The past two decades have seen unprecedented progress and innovation in the neurosciences. Despite evidence that advances in the neurosciences are having a significant impact on the lives of individuals across Europe, there has been little formal engagement within the European social sciences with... [more]
Earth’s surface is a very active place; its plates are forever jiggling around, rearranging themselves into new configurations. Continents collide and mountains arise, oceans slide beneath continents and volcanoes spew. As far as we know Earth’s restless surface is unique to the planets in our... [more]
Monitoring the saltiness of the ocean water could provide an early indicator of climate change. Significant increases or decreases in salt in key areas could forewarn of climate change in 10 to 20 years time. Presenting their findings at a recent European Science Foundation (ESF) conference,... [more]
Pressures and temperatures at the Earth’s core are stupendous – more than 3.5 Mbar and 7000K – and currently it is impossible to recreate these conditions in the laboratory. Our information about the core comes from observing the way that seismic waves travel through the core, extrapolating from... [more]
Helping 10 CEE countries engage in enlarged European Research Area, share their social sciences with 17 other countries and obtain their share of funding [more]
Beneath continents the asthenosphere appears at around 150km depth, while under oceans it can be as shallow as 60km. Above the asthenosphere lies the lithosphere: a more rigid layer that includes the crust. By 220km depth the asthenosphere comes to an end and the mantle goes back to a less flexible... [more]
A European Science Foundation (ESF)-led workshop sponsored by the European Space Agency (ESA) has enabled 88 scientists from 11 European countries to agree on science goals for future Europe’s planetary exploration programme; providing the continent with an ambitious roadmap to examine Mars and the... [more]
Leading science policy analysts urge greater emphasis on community participation [more]
Increasing Earth temperatures and rising sea levels. Both of these are effects of climate change. The current concern is that human activity is changing our climate at a rate well above the natural climate cycling. Understanding how the Earth’s climate system works and responds to human impact is... [more]
A detailed Review Panel Report submitted to and approved by the ESF Governing Council on 19 - 20 April 2007 outlines how to best develop the EUROCORES (European Collaborative Research) Scheme, one of the European Science Foundation’s most successful instruments, in the future. The Scheme currently... [more]