Latest news with #HUN-REN
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Researchers make stunning discovery after studying wildlife living near wineries: 'Can be further enhanced'
Researchers make stunning discovery after studying wildlife living near wineries: 'Can be further enhanced' A team of researchers from the HUN-REN Center for Ecological Research and the University of Milan recently established a connection between vineyard ecosystems and local bird and bat species. The HUN-REN Center's mission is to support biodiversity research, and it is resolute in the understanding that a more informed public can make better environmental decisions. Published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, their study addressed one part of the ongoing problem of habitat reconfiguration — that is, when natural landscapes are repurposed into human-oriented mechanisms. In an agricultural context specifically, it's crucial that we maintain a balance between crop yields for human needs and ecological sustainability, a balance these researchers aimed to identify within vineyards. In addition to being land-replenishing pollinators, birds and bats serve as natural predators, keeping pests in check while supporting beneficial arthropod species. Per it's a predisposition that can serve to our benefit as well, when it comes to vineyards and other agricultural endeavors — and by monitoring and recording bird and bat activity against arthropod activity across various Hungarian vineyards, these researchers worked to prove just that. By demonstrating that predatory birds and bats regulate pest populations on behalf of farmers, the team is encouraging the protection of these species by vineyard management, hoping that humans can work with birds and bats rather than allowing vineyards to devolve into sites of human-animal conflict. The researchers called for the sustenance of these agricultural projects without the use of synthetic pesticides — after all, why turn to polluting and often harmful chemicals when the natural solution is just as effective, requires fewer resources, and brings about less contamination to the air and soil? Uncontrolled pesticide use not only leaks toxic contaminants into the soil to kill pests, but also leaves lingering traces in the affected plants and the atmosphere of the region, posing risks to human health. Exposure through the food we eat and the air we breathe leaves us vulnerable to a variety of health concerns, ranging from reproductive damage to cancers. Moreover, the ripple effects of pesticides have lowered biodiversity around the world, destablizing ecosystems. The HUN-REN Center seeks to make its ecological findings more mainstream, bridging the gap between the discipline of environmental research and the average individual. If more of us can become cognizant of the issues infiltrating every step of our daily lives — from the pollutants we consume to the wine we drink — we can prove better-equipped to encourage our environmental authorities to address them. HUN-REN, specifically, is involved closely with the European Union. Research author Péter Batáry summed it up for "Pest control services can be further enhanced through organic management, which avoids herbicides and synthetic insecticides, thereby facilitating the colonization of beneficial arthropods and strengthening pest predation pressure in vineyards." Do you worry about pesticides in your food? All the time Sometimes Not really I only eat organic Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the the daily Crossword
Budapest Times
5 days ago
- Science
- Budapest Times
HUN-REN space experiments proved to be ‘spectacularly successful'
HUN-REN has confirmed that space experiments, such as the observation of the upper atmosphere electrical activities taking place in the Earth's night hemisphere, carried out on the International Space Station by Hungarian research astronaut Tibor Kapu, who returned to Earth on Tuesday, have proved to be spectacularly successful. Among the experiments, Kapu recorded videos of lightning activity and related electrical flashes of light, so-called FEF phenomena, that appear above thunderstorm clouds for the HUN-REN Geophysics and Space Research Institute. The images are expected to be helpful in verifying detection efficiency in ground-based lightning detection networks and applying knowledge of electrical activity of thunderstorms in climate research, the statement noted. Meanwhile, on behalf of the HUN-REN Alfred Renyi Mathematical Research Institute, Kapu conducted measurements related to a new tracking method which can be used in medicine, robotics, and even video games, and the mission provided an opportunity for longer measurements of calibration data from two complete orbits. Preliminary results can be expected in a few weeks once NASA has released the data. The algorithms derived from the experiment may, in addition, aid space navigation and the joint coordination of spacecraft during docking, the statement added. Kapu also furthered a discovery in 2024 by HUN-REN-BME Morphodynamics Research Group applied mathematicians regarding spatial structures called soft cells which could only be performed in a weightless environment. He created bodies of water to create soft cells, forming a connected structure from several soft cells and thereby showing that spatial structures cling to each other in an unusual and highly stable way, according to the statement. Meanwhile, crystal chemists from the HUN-REN Natural Science Research Centre, in cooperation with the HUNOR Program and the Japanese space industry company JAMSS, spent a month growing single crystals from a new organic compound. Under weightless conditions, more crystal structures can be grown than in any laboratory on Earth. This may open new avenues in chemical research and industrial applications, being the first hydrogen-bonded framework structure ever to be crystallised in a weightless environment.
