Organismo Público de Investigación - Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación.

Center for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research (CIEMAT)

Information
Avda. Complutense, 40; 28040 Madrid

Antarctica / Arctic, astrophysics, big data, bioethics, climate change, cancer, natural sciences, climate, quantum computing, pollution, covid-19, gene editing, education, energy, rare diseases, epidemiology, physics, immunology, new materials, chemistry, sociology, supercomputing
Contact
Begoña Bermejo
Communication, Dissemination and Public Relations Unit
prensa@ciemat.es
913460822

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SMC participants

Senior Scientist in Public Research Organisations and Head of the Science, Technology and Society Research Unit at CIEMAT

Researcher at the National Fusion Laboratory of the Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT), director of the IFMIF-DONES Consortium and European coordinator of the Work Package of the Neutron Source (WPENS) for Fusion in the framework of the European EUROfusion Consortium. 

Head of the Experimental Division of the National Fusion Laboratory, Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT)

Researcher at CIEMAT's Persistent Organic Pollutants and Emerging Contaminants in the Environment Unit

Researcher in treatments based on gene therapy and head of the Bone Marrow Aplasia Unit at CIEMAT

Contents related to this centre
water

A "large fraction" of groundwater samples are contaminated by perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) and would be considered unacceptable for drinking water, a study claims. The analysis, published by Nature Geoscience, brings together data from 273 studies of surface and groundwater samples from around the world since 2004. The exact proportion of samples exceeding the thresholds varies according to the standards considered. For example, 69% of groundwater samples with no known source of contamination exceed the Canadian threshold, but the figure is only 6% if the EU criterion for the sum of all PFASs is considered.

Epigenetic

Epigenetic editing is a technique that aims to alter gene expression without the need to modify the DNA sequence, as gene editing techniques do. In this way, Italian researchers have succeeded in silencing the PCSK9 gene in mice, thereby reducing cholesterol levels by half for at least a year. According to the authors, and assuming further evaluation is needed, their platform "could lay the foundations for the development of this type of therapy". The results are published in the journal Nature.

IA

More than two thirds of Spanish citizens think that artificial intelligence presents a very high or high risk that we will be manipulated with our data by companies or governments. However, just over a third believe that artificial intelligence will have an impact on improving the quality of public services and companies. These are some of the results gathered in the 2022 edition of the Survey of Social Perception of Science and Technology published today by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT), carried out among more than 6,000 people with face-to-face interviews in the 17 autonomous communities.

laser

Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California have announced the success of an experiment at their National Ignition Facility. With analysis of the results still underway, it would be the first net energy gain from a nuclear fusion. The news was revealed on Sunday by the Financial Times newspaper with information provided by sources with knowledge of the experiment.

Reactor Joint European Torus (JET).

The Joint European Torus (JET) has achieved a relevant scientific milestone related to energy production from nuclear fusion reactions. The results confirm some of the technological options selected for the large international ITER experiment. Spain has proposed to build a scientific facility in Granada to develop materials with which to build future reactors.