http://ec.europa.eu//research/index.cfm?pg=whatsnew en Wed, 22 May 2013 14:45:38 GMT http://ec.europa.eu/research/index.cfm?pg=rss For more RSS news feeds click the link above. Wed, 22 May 2013 14:45:38 GMT http://ec.europa.eu/research/index.cfm?pg=rss http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_13_03_27_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=29518 Survival of the fittest, according to Darwin's theory of evolution, is a slow biological process that takes place in a species over many generations. But Spanish researcher Marta López Darias and colleagues had a different idea. Her EU-funded research contributes to the growing body of evidence pointing to "rapid evolution in action".]]> Wed, 27 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2013-03-27:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_13_03_27_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=29518 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_13_03_21_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=29453 A century old mystery as to why, for some animals, it's the father rather than the mother that takes care of their young has been cracked by researchers at the University of Sheffield. ]]> Thu, 21 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2013-03-21:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_13_03_21_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=29453 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_13_02_22_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=29293 Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) & cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) are parasitic diseases transmitted to humans by the bite of sand flies. In VL, the parasite migrates to the internal organs such as liver, spleen and bone marrow. Signs and symptoms include fever, weight loss, mucosal ulcers, fatigue, anaemia and substantial swelling of the liver and spleen. VL if left untreated will almost always result in the death of the host. Meanwhile, CL is the most common form of leishmaniasis. It is a skin infection caused by a single-celled parasite that is also transmitted by sand fly bites and can cause facial disfigurement.]]> Fri, 22 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2013-02-22:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_13_02_22_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=29293 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/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-highzlens&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=29134 Young French astronomer Johan Richard was able to fulfil many young boys' dreams to explore the Universe… through the eye of a telescope, and discovered that the first galaxies may have formed much earlier than thought – just 200 million years or so after the Universe's explosive birth. And his bold journey continues... ]]> Wed, 30 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2013-01-30:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-highzlens&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=29134 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_13_01_23_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=29095 The bioeconomy is growing at an unprecedented rate, and the demand for new services and more efficient tools to boost business in this industry is ever increasing. Because of this growth, the need for management of biological information is proving to be vital in keeping up with demand and new concepts. This is evident with the latest figures, which reveal that the global market for bioinformatics is expected to reach more than EUR 4.5 billion next year. In order to home in on this demand, Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, has devised a concept aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Its focus is on developing new business from the management of biological information.]]> Wed, 23 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2013-01-23:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_13_01_23_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=29095 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-elsa&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=28934 August 2013 will see the launch of Gaia, a five-year space mission packed with scientific ambition that is quite literally astronomical. The European Space Agency (ESA) aims to chart about one billion stars, or roughly 1% of the Milky Way. It is expected to discover thousands of new celestial objects, from extra-solar planets to failed stars called brown dwarfs. It is an extraordinary endeavour, taking astrometry to a new level of complexity and precision, but it will mean little if Europe's science community cannot handle the volume of data that Gaia space mission is expected to send back to Earth. And this is where ELSA comes in. ]]> 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-elsa&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=28934 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_13_01_08_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=28914 The bioeconomy concept is rapidly growing in importance on a global scale. It embraces the sustainable use of biological resources from the land and sea, as well as waste, as inputs to food and feed, industrial and energy production, and also covers the use of bio-based processes inindustry. This is vital as we continue to consume the Earth's resources, many of which are not renewable, at an accelerating rate.. The bioeconomy is already a reality. For example, bio-fuels (ethanol and diesel), are being made directly from agricultural crops, and even bio-waste has the potential to become an alternative to chemical fertilizers or to generate bio-energy, which could meet 2 % of the EU renewable energy target. Indeed Europe is leading the way in various fields of biosciences and technologies but international competitors are catching up.]]