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Dr Bonnefon says that governments and regulators, rather than engineers, should make the moral decisions surrounding self-driving cars. Image Credit - JF Bonnefon

02 April 2019

‘Trusting self-driving cars is going to be a big step for people’

Self-driving cars are set to bring one of the biggest changes to our global transportation system in decades, but their potential to increase road safety should not be over-emphasised if we want to increase people’s trust in automated vehicles, says Dr Jean-François Bonnefon from the Toulouse School of Economics, France, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US. He is a behavioural scientist who studies the ethics of self-driving cars and is speaking at the European Conference on Connected and Automated Driving (EUCAD) in Brussels, Belgium, which runs from 2-3 April 2019.

The political landscape is changing so what's in store for European democracy? Parthenon, Athens, Greece. Image credit - Pexels/jimmy teoh

monthly focus

01 April 2019

Political science

As May’s European elections approach, Horizon takes a step back to see what science can tell us about European politics. We look at the latest research into people’s opinions about the EU and how they’ve changed, particularly in response to the financial crisis of 2008, and ask what needs to be done to bring the public closer to politicians. We speak to cryptography expert Dr Steve Kremer about why most of us can’t vote online yet, and democracy specialist Prof. Wolfgang Merkel about the changing political party structures in Europe and whether this is a threat to democracy. We also find out how scientists are working to detect and flag fake news on social media in order to increase the transparency of the information people encounter online.

Voting in a polling booth and online voting are like apples and pears - it's not a matter of just replacing one with another, says Dr Kremer. Image credit - Santeri Viinamäki, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

frontier research | ict | security

01 April 2019

‘Online voting isn’t ready for high-stakes elections’

Online voting is often considered a way to improve voter turnout and security. But according to Dr Steve Kremer of the French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation, computer scientists have got a long way to go before they make it a viable alternative to pencils and paper.

Automated, networked truck convoys could save fuel and cut down on driving time. Image credit - MAN Truck & Bus

transport

28 March 2019

A ‘cookbook’ for vehicle manufacturers: Getting automated parts to talk to each other

Semi-autonomous cars are expected to hit the roads in Europe next year with truck convoys following a few years later. But before different brands can share the roads, vehicle manufacturers need to agree on standards for automated functions.

Smaller, autonomous satellites could help analyse the internal structure of clouds to give a more detailed view of Earth's changing climate. Image credit - Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA Johnson Space Center

space | frontier research | industry

27 March 2019

Fleets of autonomous satellites to coordinate tasks among themselves

Space missions have long benefited from some autonomous operations being carried out aboard spacecraft, but with a sharp increase expected in the number of satellites being launched in the next few years, researchers are using automation and artificial intelligence to make them smarter and more effective.

An automated wheelchair with an exoskeleton arm is designed to help people with varying forms of disability carry out daily tasks independently. Image credit - AIDE, Universidad Miguel Hernandez

health | ict | industry

26 March 2019

Robotic arms and temporary motorisation – the next generation of wheelchairs

Next-generation wheelchairs could incorporate brain-controlled robotic arms and rentable add-on motors in order to help people with disabilities more easily carry out daily tasks or get around a city.

The fan mussel depends on seagrass meadows in the Mediterranean. Image credit - Fan mussel (Pinna nobilis) by Arnaud Abadie is licensed under CC BY 2.0

environment

25 March 2019

Biodiversity loss in the oceans can be reversed through habitat restoration

Activities such as laying gas pipelines, trawling for fish, drilling for oil, and even burying internet cables in the deep sea, are destroying marine ecosystems. But studies have shown that reintroducing seaweed and corals to these habitats could ward off the worst effects – and recover marine life.

Prof. McShane's team is trying to simulate an immune response using proteins from the TB bacteria. Image credit - John Cairns

interview | health

22 March 2019

A new TB vaccine is within reach – Prof. Helen McShane

Nearly 100 years ago scientists developed a vaccine for tuberculosis (TB). Today, there are 10 million new cases worldwide and 1.6 million deaths from the disease every year. Increasingly, these cases are becoming difficult to treat as the bug that causes the disease can be resistant to antibiotics. However, several new TB vaccines are under development and there is growing optimism that a new vaccine will emerge, says Helen McShane, professor of vaccinology at Oxford University, UK. This could save millions of lives, she said, but more work is needed to reassure the general public that vaccines are safe and effective.

There is concern that climate change is happening too fast for forests to adapt, so scientists are giving them a helping hand. Image credit - Mehdi Pringarbe/INRA Avignon, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

agriculture | environment

21 March 2019

Genetic diversity maps to help forests survive climate change

Forests have a special magic for many of us. Steeped in folklore and fantasy, they are places for enchantments, mythical creatures and outlaws. But if they are to survive into the future, they may also need a helping hand from science.

environment

19 March 2019

The business of biodiversity: can we put a value on nature?

Nature provides people with everything from food and water to timber, textiles, medicinal resources and pollination of crops. Now, a new approach aims to measure exactly what a specific ecosystem supplies in order to incentivise decision-makers and businesses to help combat biodiversity loss.