Case Studies

Major nuclear disasters are rare but when they occur large amounts of radionuclides, are released. In 1986 explosions at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (NPP) covered an area of Europe greater than 200 000 km2 with radioactive caesium and other radioactive nucleotides. Twenty-five years later, in 2011, a tsunami disrupted the...

Nanoparticles – materials for which at least half the constituent particles are smaller than 100 nanometres – exhibit unusual physical and chemical properties. At such scales the influences of surface atoms can dominate, producing characteristics exploitable in healthcare, including for cancer treatments. A promising drug deli...

Graphene is a lattice of carbon only one atom thick. Despite being effectively two-dimensional (2D) it is the strongest material ever discovered with a tensile strength over 200 times stronger than structural steel. It also has the lowest room-temperature electrical resistivity of any known material and its high electron mobili...

Infusion pumps deliver medications at programmed rates or intervals. However, incorrect doses can occur if fluids are delivered at inaccurate flow rates, particularly drugs with narrow therapeutic margins, short half-life, high concentration, or the very low flow rates typical for newborn children. Therefore, accurate and prec...

Air pollution remains the main environmental factor in human ill-health, with about 400,000 premature deaths attributed to ambient air pollution annually in the EU. Industrial processes account for a sizeable share of polluting emissions, including sulfur dioxide (SO2 ), produced by burning fuels containing sulfur compounds an...

Air pollution remains the main environmental factor in human ill-health, with about 400,000 premature deaths attributed to ambient air pollution annually in the EU. Industrial processes account for a sizeable share of polluting emissions, including sulfur dioxide (SO2 ), produced by burning fuels containing sulfur compounds an...