UEF Insight

UEF Insight is the University of Eastern Finland’s online magazine dedicated to exploring current issues and emerging phenomena.

Our world is increasingly diverse and complex, and there is a growing demand for reliable, research-based knowledge. In response to this challenge, we offer our readers in‑depth insight into research and unexpected perspectives. Published by UEF Communications and Media Relations, UEF Insight comes out three times a year.

Sex and gender

The theme of our 2/2026 issue, sex and gender, examines sexuality, sex and gender from a variety of perspectives, including health, reproductive biology and human interaction.

Piirroskuvassa vanhemmat ja sikiö. Kuva Bettiina Lievonen.

Reproduction affects health – and so does biological sex

Starting one’s sex life and having children at a young age can run in the family. But can pregnancy have beneficial health effects and do the partner’s genes contribute to them?

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A picture of pride socks that diverge in different directions.

Over the rainbow

Although LGBTIQ+ relationships are now increasingly normalised, there are still inequalities associated with the breakup of such relationships and the grief arising from the breakups.

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Friends connecting with their devices at home and ignoring each other, technology and lifestyle concept.

Free love in communes?

The myth of the sexually liberated life of communes is persistent, even though research shows a different reality.

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Research on mate choice and gametes may bring new hope to the childless

Could science offer new answers to mate choice and infertility?

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How do love, sex and heartbreak affect the human body?

These are questions many people find intriguing, and Timo Lakka, Professor of Medical Physiology at UEF, answers them in a video interview. If love ends in a difficult break-up, heartache can quite literally cause the heart to break.

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Researcher Harri Kokko photographed in the greenhouse on the roof of Melania.

How do plants reproduce?

Most of us are familiar with how mammals and insects reproduce, but do you know how plants reproduce? We met researcher Harri Kokko in the greenhouse of the Department of Environmental and Biological Sciences at the University of Eastern Finland’s Kuopio Campus.

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Deeper insight

Sexual selection: human odour-based mating preferences do not guarantee gamete-level compatibility

Published in Heredity, a recent study led by the University of Eastern Finland explored sexual selection in humans by investigating whether female odour based mating preferences could predict how compatible male and female gametes are.

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New research sheds light on genetics of placental growth and link to preeclampsia in mother

A large-scale international study showed that faster growth of the placenta can contribute to the risk of preeclampsia in the mother and to earlier delivery of the baby.

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