been very important in uniting young people who were already concerned about the climate,” says researcher Jan Frode Haugseth, an associate professor in pedagogy at NTNU’s Department of Teacher Education. He heads the research programme that investigates commitment and values among young people in Norway.

Read more: Norway Bets Big on Future Hydrogen Economy

“She also helped to make more young people climate aware, especially in 2019,” he said.

Study of young people’s engagement

Haugseth and his colleague Eli Smeplass have written ‘The Greta Thunberg Effect: A Study of Norwegian Youth’s Reflexivity on Climate Change.'

“Everyone has the opportunity to do what they want, just like everyone can choose to study or do whatever work they want. The most important challenge in society for me is the climate debate, which I believe we really need to tackle.” (Female, age 19, 2017 survey)

“When we started these surveys in 2017, we had no particular ambition to look at climate awareness. We wanted to know what young people think about our times and what inspires them,” Haugseth said.

“When we observed how the responses changed in autumn 2019, and that young people themselves were mentioning Greta Thunberg and the importance of addressing climate and nature issues, we thought this would be an interesting object of study,” he said.

Let young people speak freely

One problem with regular surveys is that it is difficult to gauge how engaged the respondents really are. The match between what young people claim is important and how they actually behave is ambiguous.

In fact, some research suggests that even if young people answer that the climate threat is serious in surveys, they still live lives that involve lots of consumption and relatively high emissions.

“I’m really inspired by Greta Thunberg now. She is enormously resourceful, and I greatly admire her efforts. She is brave and uses her voice to fight for something she believes in. And she’s humble at the same time. The focus shouldn’t be on her” (Male, age 20, 2019 survey).

In other words, young people are aware of climate issues on a theoretical and overall level. But they seem to lack what the researchers call climate change reflexivity when it comes to their personal actions.

“We wanted a method to be able to measure young people’s awareness of these issues. We found that we had the opportunity to study what young people tell us about the climate threat by simply asking them to speak freely, rather than posing questions. This ensures deeper reflection than survey questions, which are often answered quickly and without reflecting much,” Haugseth said.

Before and after 2019

The surveys contained open text fields for respondents to express what they thought was important in society and to define their role models in their own words.

“We found that in 2019 a lot more young people wrote that the climate threat was important, and they were concerned with the transition to a sustainable economy, restructuring and climate solidarity,” Haugseth said.

“The answers from 2017 were less detailed. Youth were becoming concerned that other ways of managing society had to be found. We could see that after 2019 they argued in a more holistic way,” he said.

This tendency applied to young people across geographical and social affiliations.

“We have to start thinking about the Earth and not just ourselves, and we have to start doing things that benefit the Earth – and not just making sure that we have the best possible time and prioritize economic stability so highly when we’re facing such a big crisis.” (Female, age 18, 2019 survey)

“Research often shows that social belonging, like the parents’ level of education and occupation, affects what young people are interested in. But here we see that Greta Thunberg managed to mobilize young people in a broader sense,” Smeplass said.

Listen: Norway’s CO2 Storage Explained

“We also found that climate-conscious young people in 2019-2020-2021 described themselves as ‘we’ to a greater extent than in 2017. They come from different places and don’t know each other, but have nevertheless developed a kind of community. They’ve become aware of each other, that there are more people than themselves who are concerned about the climate, and that more versatile solutions are needed than what the adult generation has come up with,” she said.

Youth mention Thunberg – not climate reports

The researchers can’t rule out that increased media attention to climate issues could also have influenced young people’s consciousness around the topic – without Thunberg’s influence.

“But Thunberg reached young people to a much greater extent than the UN climate panel managed to do. None of the young people mention the climate reports in their answers,” Smeplass said.

Young people are engaged with their peers. They’re looking to their age cohorts, not upwards to what their parents are involved with.

“Norway should take advantage of the fact that the country is already in a transition period to switch to green and climate-friendly alternatives.” (Female, age 19, 2020 survey)

“Greta Thunberg represents the young generation. She managed to challenge world leaders and the elite and set the agenda. She is quite simply a young person who managed to back the elite against the wall, and a number of young people write that they admire her for this,” Smeplass said.

In the pandemic years 2020 and 2021, fewer young people mentioned Thunberg and climate commitment than in 2019. Could COVID have caused young people to become less concerned about climate issues again?

