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Environment

Understanding the Atlantic Ocean requires cooperation between nations. Image Credit: Shutterstock
environment
17 April 2015

Mapping the Atlantic – EU, US and Canadian scientists take on the final frontier

The EU is teaming up with the US and Canada to make the first ever full map of an ocean floor, and they hope it will help to understand issues like climate change better.

Quantum reactions in birds' eyes can register small changes in magnetic field strengths. Image: Shutterstock/TTphoto
environment
27 March 2015

Migrating birds might be able to see the earth’s magnetic field

Birds might be able to see the earth’s magnetic field as dark areas superimposed on their vision, like a fighter pilot's heads-up display, and scientists are close to working out how.

The last ice age is associated with a major demographic bottleneck in Europe. Image: Shutterstock/ Esteban De Armas
environment
26 March 2015

Ice-age Europeans roamed in small bands of fewer than 30, on brink of extinction

New genomic data suggests that when Europeans emerged from the last ice age they were close to becoming extinct.

Researchers spend months out on the ice drilling for ice cores. Image Tim Burton
environment
23 March 2015

Ancient ice holds clues to climate change

Cylinders of ice from Greenland and Antarctica are giving new insights into previous eras of warmer climates, and the data is being used to test models for predicting future climate change.

Pied flycatchers are appearing in Norway five days earlier than they used to. Image: Shutterstock/ Juha Saastamoinen
environment
12 March 2015

Earlier migration shows how some species are responding to climate change

Changes in the migratory patterns of birds are providing insights into how the natural world is responding to climate change, and the potential consequences for those species that are able to adapt and those that aren’t.

Following the demonstration, researchers predict the FORCE7 system could be ready for service in as little as a year. Image courtesy FORCE7
environment
10 March 2015

Mopping up oil slicks the easy way

Engineers have successfully demonstrated a new technology to clean up oil spills, which could reduce the environmental danger of drilling for oil in cold, rough seas, such as those in the Arctic.

Shale gas drilling is already taking place in some Member States. Shutterstock/ Nightman1965
energy | environment | industry | horizon 2020
05 March 2015

Particle beams to help study high-pressure rocks as EU shale gas research intensifies

Researchers are developing techniques to study shale rocks under the pressure of two oceans using particle accelerators as Europe steps up research into shale gas.

The TRACKEVOL project is using X-ray techniques to model the footsteps of birds in 3D. Image courtesy of TRACKEVOL
environment
11 February 2015

Dinosaur fossils and super-strength X-rays could reveal why birds fly

X-rays, synchrotron radiation and computer simulations are all shedding light on how dinosaurs moved, and the results are providing new insights into one of the most pressing evolutionary questions of all time: how did flight evolve in birds?  

By combining energy efficiency measures and renewable energy sources, data centres could reduce energy consumption by 30-40 %. Image: Shutterstock/ kubais
ict | industry | environment
09 February 2015

Meeting the hidden cost of IT

Almost 50 000 Google searches per second, 3 billion internet users, 500 million tweets per day – the data centres that underpin our information age now use 2 % of Europe's energy, researchers say. That’s the same as the energy used globally by the aviation industry.

A motorway 15 km from Copenhagen, in Denmark, is being used as a test site for the LIGHT2CAT project's pollution-degrading concrete. Image Credit: Light2CAT Project/Consortium
environment
18 December 2014

The concrete answer to pollution

Dull, grey and boring: concrete may not be much to look at, but – along with other basic materials like paint – it is being upgraded so it can clean up pollution.

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