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Texting Made Possible for the Illiterate
People incapable of reading and writing will have access to text messages from now on. A system using vocal synthesis, icons and management allows people to send and read text messages by those normally unable to read and write.

Modeling Avalanches: "We're still in the kitchen."
Christophe Ancey warns against relying blindly on the output of computational avalanche models to evaluate the safety of alpine areas. Recent events prove him right. Christophe Ancey, head of EPFL's Laboratory for Environmental Hydraulics, is an expert in modeling avalanches and other environmental flows.

Two million Swiss francs for an allergy-detecting device
Abionic, an EPFL spin-off, has just brought its first round of financing to a close and was selected yesterday by Red Herring as one of Europe's 100 most innovative companies.

EPFL Announces the Next Phase for its Center for Neuroprosthetics
Engineering the Nervous System to Improve Sensation, Cognition, and Mobility Research in biotechnology, microelectronics, and neural implants as well as advances in our understanding of the brain are changing our approaches to treating disability.

Nestlé finances a research project
Philippe Wieser will conduct a research project that studies the value chain performances Supported by the general management of Nestlé, the project entitled " A convergent approach on sust

A protein that regulates fat cell production and cell division
EPFL scientists have teased out the role that a protein known as SMRT plays in regulating the production of fat cells. And in the process, they made another, unexpected discovery; this protein also plays a critical role in the division of cells that ultimately store fat. How does the body produce fat cells? EPFL scientists have uncovered the role of SMRT, a protein involved in regulating this phenomenon.

New SNF research grant for Prof. Anu Wadhwa
Anu Wadhwa has been awarded a grant by the SNF to study uncertainty in the venture capital investements practices in the cleantech sector.

The presence of water changes the structure of an antibiotic
EPFL chemists have shown how the three-dimensional shape of an antibiotic changes when it is in an aqueous environment. This could lead to a better understanding of how drugs interact with biological molecules. Like a key inserted into a lock, the molecules in drugs bind with and act upon biomolecules.

LTS2 Paper Accepted to ICIP 2012
The paper Plenoptic Spherical Sampling has been accepted for presentation at 19th International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP) The paper presents a novel sampling scheme that permits an efficient representation of the 4D light field in free space.

LASIG and street networks evolution in the Scientific American
Emanuele Strano, a doctoral candidate at LASIG, authored a study published in Nature's Scientific Reports to examine how a group of Italian villages evolved into suburbs outside Milan today. Such a study may eventually help urban planners optimize future developments. The magazine " Scientific American " devoted a popularization article to this study.

EPFL doctorate award 2012 - Konstantinos Lagoudakis

Prof. René Wasserman Award 2012 - Jin Wang
Ferroelectric Nanowires : an Investigation in Synthesis, Characterization, Functionality, and Modeling of Finite Size Effects.

DuPont des Matériaux Award 2012 - Antonin Faes
RedOx Stability of Anode Supported Solid Oxide Fuel Cells. Thèse EPFL, no 4893 (2011). Dir.: Jan Van herle, Aïcha Hessler-Wyser.

EPFL de doctorate award 2012 - Oleg Vechorkin
A Well-Defined Ni Pincer Catalyst for Cross Coupling of Non-Activated Alkyl Halides and Direct C-H Alkylation.

New insightes in the virulence determinant of M. tuberculosis
Virulence Regulator EspR of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Is a Nucleoid-Associated Protein. The principal virulence determinant of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the ESX-1 protein secretion system, is positively controlled at the transcriptional level by EspR. Using EspR-specific antibodies in ChIP-Seq experiments (chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by ultra-high throughput DNA sequencing) the group of Stewart Cole (Global Health Institute) show that EspR binds to at least 165 loci on the Mtb genome.

Insights into Intrastrand Cross-Link Lesions of DNA
Insights into Intrastrand Cross-Link Lesions of DNA from QM/MM Molecular Dynamics Simulations. DNA damages induced by oxidative intrastrand cross-links have been the subject of intense research during the past decade.

PALM microscopy allowed the determination of GPCR clusters
Cell-type-specific β2 adrenergic receptor clusters identified using photo-activated localization microscopy are not lipid raft related, but depend on actin cytoskeleton integrity.