“The best thing about Norway is our beautiful nature that we can all experience freely. We have to solve global warming so that young people can all have a future.” (Male, age 19, 2020 survey)

“We believe we now have evidence to say that we can demonstrate a deeper form of reflection, with a more clearly pronounced ‘we’ and a ‘deeper’ climate reflexivity, one year into the pandemic (spring 2021). At the same time, fewer survey respondents are reporting that they think the climate threat is as serious,” Haugseth said.

“It’s difficult for researchers to predict the future. The broad Greta Thunberg effect that we described in 2019 has been less visible during the pandemic. But the relevancy of her message for young people is a sign that their climate engagement hasn’t disappeared,” Smeplass said.

Down-to-earth argumentation

The researchers believe that young people connect their climate commitment to issues like environmental protection, education, restructuring and solidarity.

“This is a down-to-earth argument that is adapted to the sustainability focus in modern business development, and that we think will become important in the years to come. And a lot of young people still report that they take the climate threat seriously, even if they don’t necessarily talk much about it. This is also a corrective to the notion that the most effective climate resistance is being organized by climate activists who stop traffic and sabotage art,” Haugseth said.

“…in the future, Norway needs to find a new way to make good money other than oil – it’s going to run out faster than we think.” (Male, age 19, 2021 survey)

The fact that Greta Thunberg is not participating in this year’s COP27 climate conference COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh does not necessarily mean that she will have any less influence on young people’s climate commitment.

“What we’re interested in is how young people argue for the importance of their climate commitment. Because that tells us something about what they’re really demanding and expecting from the future. In other words, climate summits aren’t necessarily the most effective hotbeds for youth climate engagement going forward,” Smeplass said.

Reference: Jan Frode Haugseth og Eli Smeplass:  Sociology, First published online November 17, 2022 https://doi.org/10.1177/00380385221122416

This article was written by Ingebjørg Hestvik and first published on . It has been republished here with kind permission.

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This article was written by Idun Haugan and first published on . It is republished here with kind permission.

True crime is a fact-based genre in literature, film, radio, podcasts and TV. In this genre, the writers or filmmakers investigate a real crime case and explore the circumstances and actions of people connected to the case.

The genre has become very popular all over the world and often deals with well-known and high-profile murder cases. But despite its recent popularity, it has historic roots.

Songs about notorious criminals

 was one of Norway’s most notorious criminals in the 19^th century and inspired a number of songs that many a Norwegian has heard or sung:

“And come if you want to hear a song about Gjest 

It isn’t made for sheriffs and priests.”

Baardsen spent a lot of time in prison, but he was good at escaping. He was often compared to Robin Hood because he is said to have been concerned with the weak and poor, and was seen as a non-violent gentleman thief.

Listen: True Crime in Norway – Death in Ice Valley

NTNU researchers Silje Haugen Warberg and Even Igland Diesen have examined Gjest Baardsen’s own evidence of his crimes. They have also studied songs about another of the 19th century’s major criminals: Ole Olsen Sevle, known as Sevle-guten.

He was a predatory murderer who was executed in 1834 after being on the run from the authorities for two years.

Songs about crimes and criminals originated in the heyday of the broadside ballad in the 19th century. The function of these songs was to convey stories, events and news to the common people. The genre was very popular.

NTNU has embarked on an extensive research project on Norwegian broadside ballads. Siv Gøril BrandtzÌg is heading the project, the first of its kind to examine the significance of the songs for Norwegian cultural heritage.

Stomped the beat and sang his way to the scaffold

Silje Haugen Warberg is associate professor in the Department of Language and Literature and Even Igland Diesen is associate professor in the Department of Teacher Education, both at NTNU.

The researchers have examined a large amount of material in their work on the Sevle case, concentrating on the criminal stories about the Sevle-guten and the misdeeds he was responsible for. Ole Olsen Sevle gave his name to the Sevlen folk song.

The story goes that he must have written the song himself, and that he sang and stomped to the beat of the tune as he walked towards the scaffold.

Master thief Gjest Baardsen also wrote poems about himself, but often it was the prison chaplain, who prepared the condemned for punishment and death, who composed poems about the perpetrators and their crimes.

Fact or fiction?

The crime song genre encompasses a wide range of characters. They range from ambivalent fascination for a murderer like Sevle to the cultivation of a Robin Hood-like figure like Gjest Baardsen.

What the crime stories have in common is that they all contain an unclear distinction between what is fiction and what is fact.

The songs often dwell on precisely the parts we actually know the least about:

• What were the killer’s motives and thoughts?
• How did the victim experience his last moments?
• How did the condemned face the punishment?

