News
New DNA error repair machinery – opening prospects in biomedicine and industry
2018-04-09
An article published in Nature Communications shows that some microorganisms have a hitherto unknown system for detection and correction of errors in the genetic material. This mechanism prevents some bacteria, such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, from easily developing resistance to antibiotics. This research opens the door to the development of new strategies to combat antibiotic resistance […]
Basic mechanisms for root growth and cell replenishment
2018-04-06
Interdisciplinary collaboration between physics and molecular biology enabled researchers to solve fundamental doubts on plant root growth.These findings provide opportunities to create more drought-resistant plants, which is one of the most important problems in the current context of the climate change. Understanding the functioning of root biology is crucial to know how plants suffer or […]
Art inspired by science: artwork emerged from dialogues between Margarita Salas & Eva Lootz
2018-04-04
‘Binomio, a Dialogue between Art and Science’ is a pioneering initiative in Spain which brings together leading scientists and artists, to stimulate the exchange of ideas between two different but equally necessary worlds in order to understand reality. Lootz has created an audiovisual piece and 59 drawings which reflect on Salas’ research. The artwork is […]
300-year old problem obtains ERC Grant for a mathematician at BGSMath
2018-03-27
Barcelona Graduate School of Mathematics (BGSMath) In September 2017, UPC Associate Professor and BGSMath Faculty member Marcel Guàrdia, 35, received an ERC Starting Grant. The European Research Council carefully selects talented early-career scientists who are ready to work independently and awards them up to 1.5 million euros for a 5-year period. His ERC project focuses on “Instabilities […]
SOMMa aims at promoting Spanish science of excellence and safeguarding its competitiveness
2018-03-16
On past Monday March the 12th, representatives of the SOMM alliance, together with the Spanish State Secretary for R+D+i, Carmen Vela, met in Madrid, at the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness. There, SOMMa presented the website of the alliance as well as the document entitled “SOMMa Position Paper: Actions required to safeguarding science […]
A fast MRI tech to revolutionize heart disease diagnostics
2018-03-08
A close to eight-year long collaboration between CNIC and Philips has yielded a technological development which will reduce the diagnostics time, and accessibility of nuclear resonance diagnostics for heart disease from up to an hour, to only one minute or less. This opens up the possibility to increase drastically the number of patients which can […]
10 years of the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) celebrate its first ten years of research activity
2018-02-17
It’s been a hair-raisingly fast climb up to the near top of the tree of centres in the Catalan research arena, with IBEC already holding its own alongside bigger and more established organizations for scientific output, number of ERC grants, patents, spin-offs, training programmes, national or EU-level stamps and endorsements, and other important indicators. 2017 […]
Culture, Ethnicity, and Diversity
2018-02-16
The current refugee crisis has highlighted the importance of understanding how ethnic and cultural differences affect social cohesion. What are the links between ethnicity and culture? What is the relationship between diversity and civil conflict? Are ethnic cleavages associated with deep differences in preferences, norms, values, and/or attitudes? Many people think so. In developing countries, […]
GRAPHENEA, a high-quality graphene producer
2018-02-16
GRAPHENEA, nanoGUNE’s first start-up company launched in April 2010 as a joint venture of private investors and nanoGUNE, has become a world leader in the production of high-quality graphene. In 2013, Repsol and the Spanish Center for Industrial Technology Development (CDTI) signed an agreement to invest one million euros in GRAPHENEA. Following the foundational agreement […]
FSSCat – towards federated Earth observation systems
2018-02-16
Department of Signal Theory and Communications (COMMSENSLAB) Copernicus Masters “ESA Sentinel Small Satellite Challenge” Prize 2017 and overall Copernicus Masters winner awarded to the FSSCat FSSCat is an innovative satellite mission concept, consisting of two federated (“assembled”) 6U Cubesats in support of the Copernicus Land and Marine Environment services. These modules carry a variety of […]
IGFAE’s Astroparticle Physics group contributes to two of the “Physics World Top Ten Breakthroughs of 2017”
2018-02-16
Galician Institute of High Energy Physics (IGFAE) The Physics World top 2017 Breakthrough of the Year awarded by the prestigious magazine Physics World has gone to the international team of astronomers and astrophysics that made the first ever multi-messenger observation involving gravitational waves and electromagnetic radiation from the merger of two neutron stars in a […]
ICMol takes part in a research on invisible magnetic molecules published in ‘Nature’, a step towards quantum computers
2018-02-16
Institute of Molecular Science at University of Valencia (ICMOL-UV) An international team of physicists and chemists, including scientists from the Institute of Molecular Science of the University of Valencia (ICMol), has developed a new strategy to improve the performance of quantum bits (qubits) for quantum computation: they are making these nanomagnets invisible to magnetic field […]