http://ec.europa.eu//research/index.cfm?pg=whatsnew en Wed, 22 May 2013 07:45:13 GMT http://ec.europa.eu/research/index.cfm?pg=rss For more RSS news feeds click the link above. Wed, 22 May 2013 07:45:13 GMT http://ec.europa.eu/research/index.cfm?pg=rss http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-lignodeco&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=29996 If the world is to live within its environmental limits, the need to make the most sustainable use of its raw materials will become ever more vital. Increasingly, this will require us to focus on making maximum use of all the components of those raw materials, right down to the waste products. In today's world, everything has to be used. ]]> Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2013-05-15:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-lignodeco&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=29996 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-3encult&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=29954 From Roman temples and Gothic churches to Greek theatres and medieval castles, Europe is peppered with historic buildings that reflect its rich cultural heritage. But these monuments all need to be preserved, a task complicated by age, pollution, tourist demands and climate change. Now science is lending a hand in this task, with a new European Union research project developing measures to reduce energy loss from within old buildings. ]]> Mon, 13 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2013-05-13:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-3encult&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=29954 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-one-p&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=29936 A radio made completely of plastic? We might see them in the near future, claim scientists. In 1977 researchers discovered that certain types of plastic can conduct electricity, just like metals. Initially these plastics remained a curiosity, but by improving their electrical properties researchers have now opened the way for their use in a large number of electric and electronic devices. ]]> Fri, 10 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2013-05-10:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-one-p&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=29936 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_13_04_29_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=29833 For Kerstin Lindblad-Toh, of the University of Uppsala in Sweden, news that the European Union (EU) was to provide funding for a project aimed at using research into canine genetics as a kind of 'fast-track' to help provide cures for many important human diseases marked the achievement of a long-held ambition.]]> Mon, 29 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2013-04-29:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_13_04_29_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=29833 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_13_04_12_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=29653 Mobile "smart" phones, wireless Internet access, Bluetooth and other types of wireless communication devices and technologies are becoming so commonplace that it is getting harder to think of the time when they didn’t exist. Most people living in the European Union (EU) use some form of wireless equipment, and the number and variety of uses continue to grow.]]> Fri, 12 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2013-04-12:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_13_04_12_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=29653 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_13_04_07_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=29593 In countries with well-developed healthcare systems, dying as a direct result of a condition brought on by pregnancy is a remote and shocking possibility. Nevertheless, one such condition, pre-eclampsia, affects 2% of all first-time mothers, and, moreover, to date no viable screening test has been developed. ]]> Sun, 07 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2013-04-07:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_13_04_07_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=29593 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-odicis&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=29515 With its all-around touchscreens, futuristic design, and dazzling interactive displays, it looks more like a flight deck from the Star Wars or Star Trek movies than anything in use today. Yet the ODICIS concept is a vision for a very real application: a cockpit that airplane or helicopter pilots might use within a decade from now. ]]> Tue, 26 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2013-03-26:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-odicis&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=29515 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-ecochange&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=29514 Human well-being is strongly linked to the biodiversity and functioning of the Earth's ecosystems. To maintain biodiversity and enable future generations to derive the same benefits our planet now provides us with, consolidated policy and management efforts are needed. The findings of the EcoChange project could be instrumental in this endeavour. ]]> Tue, 26 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2013-03-26:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-ecochange&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=29514 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-ice2sea&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=29474 While the global increase of temperature due to our emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere is more or less undisputed among climate researchers, the consequences of the global warming are less clear. Sea-level will rise, but whether we look at half a meter or one and a half meters at the end of the century, is not yet predictable. In terms of impacts on coast and its cities around the globe, these figures correspond to "severe" and "devastating", respectively. ]]> Fri, 22 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2013-03-22:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-ice2sea&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=29474 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_13_03_20_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=29433 Measuring between 1 and 100 billionth of a metre, nanomaterials may be tiny and invisible to the eye but what they lack in size, they make up for in impact. Engineered nanomaterials are already widely used in technologies and consumer products ranging from toothpaste to paints. ]]> Wed, 20 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2013-03-20:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_13_03_20_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=29433 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-sawhot-s3-ingenious&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=29414 The goal of enhanced integration between the European Union and the Russian Federation was significantly advanced by a series of three linked EU-Russian research projects. ]]> Mon, 18 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2013-03-18:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-sawhot-s3-ingenious&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=29414 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_13_03_15_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=29373 Over the last ten years, high power fibre lasers have moved quickly from the research laboratory into production. In stark contrast to traditional lasers, fibre lasers now offer near perfect beam quality ensuring optimal focus even in long distances. In addition, high efficiency, low operating costs and virtually no maintenance allow for a simple integration into industrial, automated production processes. ]]> Fri, 15 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2013-03-15:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_13_03_15_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=29373 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-phelinet&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=29357 The revolutionary medical research project PHeLINet has not only created openings for doctors to better diagnose cancer, asthma, cystic fibrosis and other lung diseases, but it has expanded the professional horizons for budding scientists like Guilhem Collier. ]]> Tue, 12 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2013-03-12:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-phelinet&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=29357 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_13_03_08_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=29333 We are encouraged to eat more fruit and vegetables as part of a healthy lifestyle but this advice could in fact be damaging our health. With ever more commercial food production, research shows that traces of pesticides used on crops can make their way into our food system and into our bodies where they can disrupt hormone function.]]