In April 2009, a devastating earthquake destroyed one of Italy’s most beautiful ancient towns, L’Aquila, killing more than 300 people and injuring 1600.

Smart buildings appear to respond to a range of energy challenges found in Europe today. Improved efficiency would help consumers reduce income spent on energy consumption, reduce greenhouse emissions and also help EU countries meet the goals of the 2030 energy strategy .

Buildings account for 36% of CO 2 emissions in Europe, and energy consumption in this sector has increased in recent decades.

Indoor air pollution kills 4.3 million people globally every year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) . The main causes are heating and cooking practices that produce high levels of toxic substances, such as fine particles and carbon monoxide.

Today, one of the new challenges for the construction industry is the use of textiles, coming from the clothing and footwear industries.

Consumption of seafood is regarded as healthy since it contains high quality proteins, vitamins and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. But it might also put us at risk of exposure to environmental pollutants.

For David Bollier, cities are at a crossroads. As smart city initiatives and data collection increases, it’s essential that citizens use the ideas of the commons to retain control of the services that matter to them, and to ensure these work for the people of the city, not just for business or bureaucracy, he argues.

Would you dive into a body of water populated by about 150 robots? That’s what could happen if you were to fall off a “gondola” in the Venice lagoon, where scientists from an initiative of seven European research institutes, are giving birth to the world’s largest population of autonomous robots .

Like every year, December 3 will be a United Nations sanctioned International Day of People with Disability (IDPwD) . The aim is to increase public awareness of the conditions of disabled people and, at the same time, to celebrate their achievements and contributions.

I am a freelance science writer and journalist born in 1988 in the heart of the Po Valley in Italy. I started my career studying physics and specializing in condensed matter and applied physics.

Today the challenge is to enable better transmission from one country to another while reducing CO 2 with efficient links between renewable energy and the grid.

If aliens were to examine a human, they would think we were just slavish organisms designed to feed microbes and carry them around. Our bodies contain ten times more bacteria than cells , and there are an estimated 3.

Can mathematics be expressed poetically through computational technologies? Visual artists Vicky Isley and Paul Smith believe it can be and are collaborating with the Artificial Life Lab of the University of Graz, in Austria, on the Subcultron project (Submarine Cultures Perform Long-Term Exploration of Unconventional Environmental Niches).

Investors look for a number of things before betting on a company or product in the bioeconomy sector: prestigious and experienced team, economic sustainability, competitive advantage, and potential users.

Part of the solution to counter the devastating effects of floods on human communities could be long-term climate forecasting, backed by assessments on the vulnerability of towns and cities As centres of innovation and growth, European cities are home to around 75% of the continent’s population and use about 80% of the energy it produces.

Italy is famous all over the world for its historical cities, but their beauty is not enough anymore. They want to be smart. Two of the experimental forerunners developing energy efficiency measures are Udine and Salerno .

The energy landscape in Europe is changing rapidly and the percentage of renewables is steadily increasing. For example, in Germany solar and wind power provided an average of 33% of the total electricity production in 2015.

Low-cost interventions, big data analysis and new regulations on landfills are key factors for the smart management of waste in cities.

As more and more cities launch projects to become smart, a substantial need is emerging: the ability to share the various models across the world so that they can be replicated anywhere.

There are three ways a crowdfunding project can be financed. Lending: the entrepreneurs borrow money and pay interest; equity: investors in the project become its shareholders; donations: no reward is to be expected (there is a fourth way, a mix of equity and lending called “hybrid”).