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Sunlight brings us comfort and safety. Wherever we are, we need to see the sky. It is in our nature. Rooms with no windows make us feel bad. There are no windows in the radio surgery unit at the Humanitas Research Hospital in Milan, Italy - and it is raining outside - yet the room is lit up with a stunningly realistic illusion of sunlight. "This is an enclosed, protected space, because of the radiation. And that can make the patients feel claustrophobic," explained Piero Picozzi, neurosurgeon and head of the gamma knife unit at the hospital. "This window creates an extremely realistic feeling of light – exactly like a real window. And that makes you feel better, calmer, when you enter the room." The optical system that hides behind the window is currently rather big, and it costs about the same as an average car. A result of a European research project, it consumes just 300 watts of energy and has already won several industrial awards. euronews knowledge brings you a fresh mix of the world's most interesting know-hows, directly from space and sci-tech experts.