Pollinators, such as bumblebees, are essential providers of ecosystem services for agriculture, yet their numbers are declining due to landscape structure simplification and habitat loss. To explore this issue, an international research group  set up 56 commercial bumblebee colonies in Eastern Austria and Western Hungary—two regions once divided by the Iron Curtain and now markedly different in field size: Austria with very small, narrow fields (around 2 hectares) and Hungary with large fields (around 17 hectares). Their goal was to find out how local factors (crop type) and landscape-scale features (mean field size and proximity to semi-natural habitat) affect colony success—specifically traffic rate (a proxy for bumblebees activity), growth, and reproduction. They also examined pollen diversity and tested bumblebee navigation abilities by relocating workers and recording how quickly they returned to the colony, using small radio frequency identification tags.

Recent key advances in chemistry could tackle emissions from the world’s most polluting industries, according to a new study.

A new international study led by Kaunas University of Technology reveals that digital mental health start-ups reaching unicorn status tend to secure private funding early, prioritise simple, scalable services, and use subscription models –  while reliance on state funding may actually hinder growth. The research, based on 125 ventures (including 12 unicorns), suggests success stems from strategic, complementary choices rather than technological complexity alone. Researchers call for a shift in European investment policy to focus more on market relevance and user impact rather than deep tech or rigid scientific criteria.

Scientists at HZB run a long-term experiment on the roof of a building at the Adlershof campus. They expose a wide variety of solar cells to the weather conditions, recording their performance over a period of years. These include perovskite solar cells, a new photovoltaic material offering high efficiency and low manufacturing costs. Dr Carolin Ulbrich and Dr Mark Khenkin evaluated four years of data and presented their findings in Advanced Energy Materials. This is the longest series of measurements on perovskite cells in outdoor use to date. The scientists found that standard perovskite solar cells perform very well during the summer months, even over several years, but decline in efficiency during the darker months.

The engineered Pichia pastoris screened by comprehensive systems metabolic engineering, adaptive laboratory evolution and mutagenesis methods efficiently produced α-farnesene using methanol as the sole carbon source, with a yield of 3.28 g/L.