True crime then and now

Accounts of true crime cases have fascinated audiences for hundreds of years.

“The development of crime fiction via folk literature’s crime stories to the modern true crime genre is an obvious thread to look at,” says Warberg.

True crime is a fact-based genre in literature, film, radio, podcasts and TV. In this genre, the writers or filmmakers investigate a real crime case and explore the circumstances and actions of people connected to the case.

Read more: Norwegian Crime Books in English

The genre has become very popular all over the world and often deals with well-known and high-profile murder cases.

The genre relates to crime incidents from real life, but often uses narrative techniques with elements of fiction, such as conveying what the perpetrator was thinking.

‘s “non-fiction novel” In Cold Blood (1965) is often considered the start of the true crime genre.

Sevle-guten’s career

Documents from the trial and minutes from newspapers tell the story of Ole Olsen Selve, as do the broadside ballads that were composed in connection with his arrest and trial.

The available material says that Sevle-guten killed the itinerant peddler Toleiv Gjermundson Kittilsland, better known as “Sølv-Tollef.” Sevle-guten was also convicted of killing his own grandfather.

The grandfather, called Storen, lived on the family farm when Sevle-guten took it over in 1829. The grandfather had a farm pension contract which included the right to use property and other benefits.

A disagreement is said to have arisen after the grandfather remarried and wanted access to this entire pension amount. Sevle-guten and his father did not agree.

In 1830, the grandfather was found drowned in a pond.

Rumours quickly arose in the village that the grandson was behind the death.

Killer’s mind blackens

One of the songs describes the prelude to the murder, without emphasizing the financial motives that both the court report and later criminal narratives highlight.

In the song, however, the grandfather “chastised Ole and shamed him” when they were in a boat on the water. Ole’s mind darkens. This turn of mind is intensified by a clichéd weather metaphor that marks the prelude to the murder itself.

The killer is described as both reckless and cold-blooded, and the story is rounded off with the omniscient narrator searching the killer’s mind.

Criminals’ childhoods are often held up as having been innocent, while their criminal career path is attributed to bad choices in adolescence.

In the Sevle song, however, the first stanza already establishes that he was inherently immoral and was “devoted to vice from his earliest years.”

Lack of remorse

Comparing the various representations in the Sevle songs, both with each other and with other texts about the case, it becomes clear that the representations mix rumours, information from the newspapers, established literary motifs and free poetry.

“Roughly speaking, the songs follow the information that was known about Sevle’s upbringing. Upon taking a closer look, however, we quickly discover that the view differs from the facts of the case on some minor, but significant points,” says Warberg.

Previous research into Scandinavian broadside ballads has concluded that the songs rarely provide completely reliable information about the cases they deal with.

“The songs have several parts that are obviously fictionalized, such as when we gain insight into Sevle’s thoughts. The fictionalized parts focus on Sevle’s intentions, motives and lack of remorse,” Warberg said.

Changed gender from male to female

To shed light on this complex relationship between fact, fiction and folksong tradition, the researchers took a deep dive into a Sevle song that was composed close to the event happening.

The content gives reason to believe that the song was originally composed on the occasion of Sevle’s execution in 1834, perhaps to advertise the event or even to be performed in connection with the execution.

The show opens with a direct appeal to its audience, who are asked to listen to the song about Sevle’s life as he â€œwalks forward in Sin and Vice.”

In the course of twenty stanzas, the poem gives a comprehensive, condensed and simplified presentation of Sevle’s criminal career.

One element that illustrates the fiction in the story is that the victim is not called by his real name of Tollef, but is given the name Hellik.

Other changes from the facts are that a central witness has changed gender from male to female, as well as extended fictionalized sections that describe Sevle’s thoughts and pieces of dialogue, including between victim and perpetrator.

“We find this slightly fictionalized form of representation, where a lot is almost correct and the rest is made up or has been given a more dramatic touch, in many of the songs we’ve studied,” says Warberg.

Large collection of broadside ballads

The criminal tunes do not form a single category of broadside ballads. They can be divided into a number of thematic and genre subcategories, including:

• news songs released close to the time of the events
• narrative songs composed from a greater time distance
• farewell songs composed in connection with executions
• prison songs

The material on criminal songs from the 18th and early 19th centuries is dominated by execution songs. The last civil execution took place in 1876, changing the content of the songs.

The material that has been analysed was taken from the broadside ballad collection at the Gunnerus Library in Trondheim, the Norwegian Folklore Archives and the National Library of Norway’s digital collection.

