European Parliament - EPRS Science and Technology podcasts
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European Parliament - EPRS Science and Technology podcasts
Listen to a selection of podcasts reporting on the latest science and technology developments, looking into the impact they will have on our lives and capturing their policy implications.
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What if Europe championed new AI hardware?
Current state-of-the-art hardware is not optimised for machine learning, and both academic and private sector research is already leading to new desig...
What if we ran out of copper?
The copper market has recently been showing unusual instability. New EU legislation, though not always directly related, seems to be having a signific...
What if electrification transformed the EU economy?
Electrification is gaining momentum across many sectors, including transport, buildings and industry, driven by the EU's climate ambition and security...
What if focusing on the system, not just the symptoms, were key to health?
Exposure to 'forever chemicals', air pollution, stress and many other factors depends on where a person lives and their lifestyle choices. These expos...
What if the problem with cars was not their method of propulsion?
The European automotive industry is striving to adapt to market changes driven by the dual green and digital transition. Electrification has become th...
Analysis exploring risks and opportunities linked to the use of collaborative industrial robots in Europe
Robot applications, including 'collaborative robots' - cobots - designed to collaborate with humans, are in high demand, with sales and installation f...
What if generative artificial intelligence became conscious?
Generative artificial intelligence applications, such as ChatGPT, are powered through complex learning processes by comprehensive datasets of – potent...
What if the EU were energy independent?
The EU depends on imported fossil fuels (gas, oil and coal) for about 56 % of its energy needs (gross energy consumption), which in 2021 represented a...
What if Europe ran out of water?
Droughts and water scarcity are no longer rare or extreme events in Europe. About 20 % of the European territory and 30 % of Europeans are affected by...
What if algorithms decided what we should eat by looking at our DNA?
Diets tailored to our individual characteristics could bring about health benefits but require data on our most personal features, such as our DNA. Th...
Splinternets': Addressing the renewed debate on internet fragmentation
Recent events have multiplied concerns about potential fragmentation of the internet into a multitude of non-interoperable and disconnected 'splintern...
What if biosensors could help treat rare diseases?
Most rare diseases are incurable. Biosensors are a technology that, driven by continuous advances in artificial intelligence, can help disease detecti...
What if we could make nuclear fusion work?
To reach the Paris Agreement objective of keeping the global temperature increase well below 2°C, the EU must consider every possible technology to de...
What if open strategic autonomy could break the cycle of recurring crises?
Open strategic autonomy ensures the capacity to cope alone if necessary but without ruling out cooperation whenever possible. It relies on foresight t...
What if nature taught us to adapt to climate change?
Over the past 3.8 billion years, nature has been engineering itself to survive. It has also developed efficient and sustainable adaptation mechanisms...
What if increased energy storage could help fix climate change?
In this podcast we explore the potential ecological benefits of increasing our capacity to store energy, especially from renewable sources. As the ava...
Towards a new EU pharmaceutical strategy
As the European Commission prepares to launch a much awaited revised EU pharmaceutical strategy, two recent studies by the European Parliament's Panel...
What if we grew plants vertically?
By 2050, an estimated two thirds of the world population will live in urban areas. Could vertical farming help feed this growing urban population sust...
Using artificial intelligence in workplace management
As AI spreads into workplaces, workers and employers are increasingly confronted with applications and software that affect labour relations. While AI...
What if quantum technologies were to revolutionise healthcare?
Quantum technologies could be a game-changer in the digital transformation of health care. By enabling much faster and more complex data analysis, the...
What if a 'Trojan horse' strategy could help address antimicrobial resistance?
Antimicrobial-resistant infections are predicted to become the second biggest cause of death worldwide by 2050. Despite increasing investment in the d...
What if everyone spoke the same language?
One language disappears every two weeks, and up to 90 % of existing languages could be gone by the turn of the century. Globalisation, social and econ...
What if AI could make the agri-food sector more resilient?
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been under the limelight of so strong political and social debate that its suitability for its main original purpose...
What if microbial protein could help reverse climate change?
Demographic, socio-political and economic pressures have made eating meat an unsustainable practice for the long term. However, meat substitutes have...
What if we sequenced all human genomes?
The rapid growth of genetic databases worldwide, coupled with fast-decreasing costs and increased technological speed, has raised the possibility of e...
What if we built cities on water?
Rising sea levels place coastal cities under constant threat. An estimated 250 million people currently live on land below projected annual flood leve...
Responding better to future pandemics
Managing the risks of the Covid-19 pandemic remains a challenge. While EU vaccination rates have reached three quarters of the population, new SARS-Co...
What if AI regulation promoted innovation?
'Innovation' is often used as a shorthand for improved technical, economic and social processes. However, any specific innovation involves the redistr...
What if machines made fairer decisions than humans?
Automated decision-making by systems that use machine learning to dynamically improve performance are still seen as lacking the 'human perspective' an...
What if we killed all microorganisms in our bodies?
While killing all microorganisms in our bodies may seem tempting to some germaphobes, scientific evidence indicates that beneficial microorganisms (th...
What if xenotransplantation made up for the shortage of organ donation?
Following the first successful organ transplant in 1954, this procedure has become increasingly prevalent as it has revolutionised the treatment of en...
What if hydrogen accelerated decarbonisation of European Industry?
The European Union has an ambitious climate strategy and is looking for ways to boost technologies that will make it possible. Could hydrogen and the...
What if ecolabels could nudge us to choose greener food?
The way most food is produced is harming the planet. A profound change is needed, involving all agri-food actors. As consumers, we sit at the end of t...
What if novel drug delivery methods revolutionised medicine?
Nanoparticles lie at the heart of a new method for delivering medicines inside the body – and they were crucial to the success of the Covid-19 mRNA va...
What if the Internet failed?
Since its early development in the 1960s, Internet infrastructure has become almost as important as electricity and transport infrastructures in conte...
What if deepfakes made us doubt everything we see and hear?
Deepfakes are hyper-realistic videos created through artificial intelligence techniques. They present many possibilities, but also dangers. A wide ra...
What if we chose new metaphors for artificial intelligence?
Artificial intelligence (AI) policy debates are replete with metaphors. In this podcast, we explore some challenges presented by the central metaphor...
What if objects around us flocked together to become intelligent?
The internet of things is already making us reimagine daily life, but could artificial intelligence be the key to reaching the full potential of this...
What if blockchain could guarantee ethical AI?
As artificial intelligence (AI) companies and other organisations are seeking ways to comply with ethical principles and requirements, blockchain, und...
What if consumers could use devices to sequence DNA?
Sequencing and analysis of the human genome, all the genetic information stored in our DNA, enable understanding about a person's ancestry, health and...