Shy athletes can’t pee in a jar

In many doping controls, the athletes want to pee in the jar, but it takes hours before they can actually urinate.

In one out of three cases this is not a medical issue, but a psychological problem, as athletes suffer from ‘stage-fright’, finding it hard to pee in the presence of others, University of Copenhagen researchers have found.

Why athletes can’t pee in the jar

Positive doping test results and drug confessions are often in the media spotlight.

Now, a University of Copenhagen researcher has received a half million kroner grant to investigate one of the lesser known mysteries of the doping test: Why can it take athletes hours and hours to pee in a jar?

Football the way to women’s fitness

Women who play soccer get much healthier than women who run. This is according to a study by 30 scientists from the University of Copenhagen (U of C) who have investigated the physiological, sociological and psychological aspects of women's soccer in comparison to running, over a period of two years.

As well as the health benefits, the women who played football became more confident and found themselves met with more respect at work and at home, the study shows.

See pictures of plant fascination day at uni

The International Fascination of Plants Day gave visitors unprecedented access to the many collections and projects in the University's gardens and greenhouses in Frederiksberg.

Visitors were able to participate in guided tours of the outside gardens and themed talks by University staff.

Open hours in the greenhouses, information booths and a plant sale rounded out the experience. Check out our photos from the plant collection, and highlights of the day in our gallery.

Chloe.deanna.williams@adm.ku.dk

Historians debate Copenhagen links to Nazis

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen and other Danish educational institutions had extensive scientific cooperation with Germany after Hitler's takeover in 1933, shows recent historical analysis.

At a two day conference entitled 'Danish Science, Universities and the Challenge from Nazism 1933-1945', the participants discussed the details.

Ancient societies were more complex

Here you have the Babylonians, here you have the Egyptians, here you have the Phoenicians, and here you have early Islam. And this is what they were about. Possibly the normal way to look back at Near Eastern ancient history.

But now a conference organised by the University of Copenhagen’s Center for Canon and Identity Formation intends to show how these different civilisations interacted with each other.

Feature: Clues to crisis are hidden in the data

For several decades, theoretical models in macroeconomics and finance have been almost exclusively based on the assumptions of the Rational Expectations Hypothesis (REH), the representative agent hypothesis, and the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH).

Health Faculty: We messed up, but no harm was done

Director of the Faculty of Health Sciences Arnold Boon now admits mistakes in his rendering of what happened in connection with the appearance of Milena Penkowa's freezer.

The chest freezer, which suddenly appeared last week, may, or may not, include key evidence in the ongoing investigation. It's appearance came after assurances that all Penkowa's research material was fully accounted for.

Faculty: Penkowa's research is safe

The Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen (UCPH) rejects Milena Penkowas accusations that it has not safeguarded her research archive. This is in spite of the fact that an unrecorded chest freezer has emerged.

The neuroscientist was accused of scientific misconduct in 2010 and resigned her professorship after results from her experiments could not be replicated. Her collected data, samples and research are at the heart of the case against her. She maintains her innocence.

Billionaire financiers behind new centre

The global financial crisis has got economists thinking in new ways. Today, long-lasting imbalances in economies are considered more important in modern economic theory.

This is the reasoning behind the opening of a new research centre at the University of Copenhagen, the Institute for New Economic Thinking INET. It is intended to make room for new and innovative thinking on current economic challenges.

Behind it according to the press release from the University of Copenhagen are two very wealthy financiers.

Co-founder worth USD 800m