Besides our different larger project we also have smaller projects or papers going on, which we will discuss in this category.
Category: Miscellaneous

Spring fun for FEZ!
To celebrate the wave of sunny weather here in Oslo, members of the FEZ group decided to go on a sunny spring hike up Grefsenkollen together. At the top we were greeted by a fantastic view of Oslo and the fjord, great food from the Grefsenkollen restaurant, and […]

The FEZ seminar series 2022 – a review
Keeping up with the literature and scientific discussions with colleagues in order to develop new ideas and projects and to reflect on old ones are important parts in the academic daily routines. The FEZ group runs together with colleagues from the SERG and EPA research groups at the […]

Do we need to lobby more for invertebrate taxonomy and biodiversity?
Spiders, insects and even more so worms and wormlike invertebrates are often considered ugly and disgusting, at least unappealing, and sometimes even dangerous. Certainly, there is also beautiful invertebrates such as e.g., butterflies, beetles, dragonflies, or some sea slugs, but usually invertebrates appeal little to our understanding of […]

Scientists in Action (SNAC)
Black coffee but also cookies, nuts, chocolate and fruits – certainly highly appreciated ingredients to support lively scientific discussions. This is also true for the recent SNAC discussions of scientific staff at the Natural History Museum Oslo (NHM). Lively discussions – isn’t that the normal default for scientists? […]

Research and Sustainability
There is increasing societal discussions on and measures against climate change and biodiversity loss, topics that touch the self-conception and tasks of natural history museums. In 2015, the United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) for the 2030 Agenda. To what extent do the SDG affect scientific […]

Genomic Diversity of endangered bowhead whales
The bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) in the East Greenland Sea, the Svalbard region and the Barents Sea (referred to as the East Greenland-Svalbard-Barents Sea (EGSB) stock) has been intensively studied for many years by members of the FEZ group. The stock is classified as Endangered in the International Union of […]

Using skims of the genome to reveal if there are two genera in Allodia fungus gnats or not
Usually I work with marine invertebrates from a group called Lophotrochozoa, which comprises among others mollusks, segmented worms and flatworms. However, the paper featured in this blog is the first of several papers to come on insects. While the others will come from Marianne’s PhD project on Aegialites […]

Crustacean Silk from under the Sea
Another paper involving a FEZ group member, this time about silk from a marine crustacean group! What can we learn from the history of the silk of the Tanaids, and how can it help us make better materials in the future?

What’s in a Postdoc? Life inside the gears of the academic machine
When we head home for the holiday period, I’m sure many of us will end up in chatting away to a relative or family friend we haven’t seen in far too long, only to be confronted with that ever-present question of: “What do you do for a job […]

Out of all things, why marine invertebrates?
By now, everyone knows that a lot of us in FEZ are working with marine invertebrates. But why? Aren’t these just weird worms that do nothing but crawl on the ocean floor? Not really, and I’ll try to explain why. From the 34 phyla of the Animal kingdom, […]