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Blockchain technology is helping keep appliances in smart homes safe from hackers. Image credit - 'Blockchain' by deavmi is licenced under CC SA-4.0
ict
16 August 2017

Blockchain making houses safer

Blockchain technology developed to guarantee the value of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum is now being adopted by engineers as a way to fight off the risk of a hacker breaking into the connected appliances of today’s smart homes.

Plasmon particles can be used to reflect light and its colours can be altered on demand. Image credit - Professor Laura Na Liu
ict | frontier research
10 August 2017

Fireworks on a pinhead as electrons enable colours in 100 000 pixels per inch

The image is on a canvas as wide as a human hair, its colours never fade, and they can be edited and erased on demand.

Scientists try to beat nature at the camouflage game by bending light. Image credit - Kdsphotos / Pixabay
frontier research | health
07 August 2017

Invisibility cloak takes one step closer to revealing itself

Microscopic structures that can bend light are helping researchers lay the foundations of an invisibility cloak.

Scientists are expanding their research into rare diseases, seeking to improve treatment and cheapen costs. Image credit - Shutterstock/Tonhom1009
monthly focus
03 August 2017

Uncommon solutions for rare diseases

Rare diseases are uncommon, but there are still thousands of different conditions which together affect between 27-36 million people in the EU. This month, Horizon examines the latest efforts to tackle rare diseases as well as new technology to better diagnose uncommon conditions and novel ways to reduce the socioeconomic burden of unusual disorders.

Dr Daria Julkowska is coordinating E-Rare-3 and working on identifying the research requirements for rare diseases. Image credit - Dr Daria Julkowska
health | interview
03 August 2017

Anyone with a rare disease should benefit from cutting-edge research – Dr Daria Julkowska

A new EU-wide approach to funding rare disease research could help patients secure access to new treatments, says Dr Daria Julkowska, scientific coordinator on rare diseases at the French National Research Agency.

Researchers are running tests on pig skin to come up with an artificial alternative for robots. Image credit - Dr Aisling Ni Annaidh at University College Dublin
health
31 July 2017

Artificial skin could allow robots to feel like we do

Artificial skin with post-human sensing capabilities, and a better understanding of skin tissue, could pave the way for robots that can feel, smart-transplants and even cyborgs.

Researchers are looking into labelling mental health conditions based on biological features rather than symptoms. Image credit – Pixabay/ CC0
health
27 July 2017

Depression, schizophrenia may become redundant terms

Labelling patients with conditions like schizophrenia or depression might become a thing of the past as doctors and scientists look beyond the symptoms to develop a new generation of psychiatric treatments.

Prof. Nicolosi uses Ireland's most powerful microscope that can picture the materials she makes with atomic resolution. Image credit – Amber, Trinity College Dublin
frontier research | energy | industry | interview
26 July 2017

Nanomaterials are closest thing we have to real-life ‘superheroes’ – Prof. Valeria Nicolosi

Utilising the superhero properties of materials around an atom thick could revolutionise how we store energy in electronic devices, according to Valeria Nicolosi, professor of nanomaterials and advanced microscopy at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

Hackathons are events where people collaborate to develop new software. Image credit – Flickr/ Sebastiaaan ter Burg
ict | security | open innovation
25 July 2017

Police turn to hackathons as crime fighting goes digital

Police and law enforcement staff are turning to hackathons – collaborative events for developing technology – to come up with new ways of searching for clues within the terabytes of data that many people produce every year.

Prof. Raffaella Schneider is investigating the nature and properties of the first stars and galaxies. Image credit – Dr Marco Mattiuzzi
space | interview
24 July 2017

The first black holes keep revealing secrets about our universe – Prof. Raffaella Schneider

Ancient black holes hidden away in deep space have left behind nuclear clues about the first-ever stars, according to Professor Raffaella Schneider from the Department of Physics of Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, who leads a team of stellar archaeologists. 

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