CORDIScovery – unearthing the hottest topics in EU science, research and innovation

• Fires, asteroids and chemical agents – new tools to keep us safer

  What can surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy tell us about the presence of novichok? How can we improve our understanding of how asteroids respond to the tactics we may need to deploy for planetary defence? And as incidences of wildfires grow, how can Europe’s response be more effective? Listen on to hear the answers to these and many other key questions. Joining us for this episode are: Patrick Michel, a director of research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in the Côte d’Azur Observatory in Nice. He is involved in space missions to asteroids, for both science and planetary defence purposes and is the principal investigator of the European Space Agency’s Hera mission, which contributes to the first asteroid deflection test through NASA’s DART mission.  Emilio Chuvieco, professor of Geography and director of the Environmental Ethics chair at the University of Alcalá, Spain, and his main interest is the use of Earth Observation data to monitor environmental problems, particularly forest fires. Tomas Rindzevicius, a senior researcher in the Department of Health Technology, Drug Delivery and Sensing, at the Technical University of Denmark, who focuses on the application of nanomaterials for sensing applications to detect trace amounts of explosives, toxic industrial chemicals and chemical warfare agents.  

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• Turning back the tide of biodiversity loss

  What can we do to save species under threat from climate change and human encroachment? From the oceans to the forests, today we look at how vital evidence is to preserving biodiversity, a key barometer of the planet’s health. Biodiversity is under threat, but it is not all grim news: science-based conservation can step in and halt a decline, as shown in a paper published recently in the journal ‘Science’, which did a meta-analysis of 186 studies comparing changes in biodiversity over time.  Today we’ll journey through rainforests, air and sea to hear about the latest research funded by the EU, that is gathering the data we need to make conservation effective, with Claire Fortunel who is based at the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development; Alison Cleary, a molecular ecologist at the British Antarctic Survey, and Ada Álvarez-Manzaneda, a fellow at the Department of Ecology at the University of Granada, in Spain. 

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• New horizons in robotics

  Assistive tech, preventing injury at work and biomimetics feeding into the design of future robotic systems – listen on to find out more about the robots of the future.Robotics is a swiftly changing field: Cheaper hardware is making research more accessible, and thanks to advances in AI, the focus is now shifting from feats of physical dexterity achieved by expensive robots, to building ‘general-purpose robot brains’ in the form of neural networks. Talking these ideas over are Mac MacLachlan, professor of Psychology and Social Inclusion, and co-director of the Assisting Living & Learning Institute at Maynooth University, in Ireland.Arash Ajoudani the director of the Human-RobotInterfaces and Interaction laboratory at the Italian Institute of Technology. And Tim Landgraf, based at the Dahlem Centerfor Machine Learning and Robotics at the Free University of Berlin.

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• Saving lives by tackling malaria

  Why is it so hard to find a vaccine that works well against placental malaria? Ever thought about the challenges of irradiating 300 mosquitoes a second! And how do the dynamics of replication play out in our bodies? Malaria is described by the World Health Organization as ‘perpetuating a vicious cycle of inequity’. Listen on to see how EU scientists are working to understand and mitigate the disease. Catherine Merrick is professor of Parasitology in the Pathology Department at Cambridge University. She studies the human malaria parasite, aiming to improve our understanding of the fundamental biology of the parasite, and the impact of this biology on virulence. Lars Hviid is professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology, at the University of Copenhagen. His work has improved our understanding of how people gradually acquire protection from malaria, and furthered the development of vaccines against this deadly parasite. Hanan Lepek is the founder and CEO of Senecio Robotics. He works at the interface of biology and mechanical and software engineering, to create and deploy sterile mosquitoes on a large scale to reduce local mosquito populations.

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• Hidden interactions

  Leafcutter ants assiduously farming fungus, bumblebees picking up tiny amounts of electricity given off by flowers – all part of an invisible tapestry of interaction that is unfolding all around us. This episode celebrates the intricacy of our natural world.   Did you know that when antelopes browse on an acacia’s leaves, the tree will emit ethylene which acts as an alarm signal to other acacias nearby? The gas can spread 45 metres. Within half an hour, the trees that pick up the signal flush their leaves with very bitter tannins, to make them less palatable to the antelopes. In high concentrations, the tannins can even be fatal.   Intrigued? Listen on! Sharing their discoveries of these complex and subtle interactions are: Daniel Robert, professor of Bionanoscience at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, who is investigating how insects interact with the world around them using tiny charges of static electricity. Ted Turlings is based at the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland where is a professor of Chemical Ecology. By unravelling how plants defend themselves against insect attacks, Turlings’ team hopes to create novel, sustainable methods of pest control. Associate professor of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, Jonathan Shik, is particularly interested in leafcutter ants and their sophisticated farming of their fungus gardens.

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