Female criminals condemned, males treated like heroes

Most of the crime songs – and broadside ballads in general – are about men. When women are the focus of these songs, it is usually because they have killed their newborn infant or less often, their husbands or parents.

Women murderers are unequivocally condemned.

“In representing male criminals, we often find an ambivalent approach to the criminal, a figure who is both repulsive, fascinating and impressive. When his exploits are recounted in criminal songs and other traditions, the ambiguous hero figure is created,” says Diesen.

“This unclear relationship between fantasy and reality that characterizes the broadside ballad tradition is precisely what has contributed to keeping the stories of criminals like the murderer Ole Olsen Sevle and master thieves Gjest Baardsen and Ole Høiland alive,” he says.

Reference: Silje Haugen Warberg, Even Igland Diesen. . The fascination with crime and its fictionalized (self)-presentation in 19th-century criminal songs.

This article was written by Idun Haugan and first published on . It is republished here with kind permission.

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Cultural heritage sites are irreplaceable sources of historical information, providing insight into the social, religious, and economic life of our ancestors. They are important markers of identity, and constitute attractions to both locals and visitors, and can thus play an important role in a sustainable development of the Arctic region.

This story was written by Kathrine Nitter. It was originally published by and has been reproduced here with kind permission.

“Special attention is paid to preserving cultural heritage at Svalbard, which has no indigenous population, but whose history goes back to the early 1600s, project manager and research scientist in the norwegian research organization ,” Anatoly Sinitsyn says.

On Svalbard, cultural heritage monuments and environments tell a unique history about hunting, trapping, coal mining and scientific activities all over the archipelago.

The conservation of these objects and sites faces a double challenge from the warming climate and increasing human activity.

At the same time, the values contained in cultural heritage can play an important role in sustainable development of the North.

Working with the owners of heritage objects

“In the perspective of rapid climate change preservation and restoration strategies are highly needed,” the SINTEF-researcher says.

The project  (Polar Climate and Cultural Heritage – Preservation and Restoration Management) is concentrating on the technical-industrial heritage of Longyearbyen and ąˇ˛â-Åąôąđ˛őłÜ˛Ôťĺ. Both are former coal mining communities with many valuable historical objects and sites.

The project will develop a knowledge base or guideline that provides an objective decision-support management methodology for cultural heritage. The methodology will be elaborated by adaptation of standard engineering risk-based decision-making approaches for permafrost, supported by ethical and cultural considerations.

Local stakeholders are partners in the project; Longyearbyen Lokalstyre, Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani AS, and Kings Bay AS, who are responsible for conserving and maintaining a comprehensive range of cultural heritage objects.

PCCH-Arctic targets their needs by using selected objects for data sampling, modelling and development of solution strategies. Concerns and perspectives of relevant stakeholders will be sampled and assessed through project meetings and interviews.

“The guideline can be utilized for managing specific cultural heritage objects in Longyearbyen and ąˇ˛â-Åąôąđ˛őłÜ˛Ôťĺ, but also generally in Arctic areas,” Sinitsyn explains.

Why climate change threatens the cultural heritage

These historical buildings were never constructed with eternal life in mind, nor with any awareness of future climate change. In addition, timber foundations of the building and structures are, even in a cold climate such as Svalbard, affected by rot decay.

Read more: Studying in Svalbard

Observations over the last decades and projections for the first half of the 21st century suggest an increase in surface air temperatures, a decline in snow cover and Arctic sea ice extent, and consequently an increase in permafrost temperature, river runoff, and local geohazards.

These geohazards, such as degradation of permafrost, coastal erosion, and slope hazards like landslides, rockfalls, and snow avalanches, may cause severe changes of landscapes and corresponding cultural environments and can be devastating for cultural monuments.

Human impact – both good and bad

A rapidly warming climate forces profound changes in many Arctic communities. Around Svalbard, diminishing sea ice makes new areas accessible in larger parts of the year for tourism, transportation, research, or resource exploitation, if not regulated.

For sure, new logistical and economic opportunities will influence how the local communities on Svalbard develop. A changing demography, whether it is residents or visitors, can in turn alter the way cultural heritage is appreciated and exploited – for better or worse.

Obviously, more extensive and intensive human activity can result in increasing wear and tear on cultural monuments. On the other hand, properly managed heritage is an attraction and asset for the development of a sustainable, low-impact tourism and for the local communities as well.

