Every year the EU produces around 15 million tonnes of bitumen . Most of this is mixed with aggregates such as crushed rock, sand and gravel to create asphalt – the sticky bitumen binds it all together – to build roads.

As one of her final acts as Prime Minister, Theresa May , announced that she will be signing into law a pledge to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 . This would make Britain the first member of the G7 to make such a commitment official.

Plastic pollution from single use items such as straws, cutlery and cotton bud sticks are a serious issue facing oceans and marine life. Often these items are not disposed of properly and because they do not degrade end up in the oceans.

The genius of evolution is rarely seen in action, so the invisible hand guiding the direction of biological systems is often taken for granted.

Playing games could be a solution to saving energy. Using energy more efficiently is, of course, a crucial part of fighting climate change, since oil and fossil fuels continue to be the most important energy source in the world, including Europe .

Fighting climate change is the challenge of the century. The last UN Environment Emissions Gap Report warned that, in order to ensure global warming stays below 2°C, efforts should be tripled , and if we want to stay below 1.

Skiing has been around for at least eight millennia. Skis from 6000 BCE have been found in northern Russia , while 5000-year-old cave paintings in China appear to show people skiing .

Building with wood, straw, and hemp. Biobased materials are seeing ever more use in the construction sector, which needs to become more sustainable as it is one of the major sources of soil, air and water pollution.

Bio-composites have become increasingly popular with car manufacturers because they can reduce vehicle weight, which improves performance and lowers CO 2 emissions .

Today’s computer processors are pretty fast. Under optimal conditions, a desktop can come close to teraflop speeds, which is a million million operations per second .

In recent years, plastic pollution has hit the headlines as a major environmental issue. While gardening is an outdoor activity involving organic material and natural products, the uncomfortable truth is that gardeners use a lot of plastic .

Identifying healthy from diseased tissue poses a unique problem for cancer surgeons. Even the smallest bits of a tumour left behind during surgery can regrow and spread to other organs, a deadly phenomenon called metastasising.

Levitation is an old dream of humankind. For centuries, magicians gave audiences the illusion of defying gravity, seemingly making objects of people float into the air. Now European scientists are turning this into reality.

Greenhouse gases decreased by 23% between 1990 and 2016, said the third report on the state of the “Energy Union”, which tracks the EU's transition to a low-carbon society.

Can science become central to combating terrorism and organised crime? Predictive policing uses mathematical and analytical tools to identify potentially dangerous people and forecast crimes.

Wind and solar energy is not constant and therefore a renewables-based society requires smart grids to transport this power from areas where electricity generation is currently high to those where it is low in order to meet demand.

For most of us, any concerns about computing speed or data storage are usually to make it go faster while storing more. We hardly ever think about the enormous amounts of energy already required to power Internet servers or charge the increasing number of devices we own.

If you happen to swing by Liverpool in the future, you will probably see a tree urban drainage system in Bold Street, where people frequently shop. Surface water flooding is a problem in many cities.

Offshore wind farms play an increasingly important role in renewable power generation. According to WindEurope, Europe now has a total installed offshore wind capacity of 15,780 MW.

Could a human behaviour simulator be embedded into a robot or online avatar to the point that it’s hard to distinguish between a real person or artificial intelligence? Scientists have been upping the stakes in this “ Turing test ” for years, to the point that human-mimicking programmes are ready to answer tricky questions, assist people with online shopping or be companions.