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.

I am a freelance  science writer  and an award-winning  book author  with a PhD in molecular biology. My journalistic credits include Scientific American, Reuters, the New Scientist, Nature and many others.

My first love is radio. In 2004, I started as a contributor to a show broadcasted on a local radio in Bologna, called Radio Città del Capo.

Back in 1998, when my grandmother looked at my university thesis on  blue compact dwarf galaxies , she asked me, puzzled, "what  exactly  do you use this for?" I then realised that, perhaps, I had to reconsider my career ambitions.

In the summer 2019 Britain was the first G7 member to incorporate a new commitment to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 into law. Since then the country has maintained ambitious green targets for the coming years.

The spread of cancer cells to other parts of the body, known as metastasis , is the main cause of cancer-related deaths. According to the US National Cancer Institute, in 2018 there were 9.

What if Santa rode a four-legged robot? What looks like a sci-fi fairy tale might soon come true. Nowadays it is not reindeers that bring holiday gifts to our homes, it is most often a cumbersome, noisy and polluting van.

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.

Willingly or forced by circumstances, cities across Europe have slowly started to change their vision about urban mobility.

As expected, car sales have decreased world-wide as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Understanding how people decide to use less energy at home or at work is crucial to boost virtuous behaviours. Our reaction to any novelty is so complex that a lot of socio-psychological research has been done to try to make it more predictable.

Genes are the latest trend in nutrition, at least going by the burgeoning  legion   of Internet companies offering diets tailored to our genetic make-up.  These services are relatively affordable and simple to use.

To date, European consumers pay more for energy from renewables than for energy from conventional resources. One of the reasons is still the immaturity of the technology used for harnessing and distributing renewable energy.

For the first time in its history, the Global Seed Vault on the Svalbard Islands, Norway, has authorised a withdrawal. It was requested in 2015 by Syria, a country where the war is endangering the local agricultural seed collections.

Whenever you eat strawberries, does your throat start to swell and itch? Do you also get a burning or prickling sensation in your lips, gums, tongue or inside your cheeks? Or perhaps drinking milk ...

As well as being a time for celebration, winter in Europe is a time for serious weather. Blizzards, flash floods, hurricanes, heavy snow fall can cause chaos, major disruption, economic loss, and endanger lives.

Bioenergy represents two-thirds of the energy produced from renewable sources in Europe, though biomass sustainability is not taken for granted.