News

Columbus launch puts space law to the test

Whose law will apply when Europe’s Columbus space laboratory joins the US-led International Space Station in December? And what happens if astronauts from different countries get into a fight? Those were two of the questions posed at a meeting in Vienna last month to examine the contributions made...

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Space Exploration 3.0 about to begin

Space exploration is about to enter a third age where nations will cooperate to explore the solar system.Nicolas Peter, a research fellow at the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI), told the meeting in Vienna that the era of launching space missions to bolster national prestige was long past and...

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The winding road from farm to fork: ESF - COST to hold conference on Food Systems

Food is a basic human need. But in an advanced society, it gets to us in complex ways. On November 5-6, the European Science Foundation (ESF) and the European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research (COST) will gather experts on the food systems to consider the scientific and...

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Exploring Common Values for the Third Millenium

From 31 October to 4 November, leading scientists from 27 nations will meet in Vadstena, Sweden to discuss concepts of human dignity and its importance for current moral and political dialogues. The conference  “Pathways of Human Dignity: From Cultural Traditions to a New Paradigm” is...

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Make space for the humanities, says the ‘Vienna Vision’

Representatives from both the sciences and the humanities will present a joint vision on the future of humans in space at an international conference in Italy later this month. The ‘Vienna Vision on Humans in Outer Space’, to be launched at the International Lunar Exploration Working Group...

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Space scientists, humanist scholars to explore outer space from new perspective

Space agencies and scientists are tirelessly working to make manned missions back to the Moon and then onwards to Mars a reality. The technologies involved are awe-inspiring, but what challenges do historians, philosophers or sociologists expect us to face in an era of interplanetary exploration...

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ESF EUROCORES Programme OMLL helps uncover ancient human behaviour

A major question in evolutionary studies today is how early did humans begin to think and behave in ways we would see as fundamentally modern?   One index of ‘behavioural modernity’ is in the appearance of objects used purely as decoration or ornaments. Such items are widely regarded as...

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Moved by the State – the reality of modern day human migration in the northern Polar Regions

Seasonal nomadism, migration, and resettlement have always been important for the people living in the northern Polar Regions as these movements are key for their survival. In the past, movements such as aggregation in temporary winter villages near the sea ice for seal hunting and summer dispersal...

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