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Dr Helbich hopes his research will help urban planners to design neighbourhoods that promote good mental health. Image credit - Dr Helbich

10 October 2018

Studies linking green space to lower suicide risk are ‘just a snapshot’

Research suggests that where we live can affect our mental health but Dr Marco Helbich, an urban geographer at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, believes these studies only offer a limited snapshot of our lives. Using a smartphone app and register data, he is tracking people through their daily routines and their residential history to see whether mental health is affected by where we live, work and socialise. His findings could change how we design our cities.

Prof. Eva Hevia says that bi-metallics make it possible to use water in chemical reactions - the holy grail for chemists. Image credit - Prof. Hevia

interview | frontier research

04 October 2018

Sustainability is a 'top priority' for chemists

A group of chemicals known as bi-metallics could help the pharmaceutical industry become more environmentally friendly by cutting the amount of energy used to produce drugs, according to Professor Eva Hevia from the University of Strathclyde, UK, who says that sustainability is a top priority for chemists.

Big companies from around the world have already shown interest in Prof. Lee Cronin's energy-dense liquid battery. Image credit - University of Glasgow

interview | transport | frontier research

17 September 2018

Tenfold improvement in liquid batteries mean electric car refuelling could take minutes

One of the biggest drawbacks of electric vehicles – that they require hours and hours to charge – could be obliterated by a new type of liquid battery that is roughly ten times more energy-dense than existing models, according to Professor Lee Cronin, the Regius Chair of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow, UK.

Prof. Sarkar believes that many of the results supporting the existence of dark energy may be affected by confirmation bias. Image credit - Prof. Sarkar

interview | space

03 September 2018

Dark energy is the biggest mystery in cosmology, but it may not exist at all - leading physicist

The most mysterious phenomenon in cosmology – dark energy – may not exist at all, according to Professor Subir Sarkar, head of the particle theory group at the University of Oxford in the UK.

Professor Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg is conducting a series of studies to investigate how hormones affect father-baby bonding. Image credit - Prof. Bakermans-Kranenburg

interview | health

20 August 2018

New fathers may undergo hormonal, neural and behavioural changes

Fathers’ hormone levels and brain activity may change when they spend time with their children, helping them adapt to parenthood in a way that has been overlooked until now, according to Professor Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg, who studies children and family relations at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and was until recently at Leiden University in the Netherlands. She is conducting a series of studies with new fathers, to investigate the role that hormones can play in how they bond with their children.

Project Drawdown's research director says the paradigm around global warming needs to change into one of possibility and opportunity. Image credit - Chad Frischmann

interview | environment

07 August 2018

Global warming could be in reverse by 2050 if we take action now – Chad Frischmann

We could get to the stage where atmospheric greenhouse gases are in decline – a point known as drawdown – and begin to reverse global warming before 2050, but it will require us adopting solutions at an aggressive rate, according to Chad Frischmann, vice-president and research director of Project Drawdown.Project Drawdown is a worldwide research and communications initiative with a plan to reverse global warming based on 100 existing and emerging solutions. An independent European arm, Drawdown Europe, has now been launched to galvanise the continent into action.

With the EUPHEME project, Prof. Stott is linking extreme heatwaves and resulting wildfires to climate change. Image credit - Pixabay/stevebp, licensed under CC0

interview | environment

06 August 2018

Global heatwave: Climate change is no longer a two-way debate – Dr Peter Stott

The pattern of heatwaves causing record breaking temperatures across the northern hemisphere would not be seen without climate change, and they have firmly focused the conversation on what we can do about it rather than whether it’s happening, according to Peter Stott, professor of detection and attribution of climate change at the University of Exeter, UK.

Dr Nadine Gogolla is studying the insular cortex and its connections to anxiety disorders. Image credit - Dr Nadine Gogolla

interview | health

02 August 2018

'Island of the brain' explains how physical states affect anxiety

A fold of tissue hidden deep inside the human brain which collects inputs from both inside and outside the body could explain how our physical states influence our emotions and may be the key to understanding anxiety disorders, according to Dr Nadine Gogolla, a neuroscientist at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Munich, Germany. She is using cutting-edge scientific techniques to probe this poorly studied brain region, known as the insular cortex, to reveal the role it plays in regulating our emotions.

Jérôme Delafosse hopes that hydrogen will replace many of the fossil fuels we use today. Image credit - Energy Observer

interview | transport | energy

24 July 2018

Hydrogen-powered boat plots course for the future of ocean travel

The first day that Jérôme Delafosse stepped aboard the Energy Observer, an experimental catamaran run on hydrogen, he knew the plan of sailing around the world on clean energy was a realistic one, he says. Now, the explorer and documentary maker is one year into a six-year odyssey around the globe with his friend Victorien Erussard, an ocean racer and former cruise ship officer, to prove that the technology can be used for pollution-free ocean travel in the future.

interview | transport

18 July 2018

We need a drone register to ensure privacy and safety - air traffic expert

Requiring drones to identify and authorise themselves before they can fly, which could be achieved by fitting them with SIM cards, could help to protect people's privacy by providing an effective way to register both users and machines, according to air traffic management expert Robin Garrity. He has been working on the U-space plan, which sets out a vision for how drones can be integrated into airspace, particularly in urban environments. It is part of work being conducted by the SESAR Joint Undertaking, a public-private partnership that coordinates EU research activities in air traffic management.