More than 50,000 papers were submitted to “Science” and “Science Advances” in 2025, and most are turned down before any reviewer reads them. Researchers from the University of Vermont and the University of Colorado Boulder looked behind the scenes by analysing over 110,000 papers. The name of the institution and the size of the team turned out to count most, and the authors’ gender far less — and at the end you can test whether you understand the rules of the game in scientific publishing.
Tiny iron oxide particles can imitate natural enzymes and, on top of that, they obey a magnet. It sounds like the recipe for a miracle catalyst, but the road from an impressive lab result to safe use is a long one. A European team stopped multiplying new particles and took a close look at their surface instead. The conclusion goes beyond materials science: the strongest reaction is not always the best one — and at the end you can check whether you, too, know how to find the golden mean.
Almost everyone has a memory they would happily get rid of: an awkward moment, a painful scene, something that keeps coming back at the worst possible moment, often late at night. Johannes Gräff, a neuroscientist at EPFL in Lausanne, studies whether such memories can really be deleted. His answer is yes, in principle, but with a catch that matters a lot once you move from mice to people — and at the end you can check how you deal with your own difficult memories.
Bone marrow is hard to watch at work and even harder to recreate in the lab. A team from the University of Pavia therefore turned to a material few people would expect in medicine: silk from silkworm cocoons. It became a bioink used to print three-dimensional bone marrow models that are soft, strong and able to change colour. They are meant to help study bone disease, test drugs and produce platelets — and at the end you can check how much of this silky story you remember.
Up close, a developing retina looks like a crowded railway station: nerve cells set off all at once, pass each other, turn back and choose surprising routes. And yet the result is a precisely layered tissue. For six and a half years, Caren Norden’s team watched this process in transparent zebrafish embryos and found that neurons follow signals from their neighbours, while some of their moves protect the maturing tissue – and at the end you can check how you find your own way in creative chaos.
A pill that checks how your gut is doing, then simply gets digested like a meal, sounds like science fiction. Yet the EU-supported ELFO project, run at the Italian Institute of Technology from 2020 to 2025, built exactly this kind of electronics from honey, toothpaste pigment, seaweed and red cabbage juice. The aim is safer, more sustainable devices that could one day replace some invasive procedures — and at the end you can check whether you would trust a pill with a sensor.
Heat that does not ease off even in the evening and air that is hard to breathe are everyday life in more and more European cities. Instead of guessing what will help, the UrbanAIR project team is building digital copies of cities on which greenery, new zoning plans or investments can be tested before anyone breaks ground. We explain how it works and why technology alone is not enough — and at the end you can check whether you could cool your own city.
Peatlands and coastal lagoons cover only a small corner of Europe, yet they store carbon, help regulate floods, purify water and support rich biodiversity. For decades, however, they have been drained and polluted. A new report from the BioAgora project suggests how to assess, monitor and restore them, and argues that counting species is not enough, because what really matters is how a wetland works — and at the end you can check whether you look at nature like an attentive field researcher.
A lost fishing net does not simply disappear on the seabed. According to expert estimates, abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear makes up around 10% of all marine litter. The European NETTAG+ project, coordinated by researchers at the University of Porto, tackles it from several angles at once: workshops for fishers, acoustic tags for gear, sonar combined with artificial intelligence and underwater robots — and at the end you can check how much responsibility for the sea there is in your own habits.
The soil is weakening, water is short and nature is losing its diversity, yet green change in farming moves at a snail’s pace. The European project VISIONARY examined in eight countries what really drives farmers, consumers and food businesses. It turned out that knowledge alone is not enough, that the rules of the game and trust count, and that Danish farmers feared an emissions tax more than they needed to. At the end you can check how you make decisions when changing your habits is at stake.
Cultivated meat faces three serious obstacles: cost, scale of production and a taste that still falls short of conventional meat. The team behind the European PROFUSE project decided to tackle what matters most in a steak: muscle tissue. The researchers developed a supplement that speeds up muscle cell maturation and a non-GM bovine cell line, and first tests with producers brought lower costs per kilogram — and at the end you can check how open you are to the food of the future.
