Interview

Station F, the world's largest start-up campus, is based in Paris, France - a city named by Niklas Bergman as having a positive innovation momentum. Image Credit - Sharon Vanderkaay-CC-BY-2.0

18 March 2019

Q&A with Nicklas Bergman: How can Europe keep its entrepreneurs?

Europe’s position on privacy, regulation and competition could be a key way to attract entrepreneurs who share those values but there is still some work to do in encouraging ambition, according to Nicklas Bergman, a Swedish entrepreneur and technology investor. Over the past two years, he and other entrepreneurs have advised the European Commission on the design of the European Innovation Council (EIC), an initiative to support companies, researchers and entrepreneurs hoping to start their own business or scale up their projects internationally. The second phase of the pilot was launched on 18 March 2019.

Prof. Mace says that we need to address the food system which is the major driver of biodiversity loss. Image credit - Courtesy of Professor Georgina Mace

interview | environment

04 March 2019

Sixth mass extinction could destroy life as we know it– biodiversity expert

Alarming declines in the number of insects, vertebrates and plant species around the world have raised fears that we are in the midst of a sixth major extinction that could cause a collapse of the natural ecosystems we rely upon to survive.

Dr David Parker, the director of human and robotic exploration at ESA, says that the lunar campaign’s ultimate mission would be to see if a permanent human moon base can be established. Image credit - ESA

interview | space

05 February 2019

‘The moon is a history museum and we’ve only visited the gift shop’

Humans have not set foot on the moon since 1972, when the last Apollo mission came back to Earth. That could all change in the coming years, however, as entities like the European Space Agency (ESA) are preparing not just to return, but to build a permanent base on the surface.

This video covers three days and shows brain tumour cells breaking off and invading a lab-grown mini-brain. Video credit - Wenjing Zhou

interview | health

04 February 2019

In a picture: Hunting down guerrilla tumour cells – Prof. Rolf Bjerkvig

Professor Rolf Bjerkvig, a specialist in brain cancer research, tells us why guerrilla cells make the disease so hard to treat.

A lot of people are unaware that drones need to stay at least 1km away from an airport, says Dan Hermansen. Image credit - MyDefense

interview | security | transport

11 January 2019

Drone jamming system to protect European airports, public spaces

Airports could be equipped with technology capable of detecting and bringing down drones that stray into their air space, according to Dan Hermansen, chief technology officer of Danish anti-drone firm MyDefence.The company has developed a drone alarm and protection system that is being installed at a number of prominent sites around Europe, including an airport. It has the potential to prevent the kind of costly disruption that hit London’s Gatwick and Heathrow airports recently.

Professor Luke O’Neill, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

interview | health | frontier research

09 January 2019

Understanding immune system switches will spark new drugs

Identifying the chemical switches that turn different parts of our immune system on and off is opening up new avenues for treating diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, cancer and rheumatoid arthritis – and potential new uses for discarded drugs, according to Professor Luke O’Neill, an immunologist at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

Parents should not leave it up to kids to decide whether to learn a minority language, says Prof. Anneli Sarhimaa. Image credit - Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz

interview | social sciences

03 January 2019

The internet is helping to revive minority languages

Europe’s minority languages have been squeezed by nation-building, urbanisation and the ‘lingua francas’ of the internet, according to Professor Anneli Sarhimaa, specialist in Northern European and Baltic languages and cultures at the University of Mainz, Germany. But one lesson she has learned from researching the fate of the Finnic language Karelian, spoken in Finland and north-western Russia, is that digital media can also help revitalise them.

Prof. Damien Ernst says current emissions-cutting activities are not working and it's time to consider new strategies. Image credit - University of Liège

interview | energy | environment

11 December 2018

Governments at COP24 should focus on building a global electricity grid – Prof. Damien Ernst

Governments at the COP24 climate change conference in Katowice, Poland, which ends on 14 December, should tackle fossil-fuel reliance by building a global energy grid that connects renewable energy from all around the world - and the best place to start is with a giant wind farm in Greenland, says Professor Damien Ernst, an energy scientist from the University of Liège, Belgium.

Chemical contaminants can end up in the Arctic and add to the pressure on ecosystems, according to Marianne Kroglund. Image credit - Annette Ekin

interview | environment

03 December 2018

The Arctic faces substantial changes even if we meet climate targets – Marianne Kroglund

Melting sea ice, plastic waste, biodiversity loss – the Arctic is facing unprecedented environmental pressure and will continue to change until 2050 even if we meet targets to limit global warming, according to Marianne Kroglund from the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum addressing the challenges faced by Arctic governments and indigenous peoples.

The first step to improving something is measuring it, says Alicia Asín, co-founder of Spanish technology company Libelium. Image credit - Alicia Asin Perez

interview | ict

08 November 2018

How do we feed the world? The internet of things can help

Connecting objects and devices through the Internet of Things (IoT) can help solve the greatest challenges of our time, from cutting emissions to feeding a growing population, believes Alicia Asín, CEO and co-founder of Spanish technology company Libelium which makes IoT hardware. Asín was the second-place winner of the 2018 EU Prize for Women Innovators.