Spent hop derived from beer production is incorporated into sunscreen

Using industrial waste could enable the production of more sustainable and affordable cosmetics

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo

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“When we compared spent hops and hops that hadn’t gone through the brewing process, we found that the reused substance is more active, likely due to the elimination of volatile substances,” says Daniel Pecoraro Demarque of FCF-USP 

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Credit: André Rolim Baby/FCF-USP

Research conducted at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil revealed that hops (Humulus lupulus L.) industrial waste from the brewing industry is a viable option for sunscreen formulation production.

The multidisciplinary study, which involved researchers from USP’s School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (FCF), was inspired by the large amount of waste generated and discarded during beer production. The study brought together complementary expertise in natural products and bioactive photoprotection.

Hops are added to beer in two stages: during the boiling of the wort and, in some recipes, after fermentation, a process known as dry hopping. The second phase is intended to impart aroma to the beverage, but not all of the substances in the pellets (dried, ground, and pressed hop flowers) are extracted. Thus, a significant fraction of bioactive compounds remains in the discarded material.

This makes the waste a rich source of bioactive compounds, such as bitter acids, polyphenols, and essential oils. Polyphenols have attracted special attention due to their strong antioxidant properties, which give them the potential to protect the skin from the harmful effects of ultraviolet rays.

For this reason, biomass from the brewing industry has become the focus of research supported by FAPESP (projects 24/01920-0 and 22/08191-9) and described in an article published in the journal Photochem.

In the stage conducted by the Pharmacognosy Laboratory, the hop residue underwent ethanol extraction. Then, the extract was dried and analyzed chemically. A second extract was prepared from hops that had not undergone the beer-making process to allow for comparison of the “pure” and reused materials.

In the Cosmetology Laboratory, the extracts were incorporated individually (at a concentration of 10%) into sunscreen cream formulations containing two traditional sunscreens: one with UVB protection and the other with UVA protection. “We also evaluated different combinations with cosmetic ingredients commonly used in sunscreens, such as purified water and emollients like isopropyl myristate, isopropyl palmitate, and capric-caprylic triglycerides, to investigate which composition would perform best,” says André Rolim Baby, an associate professor at FCF-USP and one of the coordinators of the study.

The photoprotective efficacy was determined using one of the most robust and internationally recognized in vitro methods: diffuse reflectance spectrophotometry with an integrating sphere. This technology can calculate the sun protection factor (SPF) and other parameters related to sun protection, such as broad-spectrum protection.

“When we compared spent hops and hops that hadn’t gone through the brewing process, we found that the reused substance is more active. This is likely due to the elimination of volatile substances involved in beer production, leaving behind compounds with the necessary chemical bonds for photoprotection,” says Daniel Pecoraro Demarque, also from FCF-USP and a participant in the research, which was part of the master’s project of Ana Gabriela Urbanin Batista de Lima. De Lima is from the faculty’s Graduate Program in Pharmaceuticals and Medicines.

According to Baby, although the results were obtained in an in vitro assay, the research represents promising proof of concept. “But for this idea to reach the market, further studies and validations are needed, such as the long-term stability of the sunscreen, standardizing the bioactive compounds, and clinically evaluating safety and efficacy,” he states.

About São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)
The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can only be done by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, higher education, private companies, and research organizations in other countries known for the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration. You can learn more about FAPESP at www.fapesp.br/en and visit FAPESP news agency at www.agencia.fapesp.br/en to keep updated with the latest scientific breakthroughs FAPESP helps achieve through its many programs, awards and research centers. You may also subscribe to FAPESP news agency at http://agencia.fapesp.br/subscribe.

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Journal

Photochem

DOI

10.3390/photochem6010008 

Article Title

Valorization of hop (Humulus lupulus L.) brewing residue as a natural photoprotective adjuvant

 

Whether traffic flows or not depends on more than just the roads

ETH Zurich

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If a city's suburban railway network is expanded, additional flats are likely to be built in the agglomeration that is better connected as a result. The opposite also holds true: If new buildings spring up like mushrooms in a suburb, this will call for an expansion of the transport infrastructure. Urban development and transport therefore have a mutual relationship. 