Smallholder farmers have to grow as much food as possible on very little land, while the weather becomes more extreme and harder to predict. Synthetic pesticides help, but they also harm ecosystems and human health. The EU-funded UPSCALE project tested whether plants themselves can protect maize from pests, and its team carried out more than 150 interviews with farmers and experts along the way – and at the end you can check whether there is room for nature in your own everyday choices.
An earthquake, a flood or a fire can knock out phone coverage within moments, and that is exactly when communication matters most. The European GEXTRECS project looked at how to make sure emergency services do not lose contact even when the ground network is down. Satellites, a clever algorithm and the EU space programme come into play. We describe how it works and how the dress rehearsal with a simulated disaster went — and at the end you can check how you would cope with communication in a crisis.
When we think of satellites in transport, we usually picture the navigation app on our phone. The European SPATRA project shows that orbit can offer far more: Earth observation data, backed by artificial intelligence, helps keep an eye on rail temperatures and ease congestion at a border crossing in Serbia. The goal is simple — safer, more efficient and more environmentally friendly land transport — and at the end you can check what kind of traveller you are in the world of data.
A forest fire or a flood means chaos: smoke, water, broken communication lines and dozens of teams that have to act together. The EU-funded OVERWATCH project combines data from satellites and drones, artificial intelligence and augmented reality so that rescuers can understand faster what is happening on the ground. The system was put to the test during exercises in Portugal and Poland – and at the end you can check how well you keep a cool head when every piece of information counts.
A smooth touchscreen is an everyday thing for most of us, but for blind and low-vision people it can be a wall without a single handle. A European team from the ABILITY project decided to change that: it built a tablet prototype that reproduces textures through vibrations and taught artificial intelligence to turn images into descriptions, sound or touch. See how it works and why the researchers began by talking to 285 users — and at the end you can check how accessible your own digital world is.
Abundance in winter, scarcity in summer: for generations this rhythm shaped life on Mediterranean islands. Now it is increasingly broken by violent downpours and sudden floods. On the Greek island of Skiathos, the NURISH project team wants to turn that problem into a resource: cleaning wastewater in solar-powered artificial wetlands and holding back rainwater in case of fires, drawing on local stone and old water paths — and at the end you can check how you treat water in everyday life.
The human brain works entirely through chemical reactions, yet it is often called the most powerful computer in the world. The EU-supported CORENET project tested whether a similar principle can be used in the lab: networks of chemical reactions in microfluidic reactors processed data, and artificial intelligence read the answers from them. It is a field where chemistry, computer science and data analysis meet at one table – and at the end you can check whether this way of working suits you.
A museum that shows soil pH and moisture live, a travelling art exhibition with a stop in Poland, and booklets with audiobooks for policymakers. The European project SoilTribes is trying to convince us that what lies under our feet deserves more attention. It combines science, technology and art, and the curator argues that soil lives with us. We look at how it works and what it can teach a student — and at the end you can check how closely you look at what is beneath your feet.
One in four people in the European Union lives in a rural area, and those areas cover three quarters of its territory. It is there that women working in agriculture come up with small local businesses, from handmade soap to an educational farm. The EU-funded GRASS Ceiling project looked at what helps them and what holds them back, and its findings are useful for anyone thinking about a business of their own — and at the end you can check how much of an entrepreneur you have in you.
Likes, comments and holiday photos may influence where people travel more than it seems, but not everyone in the same way. American researchers analysed responses from over 2 800 travellers across four generations and checked who plans trips with online reactions in mind. The results can be surprising, especially for Gen Z and Gen X — and at the end you can check how much your own travel plans depend on social media.
Phrase the same request a little differently and a language model answers in a completely different way. According to the QuantPi project team, this is the most common problem that turns up when generative artificial intelligence is tested. The researchers built a platform that creates tests on its own, spots instability and bias and produces documentation for auditors. They also tried it on a system that recommends job candidates — and at the end you can check how much you trust AI answers.
