Author: Tom Cassauwers

From his bedroom desk in the Belgian town of Dendermonde, Gert Everaert used to watch the river Scheldt flow past. Barges and small boats drifted by. Birds fished. But the river also carried something less picturesque – a steady stream of litter and plastic waste. “Cars would stop and people threw rubbish straight into the water,” […]

A ship with a crane floats in the Mediterranean sun at a marina in Marseille, France. The crane whirs as it hauls waste from the seabed and, when the wire breaks the surface, the gripper at the end is clutching a rubber tyre covered in algae. As the day advances, rusted metal ship parts, fences […]

When a bee leaves the nest, it already has its own version of a GPS in its head. By analysing patterns in the sky and its flying speed, a bee can keep track of its location and safely return home. Researchers are now taking their cue from this in the hope of transforming how computers […]

For Maurizio Murroni, associate professor of telecommunications at the University of Cagliari in Italy, Star Wars is much more than a science fiction film franchise – it is a source of inspiration for his work. “In the Star Wars universe, they regularly project holograms of people to have conversations across the galaxy,” Murroni said, explaining […]

When trucks filled with hydrogen arrive outside a Barcelona steel plant next year, most bystanders will barely register their arrival. But for Raquel Torruella Martínez, project manager at the Spanish steel company CELSA, their arrival will be a blessing. She is leading an EU-funded R&D initiative called TWINGHY that is developing hydrogen-powered burners for steel […]

What comes out of our wastewater treatment plants may not be very appealing, but the real problem is what is left behind after water treatment. Wastewater plants produce a liquid sludge that is usually dried and then burnt or dumped. This is costly, polluting, and has long been considered wasteful. A group of EU-funded researchers […]

In the hills above Matagalpa, Nicaragua, farmer Juan Pablo Castro has been growing coffee for 25 years. His two-hectare farm, dotted with citrus trees, is typical of the smallholdings that supply much of the world’s beans. But in 2023, he began to see the first direct effects of climate change on his crop. “Because of drought, […]

For Evan Budz, a 15-year-old science student from Canada, learning that his turtle-like undersea robot had earned him one of the four first prizes at this year’s EU Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS 2025) was overwhelming. “It all still feels surreal,” said Budz, still disoriented in the middle of the award ceremony reception in Riga, […]

Brice Makinadjian and Stephane Deport, both engineers at Airbus Helicopters, looked on proudly as a sleek blue-and-white helicopter zipped over the crowds at the Paris Airshow in June 2025. Slicing through the air was the Airbus RACER (Rapid and Cost-Effective Rotorcraft), an advanced prototype designed to be faster, quieter and more fuel-efficient than conventional helicopters. […]

In the busy Port of Oxelösund, south of Stockholm, a small orange pilot boat braves the waves and the weather to help incoming vessels manoeuvre into port.  Beneath its unassuming deck, the future of shipping is being put to the test. The boat’s claim to fame is its new engine, powered not by the usual […]