Social sciences

Walkie-talkies were invented 70 years ago. One could be forgiven for ever thinking that the advent, rise and now omnipresence of mobile phones would sound their death knell. But the truth is, in 2018, walkie-talkies are still being used. Now, a Finnish company proposes to enhance them with the mobile broadband technology we find on our smartphones.

Analysis of the skeletons of victims of the 1545-1550 cocoliztli epidemic in Mexico reveals the presence of salmonella enterica Paratyphi C, a pathogen that causes enteric fever.

From binge watching TV dramas to parents telling their small children bedtime stories, the power of story telling has enthralled us since earliest times. But why? In evolutionary terms wouldn’t the time be better spent on securing food?

A new study suggests human parasites were responsible for the spread of the plague and that the rat may have got a bad rap!

Frailty in the elderly has multiple adverse health outcomes, including disability, morbidity, falls, hospitalisation, institutionalisation, and even death. One project is adding tools to help healthcare professionals treat an ageing population.

Animal and human investigations indicate that the impact of trauma experienced by mothers affects early offspring development, but new research is also discovering that it is also actually encoded into the DNA of subsequent generations.

An end to spikey tree needles sticking into your socks, and if that wasn’t enough to celebrate, new research shows babies conceived over Christmas have some advantages. All too much, then how about the smallest Christmas card ever?

Women living around 7 000 years ago did a lot of heavy lifting in their early agrarian societies. Now skeletal analysis reveals they were even stronger than the top female athletes of today.

Food sharing as a means to both reduce waste and boost urban sustainability is clearly a good idea. But what works where and how can it be made more effective? Just some questions one project is answering.

Wealth distribution can tell us much about a society but when it comes to prehistoric civilizations, a lack of written record makes that hard to trace. New research draws on house size to trace wealth disparity, with interesting results.

With EU nations throwing away 88 million tonnes of food a year, a group of experts from 13 countries have launched a platform to share knowledge with consumers, producers and retailers in the hope of bringing that figure down.

Scientists analysing earthenware jugs say residue contains wine compounds dating back 8 000 years.

Around 20 million people in the EU suffer from eating disorders with an annual associated cost of EUR 1 trillion. Debilitating and stressful at best, at worst fatal, those suffering can face long delays in getting treatment. But smart tech could speed things up.

With fake news, alternative facts and false beliefs currently damaging our social and political landscape, EU researchers are examining whether journalists can be effective as adjudicators, pointing out untruths and separating facts from fiction.

With uncertainty around the risks of nanomaterials hampering the EU’s innovative potential, researchers are working on a safety concept to better monitor this emerging technology.

When quantum computers become available, an existing algorithm will challenge current encryption techniques now considered secure. Work being done by an EU-funded project is laying the grounds for a solution.

Researchers have identified serious data privacy vulnerabilities in the increasingly popular wearable devices, that threaten their trustworthiness.

New research shows a positive state of mind can boost the effectiveness of vaccines such as the flu jab.

The 2017 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine has gone to three scientists for their discoveries of the molecular mechanisms that control circadian rhythms.

According to a study recently published in the ‘The Lancet Planetary Health’, global warming could impact about two-thirds of the European population a year, 351 million people, by 2100, resulting in 152 000 deaths annually.

Haptic sensors, connectivity and efficient telecommunications are some of the factors that enable the uptake of medical telerobotic systems. Technical capacity is timely as demographics put pressure on health services, while in remote areas, patients of all ages can find it hard to get appointments with specialists.

Tech leaders have written an open letter to the UN asking for a ban on lethal autonomous weapons which, they state, could permit armed conflict to be fought at a scale greater than ever, and at timescales faster than humans can comprehend.

A new study led by the University of Plymouth and funded through the EU-funded TRACY project has advised governments to do more to develop transport policies that allow those over the age of 65 to remain mobile and active.

As a debilitating heatwave, nicknamed ‘Lucifer’ by the press, currently engulfs southern Europe, a new study part-supported by two EU-funded projects has warned that a rise in global temperatures of three degrees would reverse Europe’s dedicated efforts to reduce ozone pollution.

Part-supported through the EU-funded RE-AGEING project, researchers offer population forecasting studies which encourage societies to break from outdated ageing measures and instead start categorising on how we live our lives.