Fibre-optic cables already lie on the seabed along almost every coastline – and they could soon start watching over people on land. A team from the University of Alcalá, working in the SAFE project, has shown that a single fibre can be turned into a network of thousands of sensors that pick up an approaching tsunami, at a fraction of the cost of buoys or seabed seismometers. It is a story about physics, the sea and doing the maths on costs – and at the end you can check whether you think like an early warning system designer.
Around 604 extreme weather events were recorded worldwide in 2024, and many were described as unusual or unprecedented. The EU-funded XAIDA project set out to show how climate change shapes such events and how they can be better understood. Using machine learning and deep learning, the researchers found a worrying result: in many regions, heatwaves are increasing faster than climate models expected – and at the end, you can check how well you handle the heat yourself.
Plastics used in high-voltage cable insulation or in tough composites are designed so that once cured they never melt again. That is an advantage in daily use and a real headache when recycling time comes. The team of the European VIT project tested whether the two can be reconciled, and developed materials that signal damage by changing colour and can be reprocessed after heating — and at the end you can check how much of a materials engineer you have in you.
Dyeing fabric is one of the most environmentally damaging steps in making clothes: it uses huge amounts of water, and a lot of the dye never binds to the textile and stays in the water. A team led by Filipe Natalio at the NOVA University of Lisbon is taking a completely different route and wants cotton to take on its colour while the plant is still growing. The HYDROCOLTON project combines chemistry, plant biology and hydroponics – and at the end you can check how eco-friendly your wardrobe is.
Wind turbines, electric vehicles and mobile phones share a hidden ingredient: magnets made with rare earth elements. Yet less than 1 % of REE magnets in Europe are currently recycled. The EU-funded REEPRODUCE project is testing how to take them out of end-of-life products, such as electric scooter wheels, and turn them into new metals in a way that makes economic sense – and at the end, you can check what you do with your own old electronics.
Solar panels and wind turbines are only part of the energy puzzle. For green power to flow without obstacles, the grid itself needs new devices. Researchers from the European SSTAR project replaced the classic transformer with a magnetic core by power electronics and checked whether such a system can cope with high voltage. The test results are promising — and at the end you can check whether you have what it takes to be a grid engineer of the future.
Insulated walls and new windows sound like good news for anyone renting a room. But across Europe, energy renovations can also push rents up and leave the most vulnerable behind. The EU-funded PREFIGURE project is studying local initiatives that manage to make homes energy-efficient, affordable and inclusive at the same time – and at the end you can check how energy-smart your own way of living is.
Solar cells have a weak spot: the stronger the sunshine, the hotter they get, and hot cells lose efficiency. The EU-funded NANOSPLIT project found a way around it – hybrid nanofluids made of zinc oxide sheets and gold nanoparticles that work as intelligent light filters. Part of the sunlight is turned into electricity, while the rest becomes useful heat for hot water or space heating – and at the end, you can check how you use energy yourself.
You hear little from the deck of a ship, but beneath the surface its work sounds completely different. The noise of engines and propellers makes it harder for marine animals to communicate, navigate and find food. The European LOWNOISER project wants to reduce it without taking away ships’ efficiency. Researchers have met in Catania, are preparing measurements on a Norwegian ship and are listening to the sea through an optical fibre — and at the end you can check how attentively you listen to the world around you.
On a passenger ship, many people share the same decks, restaurants and ventilated air, and when an infectious disease appears, nobody can simply get off. The EU-funded HEALTHY SAILING project looked for ways to spot outbreaks at sea earlier and respond to them more effectively: from electronic surveillance and artificial intelligence to augmented reality training. Its guidelines have already faced a real test – and at the end you can check whether you look after your health on the road like a savvy passenger.
Aviation’s environmental impact is not only about emissions in the air but also about waste: retired aircraft, expired materials and disposed parts. The EU-funded GENEX project looked for ways to make aircraft components last longer. The team combined recyclable composites, sensors feeding a digital twin and digitally assisted repairs – and at the end, you can check how well you look after your own things.
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