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Prof. Klessen says many people are not aware that our galaxy is a dynamic system, with stars and planets being born all the time. Image credit - OliverGriebl/Wikimedia, licenced under CC BY 3.0
interview | space | frontier research
03 December 2020

Q&A: It’s time to rethink the Milky Way

The Milky Way might be right on our cosmic doorstep, but a group of astronomers suspect that the way we currently study it is stunting our understanding. Professor Ralf Klessen at Heidelberg University in Germany is one of four researchers who have recently begun a six-year project, ECOGAL, to try something new: imagine our home galaxy as one huge galactic ecosystem. Prof. Klessen believes that using this lens could answer fundamental questions about how stars and planets form, and how they shape the Milky Way’s future.

Vaccines can train our innate immune system. Scientists like Christine Stabell Benn are now studying whether a TB vaccine confers protection against Covid-19. Image credit - Lone Morch
interview | health | coronavirus outbreak | frontier research
25 November 2020

Q&A: How vaccines can strengthen immune response beyond a specific disease

Live vaccines can give health effects beyond just protecting us from a specific disease and may even help us combat other infections such as Covid-19, according to Christine Stabell Benn, a professor in global health at the University of Southern Denmark.

Clouds are important from a climate point of view for how they reflect and absorb sunlight, according to Professor Pier Siebesma, an atmospheric physicist. Image credit - Pier Siebesma
environment | frontier research | interview
04 November 2020

Q&A: Why clouds are still ‘one of the biggest uncertainties’ in climate change

They might be beautiful at times, but clouds are still one of the biggest sources of uncertainty in understanding how the climate will change due to global warming, explains Professor Pier Siebesma, an atmospheric physicist at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands.

Commissioner Gabriel says she is proud of the way European scientists and innovations have worked together to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. Image credit - European Union
interview | policy
08 October 2020

In the hotseat: 5 questions for Commissioner Gabriel

The only way for Europe to recover from the coronavirus crisis and build a better future is to work together and the pandemic has made that clearer than ever, according to EU Commissioner Mariya Gabriel. She told Horizon about the biggest impacts of the pandemic on research and innovation and her vision for where EU-funded research is headed.

Organic electronics are flexible and already being used to make curved screens but future applications could include biosensors and bendable solar panels. Image credit - Maurizio Pesce/Wikimedia, licenced under CC BY 2.0
interview | frontier research
05 October 2020

Transparent electronic books and human-looking robots: the new field of ‘organic electronics’

Electronics made from carbon rather than silicon could lead to a new generation of medical devices, sensors and perhaps even robots, according to Professor Andreas Hirsch, chair of organic chemistry at Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany.

Dr Derouazi says this year for the first time she’s seen scientific publications on cancer vaccines with really promising results. Image credit - Liliroze
interview | health
23 September 2020

Q&A: ‘Cancer vaccines will not replace surgery or chemo but could give long-lasting immunity’

Recent advances are bringing cancer vaccines much closer to reality, giving patients another weapon in their arsenal of cancer treatments, according to Dr Madiha Derouazi, CEO of Amal Therapeutics and one of three winners of the 2020 EU Prize for Women Innovators.

The speed and competitiveness of coronavirus research means sex disaggregation of the results – to understand if they are the same for males and females – is not happening, says Dr Sabine Oertelt-Prigione. Image credit: Dr Sabine Oertelt-Prigione/Radboudumc
interview | health | coronavirus outbreak
06 August 2020

Q&A: How coronavirus is putting a spotlight on sex differences in medicine

More than six months into the coronavirus crisis, data show that not just age, but also biological sex plays a pivotal role in the manifestation and response to Covid-19, with more men dying from acute infections versus women in the short term. This discrepancy has shined a spotlight on a key theme that has gained traction in recent years: is enough being done to account for sex and gender in disease and medicine? Not enough, says Dr Sabine Oertelt-Prigione, the chair of sex and gender-sensitive medicine at Radboud University in the Netherlands and a member of the European Commission’s expert group on gendered innovations.

Earth’s seven major tectonic plates draw apart from each other, rub together or collide, shaping the world we live in. Image credit - Pixabay/SpecialEventConsulting, licenced under Pixabay licence
interview | frontier research | environment
03 August 2020

Q&A: Plate tectonics is fundamental to understanding Earth’s evolution – but big questions remain

The division of the Earth’s surface into seven major mobile plates is fundamental to our planet’s uniqueness, creating a habitable environment and possibly the conditions under which life itself originated. The theory of plate tectonics is 50 years old, but there are many puzzles left to answer, says Dr Kate Rychert, who studies the geology at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

Moving people from cars to other forms of mobility is ‘extremely complex’, partly because there are powerful lobbies resisting change, says Dr Chaix. Image credit - Basile Chaix
interview | health | transport | frontier research
06 July 2020

Q&A: What lockdown air pollution reductions mean for the future of urban transport

People in cities experienced cleaner air during lockdowns, but a permanent shift to greener modes of transport and habits is ‘extremely complex to achieve’ given how much space is devoted to cars and the groups resisting change, says Dr Basile Chaix, who studies the health trade-offs we make as we travel.

interview | coronavirus outbreak | health
26 June 2020

Q&A: ‘We are only at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic’ – Prof. Peter Piot

We’re only at the start of the coronavirus pandemic although the second wave may take a different form to the first one, says veteran virologist Professor Peter Piot, who has spent the past 40 years tracking down and fighting viruses.

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