> Tue, 08 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2013-01-08:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_13_01_08_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=28914 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-bioptrain&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=28758 Nanotechnology, the manipulation of matter on a molecular scale, brings together different sciences. It is not just about the physics of atomic arrangements, but also about the chemistry of each element involved. The mix becomes yet more complex when living organisms interact with the tiny structures. But by embracing this complexity - bringing together chemists, physicists, biologists and engineers - a research project has provided new insights into nanotechnology. ]]> Tue, 18 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2012-12-18:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-bioptrain&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=28758 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-bicep&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=28757 Nowadays, thanks to a computer program known as complex event processing systems (CEPs), financial market traders use machines to buy and sell stocks, banks can detect fraud instantly, shops know the second stock is running low and computers can make decisions almost instantaneously. ]]> Tue, 18 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2012-12-18:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-bicep&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=28757 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-artemis&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=28756 The search for the Higgs particle (also known as "The God particle") using the Large Hadron Collider at Europe's particle physics laboratory CERN in Geneva is the largest and most complex experiment ever performed. Finding this particle will resolve one of the most fundamental questions in physics: why do the particles that make up matter have mass? It is also the only remaining elementary particle predicted by theory to be discovered. ]]> Tue, 18 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2012-12-18:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-artemis&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=28756 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=ss-adam&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=28755 Electrons, the particles that zip around the nucleus of an atom, are unimaginably small and unimaginably fast. Take a photo of one, and you could unlock some of the secrets of the universe. Go one better, and manipulate one with the briefest flash of light, and you can potentially revolutionise electronics and information technology. ]]> 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-adam&calledby=infocentre&item=Infocentre&artid=28755 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_11_20_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=28213 Astronomers have gotten a first look at the aftermath of Saturn's 'Great Springtime Storm' thanks to the heat-seeking capabilities of the international Cassini spacecraft and two ground-based telescopes. Even though the cosmic event is hidden to the naked eye, a giant oval vortex continues to exist long after the visible effects of the storm have subsided. These spectacular observations were made possible thanks to the ground-based observations made by the Very Large Telescope of the European Southern Observatory in Chile, and NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility at the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii.]]> Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2012-11-20:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_11_20_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=28213 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_11_08_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=27954 European astronomers have discovered a new source of cosmic rays emanating from the vicinity of the Arches cluster, near the centre of the Milky Way. According to the researchers, these particles are accelerated in the shock wave generated by tens of thousands of young stars moving at a speed of around 700 000 km/h. What makes this discovery stand out is that their origin differs from that of the cosmic rays discovered exactly 100 years ago by Victor Hess, which originate in the explosions of supernovae. The findings were published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.]]> Thu, 08 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2012-11-08:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_11_08_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=27954 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_10_31_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=27833 Researchers in the United Kingdom and the United States have developed a new interactive website that allows users to explore the evolutionary tree of life. Called OneZoom™, the site went live on 16 October. This latest development is important because it gives the public a means to look at how life on Earth began, moving on to various points that unlock the mysteries of life categories by using mapping software. The work was presented in the journal PLoS Biology.]]> Wed, 31 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2012-10-31:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_10_31_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=27833 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_10_30_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=27773 In 2004 Stephen Hawking famously changed his mind about black holes – a place in space where gravity pulls so much that not even light can escape from it. Now astronomers have made a new discovery that may well once again change the way science sees black holes, or more precisely the company they keep. A team of international astronomers have discovered two black holes, bucking theorists who suggested that there could only be one. The discovery is making scientists rethink their understanding of the environment in globular star clusters, tight-knit collections containing hundreds of thousands of stars.]]> Tue, 30 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2012-10-30:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_10_30_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=27773 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_10_25_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=27715 Researchers at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom recently discovered a novel material that could be used by sophisticated technologies to fight global warming. The study was funded in part by an European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant worth EUR 2.5 million, awarded to Professor Martin Schröder for the COORDSPACE ('Chemistry of coordination space: extraction, storage, activation and catalysis') project, under the FP7. The results, recently presented in the journal Nature Chemistry, demonstrate that this material, called NOTT-300, could substitute for carbon dioxide (CO2) absorption.]]