“In PCCH-Arctic we team up physical sciences with social sciences and humanities (SSH) to address the combined environmental and societal impacts on cultural heritage on Svalbard. SSH scientists will assess future developments in tourism and local communities, and examine the past and present regulatory framework for cultural heritage on Svalbard,” associate professor Thor Bjørn Arlov at The University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) says.

– We are also very interested in practices, values, and attitudes connected to conservation, restoration, and use of cultural heritage. This will be mapped through interviews and focus groups with local stakeholders and inhabitants, he explains.

Depending on permafrost as a stabilizing factor

With its almost 3000 inhabitants, Svalbard is one of the world’s northernmost inhabited areas. This far north, impacts from climate change are particularly visible and have already pointed out an increased strain to the built environment. Through thawing of the permafrost, all constructions founded in and on the ground are influenced by ongoing climate change.

Read more: Spitsbergen: A Complete Guide to the Arctic Wilderness of Svalbard

This change, however, in general happens gradually even during the last years when increasing warming is observed. What the magnitude of warming will be in the coming years and decades, and when resulting gradual changes in permafrost will cause significant influence on foundations, are some of the open questions.

Many of the buildings and constructions at Svalbard are founded on wooden logs in the permafrost, and typically structures we define as cultural heritage.

Some historical houses rest on very simple foundation “solutions”, placed directly on the ground surface. The archipelago of Svalbard is characterized by steep hills and mountains, dependent on the permafrost as a stabilizing factor.

“A deepening of the seasonal thaw layer (the so-called “active layer”) and thawing of the deeper permafrost, will most likely increase the annual period when rot decay is most active and serve as a destabilizing strain on constructions, slopes, hills etc. It is thus one of the largest threats of climate change, which may increase risks associated with local geo-hazards, which in turn may affect diverse constructions in Longyearbyen and other Svalbard and pan-Arctic settlements,” Sinitsyn says.

Climate change and permafrost degradation

Improved methods for local climate projections and permafrost degradation at the study sites will be developed, using the newest methodologies of current climate and permafrost modelling.

“To represent a future climate change scenario in fine detail, we will use a regional climate model with 3 km resolution. For special weather events such as extreme snow or rainfall we will go even further to 1 km. Using new methods, we will analyse local changes in relation to a large number of global models,” researcher Oskar Landgren at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute explains.

This is necessary to put the new climate simulations in context, as well as to assess the statistical spread that probabilistic engineering applications need.

New climate projections will be used to simulate the permafrost response. This will be done via computation of the thermal regime and soil water/ice contents below and around selected cultural heritage in Longyearbyen and ąˇ˛â-Åąôąđ˛őłÜ˛Ôťĺ.

Aiming for a holistic management

The PCCH-Arctic guideline aims for a holistic management and use of cultural heritage in polar areas, utilizing the achievements within the project. The guideline will provide research-based recommendations for maintenance and monitoring, preservation and restoration of foundations to secure and future-prove cultural heritage.

The guideline will provide approaches for mitigation of climate change impacts and adaptation of non-structural and structural solutions and measures for the preservation of cultural-historical values in a cold climate. This will be based on an in-depth literature review and experience and know-how of the user-partners in restoration and maintenance of cultural heritage.

These approaches and solutions will be used as a measure for risk reduction of the PCCH-Arctic methodology for decision making. A sub-task will include the elaboration of specific solutions for the needs of user-partners, which may be applicable elsewhere in the Arctic. Monitoring methods for foundation settlements and permafrost temperatures will be provided.

Data collection on environmental and permafrost conditions in ąˇ˛â-Åąôąđ˛őłÜ˛Ôťĺ will be based on cooperation and collaboration with the flagship programs of Atmosphere and Terrestrial Ecosystems, since permafrost parameters are monitored in the context of other studies, too.

This story was written by Kathrine Nitter. It was originally published by and has been reproduced here with kind permission.

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The distance between ¸éø°ů´Ç˛ő and Trondheim is about 100 kilometres as the crow flies. Three NTNU entrepreneurs want to use drones to transport medical samples between them.

¸éø°ů´Ç˛ő Hospital is a branch of St. Olavs Hospital in Trondheim. The hospital takes medical samples all the time, but these often have to be analysed in Trondheim.

Today, these medical samples are largely transported by car. But the two areas are 150 kilometres apart by road, and especially in winter the idea of ​​another option is appealing for the transporters.

Read more: Healthcare in Norway

Entrepreneurs Herman Øie Kolden, Bernhard Paus GrÌsdal and Lars Erik FagernÌs are working on a solution.

