Whales in the parking lot

The Natural History Museum of Denmark opens in a few billion DKK's time in brand new surroundings in the Botanical Garden, Copenhagen. The researchers, curators, taxidermists, and other passionate academics that take care of the Danish collections will have an opportunity to present these collections in new and original ways.

Join The University Post on a behind-the-scenes tour of the Zoological Museum and see bones, fur, molluscs, a parking lot full of whales, and a lion in a plastic bag.

A peek into the astronomical observatory

A beautiful old observatory provides a unique facility for the Department for Science Education. A department that has no parallel anywhere else in Denmark: Join us for a glimpse into the unique structures here courtesy of Universitetsavisen.

The old observatory lies partially hidden behind the vegetation of the Botanical Garden, but from the windows and balconies there is a commanding view over the roofs of Copenhagen and the greenhouses of the garden.

Sumo fun at university sports day

Record numbers of students from the Faculties of Science and the Pharmaceutical Sciences participated and competed in various activities and fitness tests at the Science Sport and Testing Day Friday.

See our photo story from the Science Sport and Testing Day here.

uni-avis@adm.ku.dk

Stay up to date with news and upcoming events at the University of Copenhagen. Sign up for the University Post newsletter here.

Muslim PhD student works harder during Ramadan

University of Copenhagen oceanography researcher Muchammad Al Azhar from Jakarta, Indonesia, is a practising Muslim. Like millions of others he started the Ramadan month of fasting on 11 August.

During the period of fasting he will not eat or drink anything at all from dawn to dusk.

This lack of food and drink affects Muchammad’s working day, although the effects are not too dramatic, he says.

Read an article about practising Muslim students in Copenhagen here.

More productive

Film: Red lights in the sky

When a weather phenomenon has a otherworldly name like ‘Red sprites’ you would expect it to be something special. And by all accounts, Red Sprites do not disappoint.

They are a recently discovered form of atmospheric lightning and their discovery is so important that one researcher exclaimed it was as if Biology had just suddenly discovered a new human body part.

On Monday you can see a film about the Red Sprites and hear a lecture by the film’s creator Peter McLeish.

See more about the event here.

Art and physics collide at Niels Bohr

Hundreds of LED bulbs on the outside of Nils Bohr Institute (NBI) in Blegdamsvej will transmit live signals from particle collisions at the Large Hadron Collider physics experiment in CERN, Switzerland.

See pictures from the Colliderscope opening event here.

The new art installation, called NBI Colliderscope, is the work of artists Christian Skeel and Morten Skriver, in collaboration with Niels Bohr researchers Clive Ellegaard and Troels C. Petersen.

Winning museum mostly under ground

The winners for the idea contest to design the new Natural History Museum of Denmark have been found.

The top prize of DKK 300,000 was given to Danish architect Claus Haboesgaard Pryd’s subterranean design, which according to judge Malene Hauxner, is characterized by the interplay between old and new buildings.

Going underground

In Pryd’s project, the complex in Sølvgade would be located partially underground. The building would be deceptively small and unobtrusive from the outside, while the interior would open up a whole new, surprisingly roomy space.