"Our cities are becoming increasingly complex, while transport systems are under ever mounting pressure. Consequently, it is crucial to understand the relationship between mobility and cities, as this is the only way to develop and design urban centres sustainably," as Yatao Zhang emphasized. He is the first author of a study by ETH Zurich and the University of Wisconsin (USA), which has just been published in the journal Nature Communications. The study is based on the geoinformatics expert's doctoral thesis, which he completed in the autumn of 2025 at the Singapore-ETH Centre in the Asian city state of Singapore. 

A comparison of 30 cities worldwide 

In this study, Zhang analysed how urban development and traffic are mutually dependent and what cause-and-effect relationships occur. He and his colleagues compared a total of 30 major cities worldwide, including the city of Zurich.  

The researchers focussed on road traffic and particularly on traffic jams on congested roads. They based their investigation on traffic data from Here Technologies. The Dutch company records the congestion situation around the globe using vehicle movement data with a time resolution of five minutes. For the city of Los Angeles alone, for example, the congestion values of over 18,000 road sections were included in the study. 

The scientists correlated the congestion data with a variety of characteristics of the cities analysed. This included the structure of the road network, consisting of traffic junctions and road connections with different levels of traffic, as well as data on the shape of green spaces or districts and neighbourhoods, which allows conclusions to be drawn about the flow of traffic. The researchers also used data on the function of urban areas such as housing, shopping, sport, administration and education.  

As their data source, the researchers mainly based their work on Open Street Map, a freely usable map database maintained by a community of volunteers. This resulted in a comprehensive collection of city characteristics and features for the 30 cities. The scientists correlated these with congestion data from the respective cities. 

It's not just the road network that shapes and determines traffic 

It is well known that urban features and traffic influence each other. Therefore, it only stands to reason that a city with a high building density or a good road infrastructure will have a lot of traffic. Zhang and his colleagues, however, went one step further: Together, they developed a new method with which they are able to describe the mutual influence of urban features and traffic over time and even establish cause-and-effect relationships, which was previously not possible.  

Interesting in this context: There is a strong correlation between the expansion of the road network (urban feature structure) and traffic. The spatial arrangement of the city (urban characteristic of form), however, and the different building types (urban characteristic of function) are also determining factors for the traffic volumes.  

A sprawling city tends to result in more traffic, and the accumulation of leisure activities in a neighbourhood can increase weekend traffic. Mixed utilisation (living and working) tends to lead to less traffic because it shortens commuting distances. ETH researcher Zhang puts it succinctly: "Traffic is created by what people do, not just by the existence of roads."

Impulses for urban and transport planning 

The study focussed mainly on an international comparison rather than a detailed analysis of individual cities. The comparison shows major differences, for example between Singapore and Zurich: The Asian city is characterised by demarcated residential areas that face a centre with service jobs. Structural changes in residential areas have a direct impact on commuter flows. This link between urban development and transport is much less pronounced in Zurich, as flats are spread across the entire city. 

The study by Yatao Zhang's team was supervised by Martin Raubal, Professor of Geoinformation Engineering at ETH Zurich. According to Raubal, the study holds great potential in store for urban and transport planning in the medium term: "The study provides an innovative method for predicting how the change in a specific urban feature - such as the construction of a large shopping centre - will impact on traffic in the medium term." 

The study helps researchers to understand how transport policy measures actually work and what changes they can trigger in the urban fabric over the long term. Before the method can be used in Zurich or elsewhere for urban and transport planning, however, further detailed analyses are required. 

Reference  

Zhang Y, Hong Y, Gao S, Raubal M: Bidirectional yet asymmetric causality between urban systems and traffic dynamics in 30 cities worldwide. Nature Communications 2026, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-71377-0

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DOI

10.1038/s41467-026-71377-0 

Article Title

Bidirectional yet asymmetric causality between urban systems and traffic dynamics in 30 cities worldwide.

 

Mining the sky: A review maps key technologies for small-body sampling robots

Researchers summarize how sampling, mobility, and anchoring technologies work together to support future asteroid and comet exploration.

Journal Center of Harbin Institute of Technology

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The review summarizes key technologies for small-body sampling robots, including sampling, mobility, and anchoring, and highlights their dynamic coupling under microgravity and uncertain surface conditions.

