Artificial intelligence has made huge breakthroughs, but at the cost of energy-hungry training methods based on massive data collection. Yet data centres already consume as much power as entire countries, and experts warn: “We’re heading towards a Matrix-like future, where people will have to generate energy just to keep the machines running.

Women have conquered space, but still struggle to break the glass ceiling of the construction sector. How robots will tackle gender imbalances, foster safety and save the industry from the “ticking bomb” of labour force shortage

The sense of touch has been mostly neglected so far in technology. However, research in haptics applied to virtual and augmented realities is opening up new possibilities in endless fields, from surgery to gaming. With a touch of Star Trek science

Current and former early-career scientists share their stories and tell how Europe has bet on them, making their high-risk research possible: from intelligent wireless sensors with vision abilities to RNA-based techniques to fight viruses, from the mathematical formulas of the MRI waves to optoceutics, the new technique that uses light to repair the heart after a stroke

Could your smartphone detect the coronavirus on surfaces? European researchers are developing a new generation of optical microscopes for mobile phones where LEDs and tiny detectors in the camera can analyse very small structures

Spanish innovator Ana Maiques has developed a wireless device to treat brain diseases at patients’ homes. Her research has had a considerable boost during the Covid-19 emergency

If computers transmitted data using photons instead of electrons, they would perform better and devour less power. European researchers are now studying a new light-emitting alloy of silicon and germanium to obtain photonic chips, which can revolutionise computing

Researchers are trying to investigate whether the human body has specific odours a person feels happy or sad. The aim is to develop a dispenser that can spray substances able to help patients suffering from phobias and depression

More than two decades ago, a hand prosthesis able to give back a sense of touch to amputees would have been dubbed as science fiction. Today this has been proved possible, and now the goal is to make this technology available for as many patients as possible

An ambitious study is trying to restore the neural connections that are lost during heart transplants, thus improving the life expectancy of patients

From the bionic hand to a Fantastic Voyage-inspired capsule in the human body: Paolo Dario, founder of The BioRobotics Institute of the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, shares the most important achievements over the last 20 years in their revolutionary integration of robotics with biology and medicine

Robots can utilise computational natural selection to boost experimental power and avoid hours of trial and error

Ten years ago the octopus inspired the world's first entirely soft robot, made with silicone. The artificial octopus allowed researchers to simplify control and sensory-motor behaviour of robots, enabling them to be more efficient than rigid-linked hard machines. Everything started from a dream of researcher Cecilia Laschi

Robots are usually inspired by humans and animals. But the very last frontier is the ‘plantoids’ – plant robots able to move and explore the environment with their smart sensors. Their ‘mother’ is researcher Barbara Mazzolai

As NASA’s Mars InSight is set to burrow into Martian soil, roboticists on Earth are still developing devices for soil monitoring and exploration

European researchers are designing a computer using very large and non-volatile high-speed RAM (NVRAM). Such memory will be used first in data centers, but later should appear in phones and tablets

One day we may not only see, hear and touch devices, but also feel the objects shown on them at the tip of our fingers. Thanks to levitation, 3D items will be created using floating pixels

Imitating nature’s engineering secrets at the nanoscale could lead to a host of useful applications

Unique physical properties of these “magic knots” might help to satisfy demand for IT power and storage using a fraction of the energy

Designing intelligent machines that can resemble and model human behaviour is closer than we think. And you can join in

Can policy making be improved using sophisticated mathematical models?

How visionary technologies are shaping the future

Funding for the high-risk Future and Emerging Technologies, which can revolutionise our lives, is at a crossroads. How will Europe respond?

In the coming decades one of the key technologies to be implemented in intelligent buildings will be LiFi, the transfer of data through light

The future world will be shaped by how people and machines work together

Technology and clothes could make for a magical festive present as scientists develop sensor-rich fabrics for health, sport and everyday monitoring

Zero-power processing could be closer as European researchers take on the Landauer Limit

The transformation of carbon dioxide into useful chemicals has inspired Turkish artist Pinar Yoldas to depict the complex process in symbolic works of art

Futuristic fuels could replace our current supplies, recycling what the latter’s combustion produces most: carbon dioxide. And synthetic diamond exposed to light may hold the key

“Make Do and Mend” by artist Anna Dumitriu is both a work of art and science. It is a contemplation on antimicrobial resistance, one of the most urgent issues in healthcare 

A reverse engineering approach for reconstructing the language of genes

Challenges arisen from climate change, manufacturing, genomics, cosmology, artificial intelligence, big data and the internet of things are expected to be solved by the next generation of exascale supercomputers

Is there artistic potential in understanding quantum physics and high-performance computing (HPC)? New media visual artists Špela Petrič and Miha Turšič try to explain complex research projects from their perspective and create awareness of new technologies and their societal and environmental implications 

From green cities to robots, from new materials to cancer therapies, ‘Future and Emerging Technologies’ could revolutionise the way we live and work

Working with scientists who are trying to create a highly precise clock, artist Kerstin Ergenzinger tries to give shape to the “sound of time” 

A step forward towards solving ultimate questions

A tale of scientists, religious leaders and artists trapped by the smallest particles of matter

Swarms of robots are colonising the lagoon of Venice

Two British artists are designing an unconventional fleet of autonomous devices that can help fight pollution in the lagoon environment of Venice

Quantum computers are thought to be in line to revolutionise research due to their enormous data crunching capabilities, which will force banks to change their encryption systems.

Scientists get closer to applying the insights of quantum mechanics to new technological communication and sensing devices.

Understanding the brain mechanisms underpinning non-verbal communication, particularly in the context of creativity, is a challenge that requires the combined talents of a multidisciplinary team. 

Quantum cryptography is said to be uncrackable. It will stay safe, but only if true randomness, the generation and use of intrinsically random numbers, can be achieved.

Anticipating the advent of the quantum computer, related mathematical methods already provide insight into conventional computer science. 

Artificial emotions can help people communicate, but they raise ethical issues too.

An experimentally guided computational model describes how our brains make complex motor decisions. The abstract model may have uses in medicine and robotics.

Today's computer-based avatars lack one of our most deeply rooted human characteristics: laughter. Computer scientists have now teamed up with psychologists to give avatars the ability to laugh.

Advanced graphics processors, new algorithms and advanced mathematics will soon make a new 3D video technology gathering feed from multiple sources possible

Newly developed robotic kits with legs, inspired from animal movement, constitute off-the-shelf solutions for scientist who need to model movement

It is now possible to sense scientific data as a means to deal with the mountains of information we face in our environment by applying subconscious processing to big data analysis

Next generation robotics development give robots sensory capabilities and the ability to interact with their environment

Science is becoming closer emulating the fiction of the Avatar movie, by deciphering plants’ electrical signals to devise new holistic environmental biosensors 

The potential of the one carbon atom-thick wonder material has not escaped industry’s radar

Microscopic graphene flakes were isolated in 2010 and now the worldwide research looks for practical applications

A smart phone app points people the way, assists event organisers in preventing emergency cases and turns its creators into technology entrepreneurs.

A robot to play with! A childhood’s dream has now come true for researchers at the Flanders’ Mechatronics Technology Centre (FMTC) in Belgium.