> Fri, 08 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2013-03-08:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_13_03_08_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=29333 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_13_02_27_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=29314 A groundbreaking European Union (EU)-funded research project has shown that eating high quantities of common foods such as fried potatoes - or even toast – during pregnancy can lead to significant health problems for the new-born child. ]]> Wed, 27 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2013-02-27:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_13_02_27_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=29314 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_13_02_07_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=29153 Tomato ketchup may have been commonly used in low-budget movies to simulate blood, but the two substances actually have more in common than might first appear. Both are fundamentally affected in the way they behave by the actions of complex sugar molecules. That link may seem technical and obscure, but it points the way to a potentially vast range of benefits for human society - if only science could better understand and harness the capabilities of these molecules. ]]> Thu, 07 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2013-02-07:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_13_02_07_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=29153 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_13_01_25_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=29115 Thanks to the human genome project finished 10 years ago, scientists now know the full genetic code of human DNA, but they don’t yet fully understand how this genetic information is used in creating different types of cells with distinct functions.]]> Fri, 25 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2013-01-25:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_13_01_25_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=29115 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-nm4tb&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=28936 With tuberculosis (TB) making an unwelcome comeback in many developed countries – TB never really left the developing world – the news that EU-funded researchers are on the verge of a drug breakthrough is timely to say the least. ]]> Thu, 10 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2013-01-10:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-nm4tb&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=28936 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-esoa&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=28935 Over the last few decades the use of wireless devices such as cell phones, car keys, and GPS systems has increased enormously. All these devices transmit and receive data at high speed through antennas. "Antennas are where the bottle neck is in all these communication technologies, and with a better antenna you can transmit more data," says Stefano Maci of the Department of Information Engineering at the University of Siena in Italy. This is why students at technical universities and engineering departments of universities need courses in the theory and application of antennas. ]]> Thu, 10 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2013-01-10:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-esoa&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=28935 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_12_28_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=28833 Showcasing the most exciting areas in research and innovation in Europe is the premise behind the 'Destination Europe' events, which take place several times a year. The events help researchers from around the world discover the opportunities available for working in Europe, why Europe is an ideal place for career development and the funding opportunities for scientists. Likewise, they provide a unique insight into what European countries are doing with regards to innovation transfer.]]> Fri, 28 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2012-12-28:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_12_28_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=28833 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-3d-anatomical&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=28754 In French Guiana, as the distance between the expanding human habitat and the surrounding ecosystem is reduced, this has the potential to expose the population to new viruses and bacteria. European scientists are exploring how to improve research infrastructure and capacity to tackle the emerging threat of infectious disease in French Guiana and boost public health in the region. ]]> Thu, 13 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2012-12-13:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-3d-anatomical&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=28754 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-eatris&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=28673 All too often, researchers who secure medical breakthroughs in the laboratory find themselves at a loss when it comes to turning their findings into health products. This blockage is due to the slow, cumbersome and failure-prone testing and approvals mechanism, which involves lengthy inter-disciplinary dealings amongst basic scientists, clinicians, regulators and more. But a new European project is simplifying the system and speeding the journey from science to therapy. ]]> Thu, 13 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2012-12-13:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-eatris&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=28673 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_11_06_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=27953 A new study conducted by European researchers in Denmark suggests that regular use of pain relief medications such as aspirin, can lead to a decreased risk of serous ovarian cancer in women. This is important news because despite significant progress in the field of gynaecological cancer treatment during recent decades, the prognosis has remained poor, and many have stressed that preventive strategies are urgently needed.]]> Tue, 06 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2012-11-06:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_11_06_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=27953 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_07_03_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=25674 An international team of researchers has discovered what gives ants the means to fight infestations by the zombie-ant fungus: a hyperparasitic fungus. The zombie-ant fungus attacks the ant's brain and forces it to die at a mass grave near the ant colony. There, the fungus spores erupt out of the ant's head. The study, presented in the journal PLoS ONE, was funded in part by the ANT FUNGI EP ('From ecology to mechanisms of the extended phenotype') project, which clinched a Marie Curie Action grant worth more than EUR 214 000 under the FP7.]]> Tue, 03 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2012-07-03:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_07_03_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=25674 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-eurobioref&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=25553 For most people, the bioeconomy is the way of the future. A shift towards an economy based on renewable resources not on fossil fuels is no longer just an option, it's a necessity.]]> Fri, 29 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2012-06-29:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-eurobioref&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=25553