Physical sciences, Earth sciences

The EU-funded DEEPEGS project has managed to drill 4 659 meters into a geothermal field in what is being described as a ‘significant milestone’ for the geothermal industry.

Will we have enough fertile land to grow the food our increasing population needs? Is it possible to adapt food production to climate change? How do we define responsible research and innovation in relation to food security? An EU-funded project, which aims to encourage people to debate the issues and articulate their views, has just published a toolkit settig out the steps to maximise grass-roots engagement.

Researchers have made a chance discovery on how wax moth larvae commercially bred for fishing bait have the ability to biograde polyethylene – in essence, they can eat our waste, sparking widespread excitement that these little critters could become a potent weapon against environmental pollution.

Two successive years of mass coral bleaching have left 1 500 km of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef badly weakened. Scientists now fear the damage is irreparable.

New research has cast new light on the Earth’s early atmosphere, which was dominated by thick clouds of methane. These methane clouds forced hydrogen to leave the atmosphere, allowing today’s oxygen-rich air to develop.

Current volcano monitoring techniques essentially revolve around geophysical observations. Building upon the consensus that volcanic gases are another determining factor in volcanic eruptions — one that cannot be ignored — the BRIDGE project has set out to develop gas monitoring technologies whose combination with geophysics should help improve predictions.

With competition for the use of forest resources ever increasing, the EU-funded project DIABOLO sets out to track disturbances and degradation more effectively.

Researchers examining the causes of the record dust storm that affected the Middle East and Cypus in 2015, identified erosion as one key factor, a problem that the war in Syria and Iraq is making more acute. However, although record-breaking, the storm was not forecast – such events remain hard to predict.

With a patent already filed and the project barely halfway through, the EU funded CARBAZYMES has identified promising biocatalyst enzymes with the potential to transform industrial chemical processes, benefiting industry, consumers and the environment.

A recently published study has described a new species of Tyrannosaur, arguing that these fearsome Cretaceous reptiles actually had incredibly sensitive snouts, as sensitive to touch as human fingertips. One of the results of this, the scientists behind the study suggest, is that males and females enjoyed rubbing their sensitive faces together whilst mating.

‘Hiding in plain sight’ is how five newly identified particles have been described, but it took the exquisite sensitivity of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider to finally spot them. CERN describes the observation of five new states all at once as ‘rather unique’.

Research supported by the EU-funded CLIM-AMAZON project into river sediment has revealed that the Amazon is considerably older than previously thought.

As we mark World Meteorological Day, the world is moving into what has been referred to as unchartered territory, with 2016 the warmest on record and 2017 set to follow the trend. With the Paris Climate Change Agreement less than 18 months old, what now for progress?

An EU funded project, has created a range of tools to give a more accurate picture of current biodiversity, aiding efforts for sustainable governance of natural resources.

Building on previous EU-funded research into uranium, researchers have established a potential approach for safely removing radioactive elements from nuclear waste.

Identifying regions of self-amplifying forest loss can help maintain biodiversity, supporting climate change mitigation, according to research carried out with support from two EU-funded projects.

Known as the richest and most important Mesolithic site in Great Britain, Star Carr is still holding many secrets that archaeologists are eager to reveal before it’s too late. Indeed, peat desiccation, fluctuating water tables and unprecedented levels of acidity are deteriorating the site at a worrying pace.

An innovative dry etching method developed by EU-funded researchers could reduce the cost of manufacturing solar cells by up to 25 %.

The EU-funded XF-ACTORS project recently reported on its disease modelling work, key to its integrated management strategy to control the spread of the Xylella fastidi-osa (XF) pathogen, which is putting olive groves at serious risk in Southern Italy.

To this day, the true potential of the ‘all-connected’ world has been hindered by the very thing that is supposed to power it: battery technology. A material capable of turning sunlight, heat and movement into energy could soon shake things up.

Launched by Shell at Cobham services on the M25 motorway, the new station was supplied by ATM as part of the EU funded HYFIVE project. It’s the first of three hydrogen stations to be opened by Shell in the UK in 2017.

A new machine called the Watly offers solutions to three of society’s most important challenges – ensuring access to clean water, sustainable energy generation and reaping the benefits of the evolving digital revolution. Supported by funds from the Horizon 2020 project, the innovative SME behind the project is now nearly ready to unveil its first full-scale Watly machine.

First we began 2017 with the knowledge that we have an entirely new organ in our bodies. Now we’ve learnt that Earth has been (probably) graced with a new, eighth continent. In a new paper published in the journal of the Geological Society of America, a team of scientists have argued that a vast, continuous expanse of continental crust, centred on New Zealand, is distinct enough to be classed as a separate continent.

With low-oxygen seafloor areas around the world on the rise, the EU-funded HYPOX project points to warning signs for marine ecosystems.

Results from a large study of volunteer blood donors in Martinique during the 2016 Zika virus outbreak - which according to state health authorities affected 568 pregnant women - are now in. They provide a precise follow-up of incident cases and seroprevalence but also important insights into the management of blood donations and the natural history of ZIKV infection in adults.