Horizon Magazine Blog

Electric bikes and silent trucks to green goods deliveries

February 10, 2020February 10, 2020 by Sandrine Ceurstemont

Urban goods deliveries add to traffic congestion, noise and pollution. Image credit - Andrew Kambel/ Unsplash

Across Europe’s cities, the demand for delivery services is increasing. But these deliveries affect urban life as they add to traffic congestion, noise and pollution and many cities are now trying out alternative modes of transport that could help. Known as ‘last-mile’ deliveries, this system involves the transport of goods and services from a depot in the … Read more

Five things we’re going to learn from Europe’s Solar Orbiter mission

February 7, 2020February 7, 2020 by Horizon Magazine

The Solar Orbiter will let us see the sun in unprecedented detail, potentially including the first-ever view of the sun's poles. Image credit - ESA/ATG medialab

by Jonathan O’Callaghan At 23.03 (local time) on Sunday 9 February, Europe’s newest mission to study the sun is set to lift off from Cape Canaveral in Florida, US. Called Solar Orbiter, this European Space Agency (ESA) mission will travel to within the orbit of planet Mercury to study the sun like never before, returning stunning new … Read more

Q&A: To protect the Atlantic, we first need to understand it

February 6, 2020 by Joanna Roberts

The open ocean is outside national jurisdictions so researchers are working internationally to understand the health of the ecosystem and how to protect it. Image credit - Pxfuel/licensed under CC0

The Atlantic Ocean is under threat from fishing, fossil fuel extraction and deep-sea mining, and the onus should be on these industries to prove that their exploitation is sustainable rather than requiring scientists to come up with reasons to protect it, says Professor J Murray Roberts, a marine biologist at the University of Edinburgh, UK. … Read more

‘Treating cancer is only part of the journey’: the overlooked needs of cancer survivors

February 4, 2020 by Richard Gray

Better cancer treatments means there is a growing number of cancer survivors in Europe and we need to work out how best to support them. Image credit - pxfuel, licensed under CC0

As more people live for years and even decades after being diagnosed with cancer, the question of how best to support survivors is a challenge now facing health systems in Europe. More research into survivors’ specific care and support requirements is now needed, say experts. For many people, it is a word to be whispered … Read more

Q&A: ‘Cities need to roll out carrots and sticks to solve the last-mile problem’

February 3, 2020February 3, 2020 by Steve Gillman

Researchers are looking at how to encourage 'modal shift' - moving people away from using private cars for short journeys and instead cycling or walking. Image credit - Febiyan/ Unsplash

How people and deliveries get to their final destination is currently making urban environments harder places to live, and cities need to solve this ‘last mile problem’ by using a combination of ‘carrot and stick’ measures, according to Karen Vancluysen, secretary general of Polis, a network of European cities and regions working on sustainable innovative … Read more

Our brain has a barrier that stops drugs. How do we get past it?

January 30, 2020 by Horizon Magazine

Scientists are working on overcoming the protective blood-brain barrier to better treat conditions such as stroke or brain injuries. Image credit - Hellerhoff, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

A new drug for Alzheimer’s, stroke or brain injury might work well in the lab, but the crucial test is whether it can get to where it needs to be. ‘That’s really the annoying challenge, because we have (drug) candidates that could do a good job if we could get them into the brain,’ said … Read more