> Thu, 25 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2012-10-25:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_10_25_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=27715 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_09_03_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=26693 Fungi play an important role in the ecosystem, but scientists are still finding out just how big a role they really play in nature. Some fungi are easily recognisable, like mushrooms, most of which stick up out of the ground. Other fungi, however, exist beneath the Earth's surface where they extend, creating fungal threads through the soil. These fungal threads operate in a manner similar to road networks allowing bacteria to travel across them. Scientists from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Germany are only now discovering another important traveller on these fungal highways: contaminants that would have otherwise remained immobile in the ground.]]> Mon, 03 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2012-09-03:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_09_03_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=26693 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_08_29_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=26533 Researchers from Germany and the United States have succeeded in uncovering how myosin and actin filaments work together to regulate muscle and other movement processes. They provided an image of the proteins tropomyosin and troponin that control how myosin binds to actin. The findings of this study could help researchers establish how genetically determined modifications affect the actin-myosin-tropomyosin complex in some types of hereditary heart disease.]]> Wed, 29 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2012-08-29:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_08_29_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=26533 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/headlines/news/article_12_06_19_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=25313 Researchers in Georgia and Russia have shed new light on the history of the domestic horse, finally piecing together a puzzle that has perplexed scientists for years. They found that domestic horses originated in the steppes of modern-day Ukraine, south-west Russia and west Kazakhstan. They also discovered that domestic horses mixed with local wild stocks as they spread throughout Europe and Asia. Their research, published in the journal PNAS, puts to rest questions about multiple domestication events across a wide expanse on Earth.]]> Tue, 19 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2012-06-19:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_06_19_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=25313 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_06_15_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=25233 Newly developed self-illuminating polymers have been intentionally designed with the ability to home in on toxic prions and render them harmless, offering the potential to cure fatal nerve-destroying illnesses. This Swedish-Swiss study was supported in part by the LUPAS ('Luminescent polymers for in vivo imaging of amyloid signatures') project, which is backed with almost EUR 5 million under the Health Theme of the FP7. The findings were presented in The Journal of Biological Chemistry.]]> Fri, 15 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2012-06-15:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_06_15_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=25233 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_06_07_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=25133 Researchers in Germany and Austria have successfully demonstrated how micro-infections promote social vaccination in ant societies. Presented in the journal PLoS Biology, the study was supported in part by two EU-funded projects: SOCIALVACCINES and LATENTCAUSES. Both SOCIALVACCINES ('Social vaccination in ant colonies: from individual mechanisms to society effects') and LATENTCAUSES ('Modelling latent causes in molecular networks') were funded under the European Research Council of the FP7 to the tune of EUR 1.3 million and EUR 1.24 million, respectively.]]> Thu, 07 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2012-06-07:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_06_07_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=25133 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_06_04_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=25033 The world is becoming increasing concerned about the threat of an upcoming water shortage, leading to its very own crisis. However, it now appears as if previous fears regarding the Himalayan glacier may have been unduly warranted, according to a new international study. The results are an outcome of the HIGHNOON ('HighNoon: adaption to changing water resources availability in northern India with Himalayan glacier retreat and changing monsoon pattern') project, which received EUR 3.3 million under the Environment Theme of the FP7.]]> Mon, 04 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2012-06-04:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_06_04_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=25033 http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_05_30_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=24973 Researchers in Germany have once again made a major breakthrough in bionanotechnology, this time in the area of solid-state nanopore sensors, enhancing their capabilities by fitting them with cover plates made of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). This major advance was made in part thanks to the DNA ORIGAMI DEVICES ('Single-molecule studies of protein-protein-DNA interactions, enabled by DNA origami') project, which has clinched a European Research Council grant worth EUR 1.5 million under the FP7.]]> Wed, 30 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT tag:ch,2012-05-30:/infocentre/article_en.cfm?id=/research/headlines/news/article_12_05_30_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=24973