Thinking in terms of regions is characteristic of the European Union. This approach to development is also becoming entrenched in Poland, in both business and science. Fostering links between companies, colleges and local government allows joined up thinking and effective, coordinated action. Intellectual and human potential, experience, infrastructure plus funding, both local and external, are becoming a magnet for investors.

These positive synergy effects in many spheres-including science, business and living standards as well as development prospects-can be observed in many regions of Poland.

This issue of The Polish Science Voice focuses on the coastal region around what Poles call the Tricity, an urban area that comprises Gdańsk, Sopot and Gdynia. The region includes the Pomeranian Science and Technology Park, with its 60 companies, and ICT Pomerania, Poland's largest IT cluster with more than 100 companies.

Focusing on the region, Marek Mejssner writes in this issue that ICT Pomerania, alongside the Pomeranian Science and Technology Park, is "the largest regional research-and-development initiative in Pomerania, a business incubator and an investment project designed to attract information and communications technology investors."

The report shows that this region is a mine of ideas and initiatives, fascinating for professionals, but also for laymen, whom the article helps gain a valuable insight into Poland as a whole.

As usual, in this issue of The Polish Science Voice we also set out to show how the system for financing and developing science works in our country. This time we have asked Krzysztof Kurzydłowski, undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, to help us. As an engineer and a Warsaw University of Technology professor with a passion for nanotechnology, Kurzydłowski devotes a great deal of attention to the links between science and business. Understandably, his area of interest also includes promotion-after all, both business and science require promotion. Kurzydłowski expresses his opinion on this in a way typical for someone active in both fields: "I think the best way to promote Polish science is to show it as it really is."

This issue of The Polish Science Voice also brings the usual dose of fascinating detail on scientific developments. My attention was drawn to the new Polish artificial heart that is able to run for 20-25 years, whereas the artificial hearts in use today last about five years. The new device was built at the Artificial Heart Laboratory of the Cardiac Surgery Development Foundation in Zabrze.

We also report on two automotive projects for disabled users: the Calster, the world's only "sports" car that can be driven without any modification by paraplegics as well as by able-bodied people, and the CAL 5200, a vehicle for transporting the disabled. The story of the Polish Fireball Network, related by Arkadiusz Olech, an assistant professor at the Astronomical Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), deserves a special mention as well.