Can make a difference

“We’re building something that can make a difference, and that can hopefully save lives and contribute to society. It’s really rewarding and motivating,” says Fagernæs.

The three entrepreneurs are nerds in the best sense of the word. They’re civil engineers with a somewhat greater than average interest in drones, and together they have complementary specialist expertise in physics, mathematics, cybernetics, robotics and computer science. They are a match that wasn’t created in heaven, but at NTNU.

Test flight completed

In 2019, the three master’s students completed a study year abroad at MIT in Boston, with some of the most talented drone lecturers in the world. That experience sparked their idea to develop delivery drones.

They started the company . Not long afterwards, Aviant secured an agreement with St. Olavs Hospital to develop a solution for sending biological samples between the two hospitals.

“We use pre-built drones but replace most of the electronics with solutions we’ve developed,” says Fagernæs.

A test flight between the cities has already been completed. Using 4G, the drone flew a total of 120 kilometres at 120 metres above the ground. A drone can carry medical samples in half the time that a car requires – and can help save lives.

Strong confidence in the solution

Currently, an operator on the ground needs to follow the delivery drone on a screen during transport.

“But in the future, the idea is that this operator would be able to follow several drones at the same time. Then you save working hours in addition to delivery time,” Fagernæs says.

Numerous entities have expressed confidence in the solution. Innovation Norway has given them NOK 1.5 million (EUR 147,000) in grant funding. The Research Council has contributed NOK 1 million (EUR 98,000) in support of the start-up.

Other companies are thinking along the same lines. FagernĂŚs hopes they will be able to create a Norwegian collaboration and develop solutions that can compete with foreign actors.

This article was originally published by  and has been republished here with kind permission.

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The deep blue Geirangerfjord is a UNESCO World Heritage site surrounded by majestic mountain peaks, wild waterfalls and lush vegetation. It is no wonder that during a typical year, the fjord attracts 700,000 tourists in a few short summer months.

Many tourists who want to experience Norway's Geirangerfjord, a World Heritage site, come by sea in cruise ships.

These large ships are currently powered by fossil fuels, but the Norwegian Parliament has adopted a requirement for zero emissions in World Heritage fjords from 2026 onward.

New solutions with emission-free vessels

The Norwegian university is set to collaborate with Stranda municipality to solve the problem through the “green quay” project.

“We want to help make the sea area in and around the Geirangerfjord an even nicer and more environmentally friendly tourist attraction in the future,” says Hans Petter Hildre. He heads the Department of Ocean Operations and Civil Engineering at NTNU.

The village of Geiranger usually has about 200 permanent residents, and many of them count on the income from visitors for their livelihoods.

Tourism is also of great importance for other parts of the business community throughout the Sunnmøre district.

By sea is best and most realistic option

The road infrastructure in the area is not adapted to handle more traffic than it does today. The sea route past Stranda and Hellesylt, outside the World Heritage area, is therefore currently the best alternative for handling passenger traffic.

“The project will study the possibilities for new in the villages of Stranda and Hellesylt, says Rita Berstad Maraak. She is the harbourmaster for Stranda municipality.

“From here, passengers can switch to smaller, emission-free vessels that can take them inland into the Geirangerfjord and the protected area,” says Maraak.

Challenging to move so many people

There currently aren’t any realistic ways to transfer a large number of cruise passengers to zero-emission vessels in an efficient and safe manner and in combination with ferry traffic.

Read more: Fun Facts About the Norwegian Fjords

Large cruise ships can carry up to 5,000 passengers, and moving all of them to smaller boats will be challenging. Efficient distribution and logistics solutions will be some of the challenges the green quay project will have to address.

The kick-off for what promises to be a dynamic innovation project and concept study was on 22 March. The project includes several partners from business and municipalities.

“A scheme for developing green quay facilities is something completely new in our area, and we know in advance that it will involve expensive investments,” says harbourmaster Maraak.

The facility will need to be supplied with shore power and charging stations for emission-free vessels. In addition, managing sewage and waste is also part of the requirement for zero emissions.

Maraak emphasizes that aesthetics are another important factor, both for the tourists and people who live in the area and have the shoreline as their view from their living room windows.

Read more: The Best Fjords of Norway

“Our research group and Stranda municipality will be taking a closer look at all these things, so that the municipalities have a solid basis for their decision making,” Hildre says.

This article was originally published by and has been republished here with kind permission.

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