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Credit: 2026 SmartBot

Small-body exploration has become an important frontier in deep-space science and space resource development. Unlike planetary rovers operating on the Moon or Mars, robots working on asteroids and comets must interact with surfaces where gravity is extremely weak, terrain is highly irregular, and material properties are often unknown before arrival. Under these conditions, even a small sampling force, landing impact, or thruster disturbance may cause rebound, drifting, attitude instability, or loss of contact with the surface.

 

To address these challenges, small-body sampling robots rely on three closely related capabilities: obtaining samples, moving across the surface, and maintaining stable contact during operation. The review, titled “Sampling, Mobility, and Anchoring in Small-Body Sampling Robots: A Comprehensive Review,” systematically summarizes the development of these three technologies and discusses how they interact in real mission scenarios.

 

For sampling, the review classifies current approaches into touch-and-go sampling, landing/anchoring-assisted sampling, and non-contact sampling. Touch-and-go sampling has been successfully demonstrated in missions such as Hayabusa, Hayabusa2, and OSIRIS-REx, offering advantages of short contact time and relatively low operational risk. Landing or anchoring-assisted sampling can support larger sample volumes and subsurface acquisition, but usually requires more complex system design and higher operational reliability. Non-contact sampling, which captures particles ejected from the surface without direct landing, may be useful for volatile-rich or high-risk surfaces.

 

For mobility, the review summarizes hopping, climbing or anchoring-assisted locomotion, creeping, wriggling, and other adaptive strategies. Because small bodies provide little gravity and limited traction, conventional continuous wheeled locomotion is often unsuitable. Hopping and short-contact motion have therefore become practical routes for current and near-term missions, while bio-inspired crawling, anchoring-assisted mobility, and hybrid locomotion may offer greater adaptability for future complex terrains.

 

Anchoring is identified as a critical technology for ensuring stable operation. The review groups existing anchoring methods into mechanical penetration, grasping-based anchoring, adhesive-based anchoring, and hybrid anchoring. The failed anchoring of the Philae lander on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko is a reminder that a single anchoring strategy may be insufficient under uncertain surface conditions. Future systems may require intelligent multimodal anchoring that combines mechanical, bio-inspired, and adhesive mechanisms to adapt to crusted, rocky, dusty, or loosely packed surfaces.

 

A central message of the review is that sampling, mobility, and anchoring should not be treated as isolated modules. In microgravity, contact impulse, reaction force, attitude disturbance, surface interaction, and anchoring capacity are strongly coupled. Sampling can induce rebound or drifting; mobility changes the contact state and stability boundary; insufficient anchoring can amplify the risk of system-level instability. Therefore, future small-body robots should move from “single-module optimization” toward “system-level co-design.”

 

The review further identifies several future directions for the field, including AI-powered autonomy, diversified and multimodal sampling, adaptive hybrid mobility, intelligent anchoring, modular and lightweight structures, and integrated optimization across the complete mission chain. These developments are expected to support longer-duration, higher-frequency, and more reliable surface operations on small bodies, ultimately contributing to deep-space exploration, sample return missions, and future in situ resource utilization.

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Journal

SmartBot

DOI

10.1002/smb2.70032 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Article Title

Sampling, Mobility, and Anchoring in Small-Body Sampling Robots: A Comprehensive Review

 

Choose longevity or happiness? The dual nature of neuroticism reveals an evolutionary trade-off

Worry ensures survival; ease pursues happiness—two evolutionary missions in one personality structure

Science China Press

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This figure illustrates the evolutionary hypothesis of neuroticism’s geometric structure. The study reveals two orthogonal dimensions: Gradient 1 represents general neuroticism intensity associated with well-being and mental health, while Gradient 2 (ERIS) captures the spectrum from emotional reactivity (worry, anxiety) to internal stability (fed-up, mood swings). High-ERIS individuals demonstrate better survival outcomes through risk-averse behaviors, suggesting these two dimensions serve distinct evolutionary missions—“ensuring survival” versus “pursuing happiness.”

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Credit: ©Science Bulletin

A research team led by Professor Bing Liu from Beijing Normal University and Researcher Ang Li from the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has published a study titled “The Dual Nature of Neuroticism: Distinct Dimensions Impact Longevity and Well-being” in Science Bulletin.

