News archive for Department of Earth Science

Studies of the earliest life forms on Earth can provide insights into how to look for traces of possible life on Mars.

On Friday 7. May Vibeke Bruvoll defended her PhD-thesis at the Department of Earth Science, University of Bergen

If 2008 was the year of discovery – then for us 2009 has been a year of development.

Understanding the vast and complex microbial world around us is a difficult and complex process – we cannot see most of it!! However, thanks to better visualising tools and advances in molecular technology we are learning more – or coming to understand how little we know!

It is not uncommon in Earth and environmental sciences that we need to study chemical and isotopic composition of solid samples on sub-microscopic scale. This is because many minerals and biological samples are heterogeneous and it is those variations on small scale that provide the most valuable information about the sample’s formation and history. For this reason, geologists have often been the... Read more

Friday 15. January 2010 Rannveig Øvrevik Skoglund defended her PhD-thesis at Department of Earth Science, University of Bergen

(from Geoviten-ekstern 18.12.2009) Our planet is a work of life. Biological and geological processes have been inextricably linked since life first emerged on Earth. Learning more about when and where life first evolved is central to understanding how geobiological systems have shaped our planet. The answers to these questions are preserved in sparse and fragmentary early Archean rocks that... Read more