Buildings and the construction sector are responsible for over one-third of global final energy consumption and nearly 40% of total direct and indirect CO 2 emissions .

Peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms allow energy sharing and trading within a community without the binding mediation of the traditional big utilities.

Since the World Health Organisation declared  COVID-19 a pandemic , progress has been made on testing, tracing and treating people infected with the virus, and industries have developed  several vaccines in a record time.

“Computer, end program”. A fan of Star Trek science fiction TV series will immediately recognise this instruction. It is given to shut down the holodeck, where virtual reality becomes as tangible as actual reality itself.

The new generation of technologies is radically changing the face of what science has already achieved. Their seeds are being planted in European laboratories, where passionate young researchers have been playing their part in shaping a new world.

Optical microscopy is entering a new world. Future microscopes will be chipsised and have super-resolution capabilities. This means they will be available in everyday life, not just in specialist laboratories.

Ana Maiques has always been attracted by the mysteries of the human brain. “To unlock it is like a crusade of humankind,” she says.

Over the last 50 years photons, the particles that make up light, have replaced electrons to transfer data in communication networks.

From the Covid-19 crisis we are learning a historic lesson about transforming our towns and cities. We’ll probably see a smart city concept B.C. and A.C, before coronavirus and after coronavirus.

You might remember the movie “ Perfume: the story of a murderer ”, directed by Tom Tykwer and based on a novel by Patrick Süskind.

Overtourism affects many world's beautiful cities, which often find themselves unprepared to deal with massive flows of visitors encouraged by low prices and easy mobility.

In December 2016 Loretana Puglisi, an Italian entrepreneur from Palazzolo Acreide, near Siracusa, lost her left hand in a work-related accident.

The world’s first human-to-human heart transplant is dated 3 December 1967, operated by the surgeon Christiaan Barnard in Cape Town, South Africa, on patient Louis Washkansky.

Many of the prototypes that have made the history of biorobotics worldwide are visible in a showcase set up at The BioRobotics Institute of the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pontedera, near Pisa, Italy.

One of the crucial steps to weaken and eradicate mafia and terrorism is blocking their means of enlisting new forces . The challenge is to change the social conditions that allow their networks to expand and regenerate themselves despite investigations and arrests.

If energy-saving measures came knocking at the door, wouldn't it be reassuring to have someone on hand to help you navigate the benefits and inconvenience, someone to help dispel your doubts? This is what is happening in Zaragoza, Spain, where social workers are helping the dwellers of a block of council flats.

There is an old tradition in many cafés in Naples, Italy: it’s called "caffè sospeso", in Italian “ pending coffee ”.

The genius of evolution is rarely seen in action, so the invisible hand guiding the direction of biological systems is often taken for granted.

“If you think about a robot, how do you picture it from the back of your mind? Perhaps it looks something like a humanoid, built with rigid materials such as metals.

The grapevines of the Italian region of Tuscany gave food for thought to researchers based in Pontedera, near Pisa, who developed the first soft robot that mimics the behaviour of tendrils .