An ancient Chinese proverb states: “Life springs from sorrow and calamity; death comes from ease and pleasure.” From an evolutionary perspective, fear and anxiety are far from burdens—they are survival instincts forged through harsh natural selection. By activating ancient brain regions such as the amygdala and hippocampus, these traits enabled humans to avoid danger and survive across generations. However, modern epidemiological studies present a puzzling contradiction: high neuroticism is associated with increased risks of mental disorders, chronic diseases, and even mortality. This paradox raises a fundamental question: If neuroticism is truly harmful, why hasn’t it been eliminated by natural selection? Could it harbor distinct dimensions serving different evolutionary purposes?

To solve this puzzle, the research team developed a geometric embedding method based on inter-subject similarity networks, overcoming the limitations of traditional factor analysis to extract core personality dimensions from topological structures. The team integrated electronic health records, mortality tracking data, brain structural imaging, genome-wide data, and lifestyle surveys—achieving the first cross-scale systematic analysis spanning from phenotype to genotype and from behavior to brain in personality research.

The study revealed a dual-dimensional structure of neuroticism. The first dimension is primarily associated with mental disorders and life well-being, with its neural basis localized in higher-order emotion regulation regions such as the anterior cingulate cortex. Genetic variants linked to this dimension are enriched in human accelerated regions, suggesting it may represent a uniquely human psychological adaptation.

Even more striking was the discovery of a second dimension—ERIS (Emotional Reactivity and Internal Stability). ERIS describes a continuum: individuals at the high end exhibit emotional reactivity characterized by anxiety and worry, while those at the low end display fed-up and emotional instability. “Surprisingly, high-ERIS individuals, despite being more prone to anxiety and worry, live significantly longer than those with low neuroticism,” explains Dr. Yini He, first author of the study. “This is because they undergo more frequent health check-ups, actively avoid risky behaviors, and maintain healthier dietary habits.”

ERIS is associated with evolutionarily conserved subcortical structures, including the amygdala, hippocampus, and thalamus, representing an ancient survival strategy. “This finding demonstrates that different dimensions of neuroticism serve distinct evolutionary missions—‘ensuring survival’ versus ‘pursuing happiness’,” says the author. “Moderately worrying while maintaining emotional stability may indeed be nature’s gift for longevity.”

Dr. Yini He, Assistant Researcher at the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, is the first author. Professor Bing Liu and Researcher Ang Li are co-corresponding authors. Professor Jing Xiao from Capital Normal University, Dr. Ke Hu from the Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Ms. Tian Gao from the Institute of Biophysics made important contributions. This work was supported by the STI 2030—Major Projects on Brain Science and Brain-inspired Intelligence, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Beijing Nova Program.

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Journal

Science Bulletin

DOI

10.1016/j.scib.2026.01.035 

 

How do variable-load UAVs achieve precise trajectory tracking?

