CORDIS EXPRESS

With holidays and cool spring weather in many parts of Europe, CORDIS Express returns with a week’s worth of news, project results and EU-funded research. An EU funded food technology project underway to help alleviate poverty by preventing food losses. An international team of EU-funded astronomers has discovered help in distinguishing between dwarfs and giant planets. Read about how innovations are inspired by challenge. Researchers have seen how the brain avoids congestion and how sex chromosomes won't become extinct after all. Finally and Briefly confirms that physics is difficult for everybody.

EU-funded food technology project to help alleviate poverty by preventing food losses

Millions of the world's poorest people in some of the most deprived regions could soon be helped by a new EU-funded food technology project that brings together researchers from Europe, sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. The 3-year GRATITUDE ('Gains from losses of root and tuber crops') project brings together 16 project partners from Ghana, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Portugal, Thailand, the United Kingdom and Vietnam. It received close to EUR 3 million of funding from the 'Food, agriculture and fisheries, and biotechnology' Theme of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).

Spot the difference? Super-cool brown dwarf helps distinguish dwarfs and giant planets

An international team of EU-funded astronomers has just discovered a brown dwarf that is more than 99% hydrogen and helium. With a temperature of just 400 degrees Celsius, its discovery could be crucial to helping astronomers distinguish between brown dwarfs and giant planets. When astronomers carry out searches for planets around other stars, they often spot many possible planets through the gravitational pull of the candidate objects on the stars they orbit. It can be tricky to distinguish between compact brown dwarfs and giant planets, as they share many characteristics

Multiple thought channels secret to avoiding brain congestion, researchers report

EU-funded researchers from Germany and the United States report that brain networks may avoid traffic jams at their busiest junctions by communicating on different frequencies, according to findings in a new paper published in the journal Nature Neuroscience. The work was boosted by the BRAINSYNC ('Large scale interactions in brain networks and their breakdown in brain diseases') project which was funded under the 'Health' Theme of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) to the tune of EUR 2,978,242.

Inspired by challenge - our robotic future

Sci-fi stories often inspire actual scientific research and achievements. Stories of aliens and spacemen exploring the universe can make a big impression on astronauts and space researchers. But when it comes to robots, Europe's scientists aren't seeking their muse in popular culture; they look at the problems we face today and the challenges of the future, then try to build smart and intelligent technologies to combat these difficulties. We frequently see multifunctional humanoid robots like C-3PO and the Terminator in movies and on TV, but a walk through a typical robotics laboratory would rarely reveal anything even remotely human-looking. Instead, most robots are specialist machines that excel in a small number of specific tasks. Today's robots may have wheels, worm-like structures or other biologically inspired shapes.

Sex chromosomes won't become extinct after all, say researchers

Scientists have refuted recent claims that sex-linked chromosomes such as the male Y chromosome could become extinct. The new claims have been made in a genetic study into the sex chromosomes of chickens, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The team, who hail from Sweden and the United Kingdom, looked at how genes on sex-linked chromosomes are passed down through generations and linked to fertility, using the specific example of the W chromosome in female chickens.

Europeans kick-start solar cell production project

Development of more efficient and cost-effective solar cells is high on the EU agenda. Helping drive this effort is the SCALENANO ('Development and scale-up of nanostructured-based materials and processes for low-cost high-efficiency chalcogenide-based photovoltaics') project, which has clinched more than EUR 7.5 million under the 'Energy' Theme of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) to make efficient and cheaper solar cells a reality.

Fifth International Conference: From Scientific Computing to Computational Engineering, Athens, Greece

The Fifth International Conference: From Scientific Computing to Computational Engineering will take place from 4 to 7 July 2012 in Athens, Greece. Computational science (or scientific computing) deals with constructing mathematical models and quantitative analysis techniques and using computers to analyse and solve scientific problems. In practical use, it is typically the application of computer simulation and other forms of computation from theoretical computer science to problems in various scientific disciplines. Scientific computing is an indispensable part of almost all scientific investigation and technological development at universities, government laboratories, and within the private sector.

Third International Conference on Microgeneration and Related Technologies, Naples, Italy

The Third International Conference on Microgeneration and Related Technologies will take place from 15 to 17 April 2013 in Naples, Italy. Microgeneration is the small-scale generation of heat and electric power by individuals, small businesses and communities to meet their own needs, as alternatives or supplements to traditional centralized grid-connected power. Although this may be motivated by practical considerations, such as unreliable grid power or long distance from the electrical grid, the term is mainly used currently for environmentally-conscious approaches that aspire to zero or low-carbon footprints.