Touch sensations are improving to help sectors like healthcare and manufacturing, while other advances are being driven by the gaming industry. By HELEN MASSY-BERESFORD Imagine a single technology that could help a robot perform safety checks at a nuclear plant, cure a person’s arachnophobia and simulate the feeling of a hug from a distant relative. Welcome … Read more
“Smart” technologies in homes reduce energy use and bills, prompting stepped-up European research in the field. They may lack the environmental wow factor of switching to an electric car or giving up flying, but energy improvements in buildings cut emissions that cause global warming and make life more comfortable for occupants. Buildings are the biggest … Read more
EU manufacturers are increasingly embracing digital technologies to improve agility. By HELEN MASSY-BERESFORD A plant that makes electric shavers in the northern Dutch town of Drachten is gearing up for a test meant to help European industry thrive in increasingly competitive international markets. The plant run by consumer-electronics company Philips is part of a research project … Read more
Scientists are unleashing the power of neutrons to improve understanding of everyday materials and tackle fundamental questions in physics. By MICHAEL ALLEN Apart from flashbacks that the hit Netflix series Breaking Bad may have conjured up, most of us have likely happily forgotten what we learned in chemistry classes back in school. So here’s a quick … Read more
As medical centres increasingly come under attack from hackers, Europe is bolstering protection. By TOM CASSAUWERS Amid the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2021, the Irish healthcare system’s computers were breached by hackers who gained access to patient files and posted hundreds of them online. As a result, the network had to be shut down. The reverberations … Read more
European projects are developing new ways to clamp down on international trafficking of cultural goods. By ALEX WHITING Lujza Varga is a local player in a European campaign against a global plight: the trafficking of historical objects including artworks. Varga works for the Hungarian National Museum, which is taking part in an EU-funded project to help … Read more