Higher Education Press

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Variable-load unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are key tools in smart agriculture, particularly playing a vital role in the prevention and control of crop pests and diseases. Equipped with pesticide spraying equipment, these quadrotor UAVs offer advantages such as high operating speed, low risk of chemical drift, and improved crop coverage, making them widely used in agricultural plant protection. However, during spraying operations, the pesticide liquid gradually diminishes over time, leading to continuous changes in the UAV's overall mass, center of gravity position, and moment of inertia. These time-varying characteristics increase the dynamic complexity of the UAV system, imposing higher requirements for precise trajectory tracking control and attitude response. Current research mostly focuses on modeling under constant-mass assumptions or concentrates on solid suspension systems and abrupt mass changes, often overlooking the continuous dynamic variations caused by the slow loss of liquid payloads in agricultural spraying scenarios. So, how to effectively address the changes in UAV dynamic parameters resulting from such slow liquid loss, ensuring precise trajectory tracking and stable flight during plant protection operations?
To tackle this problem, Dr. Shuting Xu and her team from the School of Technology, Beijing Forestry University, proposed a comprehensive solution. The research first established a time-varying multibody dynamic model for the variable-load UAV, dividing the system into a constant-mass frame module and a time-varying mass pesticide tank module. To accurately describe the impact of liquid loss in the pesticide tank on the UAV's center of gravity and inertia distribution, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods were employed. Three-dimensional transient simulations of gas-liquid two-phase flow inside the pesticide tank were conducted using ANSYS Fluent software, considering changes in mass, center of gravity, and moment of inertia during liquid loss. Time-varying functions for these parameters were obtained through curve fitting. On this basis, the frame and pesticide tank models were integrated to form a complete time-varying multibody dynamic model, providing an accurate dynamic foundation for subsequent control design. The related research has been published in Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering (DOI: 10.15302/J-FASE-2025662).
Based on this model, a disturbance-rejection trajectory tracking control system based on PD sliding mode control was designed. The system adopts an inner-outer loop structure, with the inner loop serving as the attitude controller and the outer loop as the trajectory controller. To enhance system robustness and reduce chattering, the reaching law of sliding mode control was improved by replacing the discontinuous sign function with a continuous hyperbolic tangent function, ensuring rapid response to control errors while maintaining stability. Through Lyapunov stability analysis, it was verified that the controller can achieve asymptotic stability of the closed-loop system.
Simulation experiments demonstrated that the controller achieved precise trajectory tracking, with position tracking standard deviations of 0.0507 m, 0.161 m, and 0.0002 m in the horizontal, lateral, and vertical directions, respectively. In terms of attitude control, the roll, pitch, and yaw axes exhibited small transient errors and rapid convergence. Compared with traditional PID control and conventional sliding mode control, this method showed superior performance in trajectory tracking accuracy, dynamic response, and robustness. Flight experiments were conducted in a wheat field in Hebei Province, where the UAV carried a full pesticide tank and flew stably at an altitude of 4 meters, completing the spraying task along the predetermined path. The results indicated high trajectory tracking accuracy in straight-line segments, with deviations of approximately 0.2–0.3 m in turning segments, which could be restored to the predetermined trajectory within 5–8 s, meeting the accuracy requirements for agricultural plant protection operations.
This research provides theoretical and technical support for solving the dynamic control problems of variable-load UAVs in agricultural plant protection, contributing to the improvement of precision and stability in intelligent plant protection. In the future, the team will further investigate directions such as fault-tolerant control, anti-liquid sloshing, and robust algorithms under wind field disturbances, promoting the wider application of variable-load UAVs in agriculture.
 

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Journal

Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering

DOI

10.15302/J-FASE-2025662 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Time-varying dynamic modeling and trajectory tracking control for variable-load unmanned aerial vehicle

Article Publication Date

15-Jun-2026

 

Why the Eurovision Song Contest never fails to entertain

ETH Zurich

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The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) has been attracting millions of fans every year since it was launched back in 1956. At the same time, it represents a unique opportunity for research. Almost no other major cultural event has been so well documented over such an extended period of time. Data on songs, voting and rule changes is freely accessible, making Eurovision an ideal example for computer-assisted social sciences of a data-based culture system.

A research team around Dirk Helbing, Professor of Computational Social Science at ETH Zurich, investigated how participating nations and organisers have learnt from one another over the decades and how this collective learning has manifested in the competition itself. The project started when complexity scientist Luis Amaral, a professor from Northwestern University, visited Helbing’s team during one of the ESC competitions.

Together with Arthur Capozzi, a member of Helbing’s team, the researchers analysed nearly 1,800 songs from Eurovision’s 70-year history, combining classic data collection with Spotify analyses, evaluations of lyrics, AI models and language data. Each song was measured against more than 35 metrics, including danceability, acoustics, emotionality, language, genre and subject matter. “These days, anything that produces data can be investigated scientifically – that includes culture,” says Helbing. The researchers published their study in the Journal of the Royal Society Open Science.

Everyone learns and differences fade

The researchers identified three stages of development for the Eurovision Song Contest across more than seven decades. During its “formation phase”, between 1958 and 1974, the acts were incredibly diverse. Nations sang almost exclusively in their national languages, music styles differed enormously and there were no real strategies for success to speak of. The focus was less on strategising with a view to winning the competition and more about showcasing one’s own culture. 

In the subsequent “consolidation phase”, which lasted until 2003, participating nations began to systematically learn from one another. Certain features, such as catchy melodies or lyrics that an international audience could understand, proved successful and were increasingly adopted by competitors. At the same time, the rules stabilised. The competition became more predictable.

