Technology

This month’s Comment Visions looks at energy provision from an interesting angle; beyond the consensus that we need less reliance of fossil fuels and more energy sources, how could the energy provision infrastructure – the grid – be improved?

Smart Grids are believed to be the answer and Comment Visions talks to an expert in the field; Dr Keith Bell, Senior Lecturer in the Institute for Energy and Environment within the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.

Dr Bell discusses smart grids – what they are, how they would work in practice and their potential impact. The paradigm shift he is imagining a management of energy resources at the demand-side rather the supply end. That would deliver what Dr Bell himself describes as a ‘radically different electricity infrastructure.’

In this month’s Comment Visions we journey to the cutting edge of science to discover how a greater understanding of what makes cells work could help the future of our planet.

Professor Miroslav Radman is an internationally-renowned scientist whose research has developed our understanding of genetics and molecular biology. An expert on evolutionary biotechnology, his current research examines what we can learn from the way different cells behave in nature.

Comment Visions travels to Paris to meet with Professor Radman and discuss his groundbreaking research and its potential applications. In a fascinating and wide-ranging discussion he talks about the way in which understanding and analysing processes in nature can enable us to adapt and apply them to our needs. Can understanding the smallest building blocks of life bring us closer to solving the greatest problems of our time?

Solutions to the energy crisis will come from all sectors of science and technology. This month’s Comment:Visions looks at one of the most fascinating and futuristic areas of research; robotics.

Stefano Stramigioli is professor of the chair of Advanced Robotics at the University of Twente, in the Netherlands. Over the past decade he has been researching intelligent machines and their practical applications. Advanced robotics, he believes, can reap positive benefits for societies as the automation of tasks by increasingly intelligent machines grows more widespread.

A new age of robotics is coming as the next generation of machines develop from research projects into public initiatives and in this Comment Visions we ask Professor Stramigioli how he thinks this age will look. What are the practical applications of advanced robotics in a changing world and what role can robotics play in challenging the energy crisis?