In 2050, will the economy be fundamentally altered because home 3D printers mean you can press a button to print your own clothes, a new sofa or kitchen table? Will cancer be a thing of the past thanks to nano-robots which can detect and destroy tumours? What will society look like when many live to over 100 years old?
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An Integrated Approach to Health and Social Care Services
Across Europe, providing health and social care services is becoming increasingly complex and costly. An aging population, a multitude of public, private and informal actors, together with a myriad of e-health systems and technologies create numerous hurdles to offering efficient and cost-effective care. A team of EU-funded researchers and practitioners are helping to get these services off the ground.
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New Software Traces Origins of Genetic Disorders 20 Times More Accurately
In a bioinformatics breakthrough, iMinds - STADIUS - KU Leuven researchers have successfully applied advanced artificial intelligence to enable the automated analysis of huge amounts of genetic data. Their new software suite, eXtasy, automatically generates the most likely cause of a given genetic disorder. The breakthrough directly impacts the treatment of millions of people with a hereditary disease.
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Europe Should Aim to be the World's Leading 'Trusted Cloud Region'
Widespread adoption of cloud computing is essential for improving productivity levels in the European economy; but the spread of cloud could slow in light of recent revelations about PRISM and other surveillance programmes. These surveillance revelations have also led to calls for national or regional cloud computing initiatives. This challenge must be addressed and also turned into a Europe-wide opportunity: for companies operating in Europe to offer the trusted cloud services that more and more users are demanding globally.
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Research on Alternative Testing Methods Contributes to Improving the Overall Welfare of Animals
One of the central demands of the animal activists is to abolish animal testing and to use alternative testing methods instead. In this context, the European Union has taken a huge step forward at the beginning of this year: On March 11 a full ban on the marketing of cosmetics and hygiene products tested on animals entered into force in the EU.
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Novel Algorithm Detects Early Signals of Alzheimer's Disease
The projected substantial increase in Alzheimer's disease due to the higher life expectancy in modern societies is one of the great future challenges of health care systems worldwide. Alzheimer's disease leads to significant changes in the temporal structure of activities that impair everyday activities. Abnormal motion behavior and degeneration of the sleep-waking cycle are among the most severe behavioral symptoms.
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Great Potential for Faster Diagnoses with New Method
The more accurately we can diagnose a disease, the greater the chance that the patient will survive. That is why many researchers are working to improve the quality of the diagnostic process. Researchers at the Nano-Science Center, University of Copenhagen have discovered a method that will make the process faster, cheaper and more accurate. This is possible, because they are combining advanced tools used in physics for research in biology at nanoscale, two scientific disciplines usually very distant from each other.
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