A climate-friendly diet means rethinking the entire food system – researchers

By: Alex Whiting Shifting people to a new diet that is healthier for both the planet and for our bodies will require radical changes in the way food is grown, sold and eaten, including possibly adding a tax on meat and dairy products. The standard diet for much of the world – industrially produced calories … Read more

Plants and sensors are being used to help Bologna locals rediscover their city

Reusing historical buildings for new purposes - an urban planning approach known as adaptive reuse - is breathing new life into cities like Bologna. Image credit - Flickr/ Yuri Virovets, licensed under CC BY 2.0

by Richard Kemeny Lining rundown historic areas of cities with plant life and smart sensors and reusing old buildings for new purposes are helping to breathe new life into Europe’s decaying urban spaces. Historic buildings and places, known as a city’s cultural heritage, can attract tourists and provide a shared sense of history for residents. … Read more

Magnets are being used to extract algal molecules for the beauty, bioplastics industries

Entrepreneurs in the aquaculture sector face a problem – extracting all the valuable molecules from seaweed and algal cells is still really difficult. But marine enzymes and magnets are now making it easier to remove precious molecules and can even turn microalgae into magnetically-guided ‘vehicles’ for targeted drug delivery. Algal cells contain all kinds of … Read more

Mobile forests could help cities cope with climate change

Cities across Europe are trialling schemes such as roof gardens and ‘mobile forests’ to embed more nature into urban areas in an effort to protect their citizens from climate change events like heatwaves, floods and droughts. Cities are becoming harder places to live in as climate change brings higher temperatures, water scarcity and flooding that … Read more

Removing old structures from rivers could restore vital water flow

Removing older unused barriers brings environmental benefits, such as helping vital nutrients flow downstream, says Prof Garcia de Leaniz. Image credit - Zdeněk Chalupský, licensed under Pixabay licence

Rivers in Europe are so congested with concrete obstructions like weirs, bridges and other man-made barriers that they no longer flow freely, which harms the wider environment. Removing these blockages could restore these vital aquatic ecosystems to their former glory. Countless dams, bridges, weirs, and fords have sprung up over the centuries along Europe’s rivers … Read more

‘Reverse fridges’ and insulated walls – how to make a house carbon neutral

Retrofitting of houses on a large scale needs to start now to meet 2050 net zero energy target.Image credit - REMOURBAN

by Jonathan O’Callaghan As the world moves towards a carbon neutral future, many different areas from industry to manufacturing are working to reduce their emissions. But scientists are beginning to look at a different area – houses – to work out if it’s possible to reduce emissions from Europe’s homes to zero by retrofitting on … Read more