A new study reveals that horse personality is not only a matter of genetics, age, or breed but also systematically linked to how horses are housed, ridden, and cared for, and to the quality of the relationship they share with their owners. The findings underscore the importance of everyday management decisions for equine personality and welfare.
Researchers have developed a new material called davyne that changes colour in the near-infrared region. The colour change cannot be detected with the human eye, but only with a spectrometer or an infrared-sensitive camera. The material could be used, for example, as an invisible anti-counterfeit tag.
Senior Research Fellow Satu Helske studies how the division of childcare within families has changed after the development of more equal parental leave systems in Finland and other European countries. Helske has received an ERC Starting Grant of €1.5 million for her study for a period of five years.
The democracy researchers of the University of Turku will be organising Finland’s largest-ever citizens’ assembly this coming winter to produce recommendations. The assembly is part of an initiative launched by the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland, which maps the views of the Finnish population on work-based immigration on an exceptionally broad scale for the use of decision-makers.
Researchers have demonstrated a solid-state organic laser microcavity fabricated entirely by solution processing. The device operates in the strong light–matter coupling regime, where light and matter form hybrid states called polaritons. This makes the platform not only a new type of solution-processed laser but also a powerful way to study nonlinear polariton interactions.
The Elias Tillandz prize for the best scientific publication of 2025 was presented to a study demonstrating the potential of the long-form troponin in the diagnostics of myocardial infarction. The award was presented on Thursday, 27 August 2026 during the opening ceremony of the BioCity Symposium.
Researchers from the University of Turku in Finland and Gustave Roussy Institute in France have discovered a molecular mechanism that regulates whether the cells of an aggressive colorectal cancer are conventional or inverted when they spread in the body. The discovery can help identify patients who have an elevated risk that the cancer metastasises to the abdominal cavity. The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.
Member of Parliament Mari Kaunistola (National Coalition Party) has been appointed as the new Director of the University Consortium of Pori. She will begin onboarding to her new position at the beginning of 2027 and will start working full-time once her duties as an MP have ended.
UTU Excellence Oy coordinates most of the fee-based continuing education and global educational services of the University of Turku.
The follow-up of a randomized controlled trial shows that the internet-based Master Your Worries intervention programme for treating children’s anxiety has a long-term effect on the participants. Anxiety symptoms continued to reduce after two years and the impact of the therapy was clearly greater at that point than at six months. The results are internationally significant as this is the first randomised controlled trial to prove the long-term efficacy of internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy for children, even two years after the intervention.