Science Stories

Today’s story is a good example of how little we know about biology and life, and how we can use our knowledge to better fight diseases and environmental threats.

We are going to talk about bacteriophages or just fages. These are small viruses which attack bacteria. The story is literally about life and death and most organisms on earth are being killed every week.

We have covered this topic before but, but in this podcast we will go deeper into the substance and ask one of the current frontier researchers from the biocomplexity group at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen Namiko Mitarai Japan.

The Cost of Underfunding Science

Almost 40 years ago the interviewer read a paper on how Europe lacked behind in science and how an economic deficit compared to USA and Japan was building up year year after year. In the year 2000 Minister Mariano Gago mobilised the EU Council of Ministers to agree on an investment scheme for public research suggesting a minimum of 1% of GDP . This was followed by a recommendation of 2% private investment. Further inputs came with the Sapir Report in 2003 And the establishment of

European Research Council (2007)

Now Europe is discussing the Mario Draghi report (2024) But most European countries are still underspending in their funding for science.

The interview is with former Head of Communication at the European Science Foundation Jens Degett and former President of the European Research Council Jean Pierre Bourguignon.

[Best of] From the dark ages to life by Science Stories

Science Stories is visiting the AI in Science Summit 2025 co-organized by the European Commission, The Danish EU Presidency and The University of Copenhagen.

There is full house with 1200 participants, and the topic is all aspects of artificial intelligence.

Science journalist jens Degett is trying to understand artificial intelligence better and has asked Chair of the Summit Steering Committee, Director of the Danish Pioneer Centre for AI, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Copenhagen Serge Belongie to explain what artificial Intelligence is and why it is important.

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 received DKK 67.7 million from the Danish National Research Foundation.

Last week the EU Space Conference 2025 took place in Aalborg as part of the Danish EU-presidency. More than 450 stakeholders from science, policy, industry and media met during the two-day conference. The EU Commissioner for defense and space Andrius Kubilius, the Danish Minister for Higher Education and Science Christina Egelund and the former Danish Prime Minister and NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen were among the speakers.

Already at the opening of the conference, it was clear that the importance of space research and its utilization has changed dramatically. The Minister Christina Egelund announced that Denmark will invest 2,7 billion DKK in space related activities during the next four years.

Science Stories decided to ask one of the top speakers, Stephan Roemer from OHB in Germany, to give an overview of what tendences the conference was showing with Danish and European space industry’s development and give us a perspective of the opportunities and the challenges. OHB is one of the three largest space companies in Europe. It seems in the near future we can expect a dramatic development of space related tools such as satellites will be an integrated part of many fields from research, resource management and agriculture to defense.

Interview is made by Jens Degett,Denmark. Interviewee is Stephan Roemer, Germany

When something is possible and not too difficult to achieve, We are used to say “This is not rocket science” but today's podcast is literally about rocket science -

and, in a way maybe the most difficult approach to sending people into orbit we can think of.

Copenhagen Suborbitals is the world’s first and only amateur spaceflight program. The Copenhagen Suborbitals is located in Denmark with supporters from across the world. From 2011 until today they have designed and flown 6 rockets from their floating launch site in the Baltic Sea.

Their goal is simple but audacious: to fly an amateur astronaut to space and return him/her safely to Earth – Without Governmental Support

Todays Science Stories guest is Jørgen Skyt from Copenhagen Suborbitals. I am Jens Degett and this is Science Stories,

We will make links and more photos on our website.

The podcast is part of our project Danish Space Research III supported by Otto Mønsteds Foundation and Thomas B. Thriges Foundation.

All organisms from fruit flies to humans share the same mechanism for controlling the day and night rhythms also called the circadian rhythms. This mechanism is considered fundamental to all advanced life forms, and it has a surprising feature. It binds us genetically to live on earth.

Michael Rosbash received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2017 for the discovery of the circadian rhythms together with Jeffrey Hall and Michael Young. He is a professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Brandeis University.

In 2019 he was invited by The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters to give the nineteenth Royal Academy Nobel Laureate Lecture in Copenhagen and was interviewed by science journalist Jens Degett.

Photo credit: Chris Heller for Science Stories.

Release date:

10 September 2025

[Best of] Circadian Rhythms By Science Stories is

June 2025 Marked an important leap in Danish Space History. A satellite was launched into orbit on 23 June from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The launch was initiated by the Danish and Swedish Defense ministries and several space research industries and research institutions.

The satellite is called Bifrost. And it has a dual mission. This time Science journalist Jens Degett talking to The Danish Defense specialist Martin Laimonis. In the end of the interview there is lot of information and hints about how satellites are being built and how to get your own project funded.

The podcast is part of our project Danish Space Research III supported by Otto Mønsteds Foundation and Thomas B. Thriges Foundation.

We are used to telescopes as instruments on Earth looking out on space or instruments in space looking at even more distant objects in outer space.

The Einstein Telescope is very different and will be build deep under the surface of the Earth. Over 2,000 researchers participate in the international organisation and there is a competition between different countries about where to build it.

One of the researchers who are involved is Professor Niels Obers from the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen. Niels Obers is telling Science journalist Jens Degett what the new instrument is able to reveal when it is finished?

Niels Obers also 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 a better understanding of these phenomena

The podcast is part of our project Danish Space Research III supported by Otto Mønsteds Foundation and Thomas B. Thriges Foundation.