European Union News - Research & Innovation

An international team of scientists working from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile has discovered a neighbouring planetary system that shares many features with our Solar System. The findings, published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, are an outcome of a large-scale survey being conducted with the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher, or HARPS spectrograph.

According to the results of an EU-funded study, car travel increases global temperatures more than an air travel for the same journey but only in the long term. Travelling by plane, on the other hand, adversely affects short-lived warming processes at high altitudes. The findings are part of the QUANTIFY ('Quantifying the climate impact of global and European transport systems') project and have been published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Using natural means and without any hormonal induction, EU scientists have succeeded in obtaining viable mass eggs from Atlantic bluefin tuna in captivity. Pressure on endangered wild stocks could be significantly relieved if breeding can be developed on a commercial scale.

A new design methodology, process and tool environment has been created under the four-year SPEEDS ('Speculative and exploratory design in systems engineering') project that is set to significantly enhance Europe's embedded systems industry. Designed for model-based, safety-critical systems, the product not only improves design quality but cuts down time and cost.

EU-funded scientists have discovered that stem cells from one of the main organs of the immune system can be reprogrammed to form hair follicle stem cells, thanks to alter the environment in which the cells are grown. These results demonstrate that it is possible to alter stem cells without genetic manipulation.

The NET4SOCIETY ('Trans-national co-operation among National Contact Points for socio-economic sciences and the humanities') project has improved international cooperation in the field of economic sciences and humanities (SSH) through efforts to facilitate the participation of scientists in these fields.

ERC grant scientists have decided to centre their efforts on making a clock that will be a revolution.

EU-funded scientists have developed a computerised warning sensor that monitors a ship's all-important lubricated systems. A black box attached to the ship's engine together with the unit's oil-monitoring software work together to warn a crew if the lifeblood of their vessel is under threat. The sensor can even provide solutions to get the ship back on track.