Global warming is leading to an increase in mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria . It is considered the plague of developing countries. According to the World Health Organisation , it is responsible for one child death every minute.

Smoking is the largest single cause of preventable premature death and disease , accounting for some 650,000 premature deaths each year in the European Union, according to official EU statistics.

Carol Greider, Professor and Director of Molecular Biology and Genetics at the John Hopkins University, co-discovered the enzyme telomerase in 1984 when she was a graduate student of Elizabeth Blackburn at the University of California, Berkeley.

Federica Gasbarro was a 22-year-old biology student in Rome when she felt compelled to become an environmental activist.

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

Long-touted advances of smart cities may finally become reality with the increases to wireless network speeds and bandwidths promised by the switch to 5G .

To what extent do internet and social media help to spread terrorist propaganda and recruiting? EU officials seem to think that they actually contribute a lot.

As the number of smart cities increases, the heavier are their responsibilities towards citizens.

Can science become central to combating terrorism and organised crime? Predictive policing uses mathematical and analytical tools to identify potentially dangerous people and forecast crimes.

Smart buildings offer better energy efficiency and the kind of futuristic mod cons that appeal to many consumers, but some experts warn our appetite for new technology is putting us at risk from increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks .

The coming tech disruptions and revolutions have at times been predicted to fix all manner of societal and environmental ills, so at first glance Susan Etlinger’s warning to exercise caution and restraint can seem odd.

In the wake of the Brussels bombings, the French blogger Francis Pisani addressed the quandaries of modern, connected European cities facing terrorist threats .