The researchers describe the period from 2004 onwards as “expansion phase”, with organisers counteracting the increasing homogeneity among performances by inviting new nations and revising the voting system on multiple occasions, making performers’ chances of success less predictable. Their aim was to keep the competition exciting and varied, with the potential for the unexpected.

For Helbing, this makes Eurovision a typical example of co-evolutionary, learning systems, i.e. systems in which actors influence one another. As soon as successful strategies become entrenched, the organisers change the rules to break them up, so that the competition stays interesting and keeps evolving.

From national languages to global pop

The analysis of several decades of song data illustrates clear trends: “Over time, songs have become more mainstream pop and more danceable, but now almost all of them are sung in English,” says Capozzi. These features have persisted because they have proven particularly successful over an extended period of time.  

Today, however, nearly every participating nation has adopted these strategies. Thus, what was once a competitive advantage is now a baseline expectation.

The researchers call this the “Red Queen effect” after the character in the children’s book Alice in Wonderland. “What was once a competitive edge is now the standard,” says Capozzi. “English-language pop songs with a danceable beat become a basic requirement.” So, if you want to win Eurovision, you need to have an extra, something special. Something that breaks with the norm.  

Countries like France, Italy, Portugal and Spain are conspicuous in their explicit rejection of the dominant trend. “They’re outliers, in that they keep on singing in their own language, even though that’s not one of the established success factors,” says Capozzi. The researchers’ explanation for this is that these nations are specifically leveraging their cultural identity as a strategy for standing out from the crowd. 

When rules learn 

It’s not just the participating nations that adjust their strategies – Eurovision organisers are also learning along the way. “There’s no one formula for success that will always work, neither for the participating nations nor for the organisers,” says Helbing. That’s why the institution is undergoing targeted transformations to maintain the great interest in the competition. 

One example is the introduction of the semi-finals, which were first held in 2004 in light of the growing number of participating nations. Since 2008, there have been two semi-finals – a structural adjustment to account for the expansion of the competition. 

The voting system has also been modified several times. Following the introduction of televoting at the end of the 1990s and increasing criticism of tactical voting, the ESC Organisation reacted by reintroducing juries and making other adjustments. The aim was to rebalance popularity and musical scoring and to reduce the predictability of results. 

For the researchers, this is also part of the co-evolutionary process: as soon as rules create undesired effects, they are adjusted. The competition learns – also on an institutional level. 

What Eurovision can tell us about other systems 

The relevance of these results goes beyond pop culture. The dynamics observed – adjustment, convergence, and subsequent loss of the competitive edge – can be found in lots of complex systems. Even fields of academic research have a tendency to homogenise once successful approaches are widely adopted. To get fresh impetus on a field, established trends must be questioned. 

Similar patterns are found in businesses and organisations where problems cannot always be solved with common solution approaches. Sometimes, one needs to deliberately deviate from established strategies. Helbing has real-world experience of this from his time consulting a business: “The company had highly qualified engineers but they were unable to solve the problem they faced from the perspective they had learned. The company needed someone who could look at the situation from a new perspective.” 

For the researchers, this interplay between adaptation and mutation points to a key principle of co-evolution: actors learn from one another, reacting to changes, but at the same time this changes the system in which they are acting. 

Eurovision still has a surprise factor 

Although the vote share achieved by winners has remained largely stable since 1974, voting behaviour in the competition has shifted dramatically. In previous years, certain nations systematically achieved a particularly high level of success over a longer period of time. Eventually, however, the pool of winners has become more diluted. 

With institutional changes, especially during the expansion phase, victories have become increasingly evenly distributed. Previously dominant nations saw their lead eroded and the winners changed more frequently. The analysis suggests that rule changes helped to level the playing field and reduce the predictability of the results.  

The competition appears to continue evolving. “It has to – in order to stay interesting,” says Helbing. He knows that rule changes for future editions are already in the works. 

Despite his team’s extensive data analysis and results, Eurovision will remain unpredictable, unless tastes or votes become manipulated. “We haven’t found a formula that guarantees success,” says Helbing. The Eurovision Song Contest will continue to surprise – and that’s exactly where the competition excels. 

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Journal

Journal of The Royal Society Interface

DOI

10.1098/rsos.251727 

Article Title

Breaking the code: Multi-level learning in the Eurovision Song Contest

Article Publication Date

29-Apr-2026