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Border-free EU travel brings 'thrilled' ethnic Hungarians closer
Visiting Hungary as a teenager, opera singer Katalin Benedekffy used to have to wait up to a whole day at the border with her childhood home, Romania. Now, to her delight, she can cross straightaway. In the early hours of New Year's Day, she made the crossing unhindered for the first time, after Romania joined Europe's border-free travel zone. "It's a miracle," said Benedekffy. "I asked my husband to back up because I wanted to record it," she told AFP. "It's an incredible feeling." Benedekffy, 47, now lives in Budapest and often travels back and forth to visit relatives in her hometown of Szeklerland in Romania's Transylvania region. She made her first control-free crossing on her return trip to Hungary. "It's like being in the same country as my loved ones, as there are practically no borders anymore," she said. For centuries, the region was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire in so-called "Greater Hungary" -- a notion referred to with nostalgia by the current nationalist government in Budapest. Almost a fifth of Hungary's population has relatives in neighbouring countries, within the historical boundaries of what was Hungary before it was partitioned in the aftermath of World War I, a 2020 survey showed. Romania and Bulgaria became full members of Europe's so-called Schengen zone from January 1, when land border checks ceased. That ended years of waiting for the countries after they qualified to join Schengen, with political resistance from certain other EU states having delayed the move. - 'Trianon trauma' - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who took credit for the final negotiations on joining Schengen, hailed the expansion as an "important step for national unity" that dismantled barriers "between families". About one million ethnic Hungarians -- Magyars -- live in Romania, the largest such community outside of Hungary, with other significant ones in Slovakia, Serbia and Ukraine. Under the Treaty of Trianon, signed in Versailles in 1920 after the dissolution of the defeated Austro-Hungarian empire, Hungary had to surrender two-thirds of its territory to neighbouring states. Many Hungarians still resent the territorial and population losses, sometimes described as "Trianon trauma". Since Orban's return to power in 2010, the nationalist leader has regularly irked neighbouring countries by focusing on pre-World War I Hungary's territory. Orban has continued to woo Magyar communities by opening up an easy path to Hungarian citizenship -- and thus voting rights -- and financing projects such as schools for them. - 'Imaginary wall' - Following the fall of communism in 1989 -- years before Orban's rise to power -- one of Hungary's main foreign policy goals was to "make surrounding borders irrelevant, without revising them", Nandor Bardi, an expert on minority research at the Hungarian HUN-REN research centre, told AFP. Magyars are "relieved it finally happened", he said. Benedekffy well remembers the "humiliating waits" of up to 24 hours at the border that she had endured since she was a girl. Although waiting times significantly decreased after Hungary and Romania joined the European Union -- in 2004 and 2007 respectively -- lorry drivers and travellers still had to queue for at least an hour at border crossings, police told AFP. "We used to do calculations, how to avoid delays at the border," said Zoltan Nagy, 39, a manager at a car manufacturer in Budapest. He once celebrated Easter with his family in Transylvania two weeks in advance to avoid the crowds. But now "the journey has become a lot more predictable -- we no longer have to stress about how much time we spend at the border". In neighbouring countries with Magyar populations, Orban's policies have stirred up fears that he is trying to exert influence on their territory. Criticising Brussels and courting US President Donald Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin, the nationalist leader is nowadays "more concerned about geopolitics", however, said analyst Bardi. The disappearance of border checks holds symbolic value for many Transylvanian Magyars, such as Mihaly Fazakas, a 77-year-old retired textile engineer. "We are thrilled because we no longer have that imaginary wall dividing us," he told AFP. "It feels almost as if Transylvania got returned." ros/anb-kym/rlp
