Italian and German researchers of the European Research Project MC-WAP have replaced the diesel engines with a propulsion system based on molten carbonate fuel cells.

Bologna is a fast growing city and has become a very important rail, highway and airport junction.

"We decided to close the city centre for traffic”, explains Fabio Cartolano the drastic measures to liberate the city of Bologna from unbearable traffic jams.

Within a project called Ticket to Kyoto five European public transport companies try to drastically reduce their CO2 emissions. These companies are Dutch RET, British GMPTE, German moBiel, French RATP and Belgian STIB.

Researchers have made great strides towards developing fruit and vegetable breeding tools, but they still have a long way to go, according to Dr. Daniel Sargent at East Malling Research in the UK.

The Istituto Agrario San Michele all`Adige is situated near Trento in the northern mountains of Italy. Here the team of Dr. Riccardo Velasco coordinated the apple genome project.

About three years ago 18 research institutions coordinated by FEM got their teeth into the well-known cultivar Golden Delicious’ genome sequence. Golden Delicious is one cultivar of the domesticated apple Malus x domestica.

What has been the biggest challenge during the apple genome sequencing and mapping? The real problem in our case was that the variety, Golden Delicious, we had chosen is heterozygous.

His aim was to develop a system that could capture the oil right at its source, before it disperses on the surface of the ocean.

Oil is less dense than water and therefore the oil escaping the sea bed travels up to the water surface. Dr. Fivos Andritsos and his colleagues from the Joint Research Center in Ispra, Italy have now developed a reservoir which can be applied on top of the leakage.

The “ nano wrap ” that is being developed to be fitted around an amputee’s upper arm nerve bundle is the ambitious other part of the Smarthand’s robotic hand project.

More than half of all deaths in Europe are caused by cardiovascular disease, and 80% of all these are due to atherosclerosis.

Embryonic or neural stem cells are key tools for future studies on Parkinson’s disease or other degenerative diseases. So far, the only way to obtain embryonic stem cells implied the destruction of an embryo.

It does look like a resounding, spectacular success. During this year’s neonicotinoid-free maize sowing in Italy hardly a bee colony has been lost, bar a suspicious case where some leftover seed from last year may have been used.

We don’t really seem to know all that much about the organ we all come from.

Unlocking the mystery of that 5% of sudden cardiac deaths which are not caused by any apparent anatomic abnormality points to a group of inherited gene mutations in the heart’s ion channels.

Bacteria and other microorganisms that cause infections are remarkably resilient and can develop ways to survive drugs meant to kill or weaken them.

As president of UNAAPI, the Italian Beekeepers Association, Francesco Panella is one of the most impassionate opposers of neonicotinoids and other synthetic pesticides, whether they are used as seed coating or sprayed on groves, as he blames them for weakening the bees’ immune system.

Dr. Moreno Greatti, from the Department of Plant Biology and Protection at the University of Udine in Italy, is the author of a pivotal study on the dispersion of seed coating particles containing neonicotinoids into the air and along field borders during maize sowing.

Tens of thousands of them don’t even manage to get back to their apiary. Disoriented, they lose the way home and die.