It is becoming increasingly difficult to find a place to live, at a fair price and in line with salaries. This is a growing and very urgent concern in Spain, but other European countries are not far behind.

One of the consequences of the increase in the prices of apartments in traditional neighbourhoods is that residents are forced to move to other, cheaper, areas. But there are also districts where gentrification or the expulsion of people with fewer economic resources has never been a problem, because this diversity of population never existed in the first place.

It was always believed that bottom-up neighbourhoods, created as a result of the natural expansion of the city, offered more opportunities to all types of citizens than those created as a result of a thought-out design (called top-down). Now an investigation explains exactly why. And the origin of it all lies in the size of the plots of land.

The fashion industry has a sustainability problem. One way to address it is by transforming its made-to-stock way of production to on-demand manufacturing. Early experiments suggested that customers were not yet ready to pay more and wait longer for their products. But current success stories can give clues on how to balance economic profitability and customer satisfaction.

We continue to look closely at issues related to the European elections in June: the possibility of a new wave of EU enlargement and the situation left to migrants crossing the Mediterranean after the approval of the migration pact.

And science has proven something that I had empirically tested at home years ago: having a timer shortens the time we spend in the shower and therefore reduces the amount of water used. There’s no magic in this: it works because it makes us aware of our water usage. Ideally, we should have the timer, or the concept, built in when we travel.