“Behind every successful man there is a woman”, according to an old saying. So what about successful women? And what about couples where both are successful – how do they manage family life? LUM met Olle Melander and Marju Orho-Melander, who are among the Lund University researchers to have been awarded most prizes and grants in the field of medicine.

Biohackers experiment with their own bodies to upgrade themselves. They try to acquire a supermemory, increase their metabolic rate or affect some other biological mechanism. Now an interdisciplinary project is investigating how biohacking will come to influence our view of the human body and bioscience.

Young women who spend all their spare time shopping. Lost, superficial souls with no purpose in life? Or creative and productive people? Emma Samsioe, who has spent several years studying their behaviour, wants to show a more nuanced picture of the phenomenon.

Fast fashion has shrunk the fashion production cycle from three months to an unbelievable two weeks. New ideas are snapped up from the catwalk, interpreted and made into trendy clothes with a low price-tag, available in shops and online. Economists attribute the success of fast fashion to innovative large companies, but anthropologist Christina Moon maintains that the background to the phenomenon is cultural. Korean family businesses based in Los Angeles are now taking over the fashion world.

How do you talk about a horrible and life-threatening condition in such a way as to make your audience aware of its existence, but without scaring them so much that they turn a deaf ear? And how do you get money for research into something that most people have barely heard about – or only know of under an old and partly incorrect name? This is the problem that a team of LU researchers are tackling.

We learn best through human stories. This idea underpins LUCA, a new academy for the development of case study teaching at Lund University. In April, lecturers at the University were invited to attend a workshop with one of the writers behind the Midsomer Murders television series.

The earth is both inundated and drying up. Water supply is a complex phenomenon that has probably never been more complicated – or more important – than now. Kenneth M. Persson is a professor of water resources engineering and he took the initiative for Lund University’s Water Portal, which involves over 200 (!) water researchers.
“The absolute greatest threat to well-functioning water management is drought”, he says.

In the early 1990s, peacemakers, politicians and researchers believed that growing water shortages would lead to an increasing number of wars and conflicts around the world. It was thought that the disputes in the Middle East would become more difficult to resolve as water resources diminished. However, views have since changed on the role of water in conflicts. Instead of being a cause of war, it can now be seen that collaboration on water – managed correctly – can become a source of peace.

The construction of a dam in Ethiopia could solve many problems for the growing population along the Nile. However, when the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam began, it was met with warmongering from countries downstream. Egypt in particular felt threatened by the dam, which would regulate the Nile, the artery that runs through the heart of the country.
“From a scientific perspective, all water problems can be solved”, says Ronny Berndtsson from Water Resources Engineering. “But it takes collaboration and trust.”

Despite rules and legislation on water for all at a reasonable cost, water shortages hit the poor hardest. In slums in large cities, illegal water mafia have emerged that take advantage of people’s desperate need for water.
Maryam Nastar has studied water politics in two fast growing cities, Hyderabad in India and Johannesburg in South Africa.