Two Start-ups at EPFL Raise 14 Million Francs
A series of successes for EPFL start-ups. By the end of a successful round of financing, two new businesses founded in the Science Park of the School, Kandou and Aleva, had raised, respectively, 10 and 4 million francs.

Sirtuins as regulators of metabolism and healthspan

An array of dielectric elastomer actuators to stretch cells

Spectroscopic evidence of the Peierls transition
Evidence for a Peierls phase-transition in a three-dimensional multiple charge-density waves solid. Recent research on low dimensional solids lead to the discovery of the frist two-dimensional material, graphene. While a mono-dimensional chain of atoms was never produced, it can be found as a substructure in several materials.

Data mining opens the door to predictive neuroscience
Researchers at the EPFL have discovered rules that relate the genes that a neuron switches on and off, to the shape of that neuron, its electrical properties and its location in the brain. The discovery, using state-of-the-art informatics tools, increases the likelihood that it will be possible to predict much of the fundamental structure and function of the brain without having to measure every aspect of it.

Nanopore Detection of Single Molecule RNAP-DNA Transcription Complex
Nanopore Detection of Single Molecule RNAP–DNA Transcription Complex. In the past decade, a number of single-molecule methods have been developed with the aim of investigating single protein and nucleic acid interactions.

"Virtual water," a barometer of global water resources
When goods are produced, water is used in the process. Even though this water is “virtual,” tracking its import and export gives a crucial indication of the evolution of world water resources. An international team of hydrologists has studied the global trade of virtual water, and is publishing an article this week in the journal PNAS outlining a number of striking conclusions.

Extending the Hands of the Endoscopic Surgeon
More precision and less cost for endoscopic surgeries: the tool developed by DistalMotion, a spin-off of the EPFL, will allow surgeons to reproduce their exact movements.

Getting to the Moon on Drops of Fuel
The first prototype of a new, ultra-compact motor that will allow small satellites to journey beyond Earth's orbit is just making its way out of the EPFL laboratories where it was built.

Natural river networks are essential for biodiversity
To alter natural waterways is to take a serious risk of endangering species living on the entire length of a river. In a joint project, scientists from EPFL, EAWAG and Princeton University have modeled the flow of organisms living along river networks. Their research will be published this week in the journal PNAS.

The LASEC lab and Idiap beat to the rhythm of a new common project
IDIAP announced the start this month of the Biometrics Evaluation and Testing (BEAT) project funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) with the EPFL as a full partner, through the Security and Cryptography Laboratory (LASEC) of Vaudenay.

Mediterranean landscape 6,000 years ago
Journal of Biogeography acceptance - The mid-Holocene vegetation of the Mediterranean region and southern Europe, and comparison with the present day. Authors: Pamela M. Collins, Basil A. S. Davis and Jed O. Kaplan Collins , Davis , and Kaplan map differences in Mediterranean and southern European vegetation beween 6,000 years ago and the present.

Two SV professors among the 2012 Leenards Foundation Awardees

Tracking genes from the sky
In the context of a landscape genetics research project dedicated to the study of adaptation of an Alpine plant species to its environment, a team of LASIG's scientists were last Friday on the top of les Rochers-de-Naye.

The registrations to the "LSS2012" are open

Clearing the Clouds: Best Paper Award at ASPLOS 2012

Nonlinear Correlation Spectroscopy (NLCS)
A novel concept for optical spectroscopy. The group of Theo Lasser (Laboratoire d'optique biomédicale LOB) present a novel concept for optical spectroscopy called nonlinear correlation spectroscopy (NLCS). NLCS analyses coherent field fluctuations of the second and third harmonic light generated by diffusing nanoparticles.

Bicyclic peptides as therapeutic agents
Bicyclic Peptide Inhibitor Reveals Large Interface with a Protease Target.

Automated Software Synthesis
A new method to automatically generate computer software components that are guaranteed to behave correctly. Researchers at EPFL discovered a new method to automatically generate computer software components that are guaranteed to behave correctly. Among the benefits of this line of research is making software development easier and making our computing infrastructure less vulnerable to crashes and hangs.

A 2012 WEF Young Global Leaders Honouree among our SV researchers

Solar Shading Inside Out
A full day workshop dedicated to the challenges ahead for solar shading took place at the R+T 2012 leading world trade fair for solar protection systems, held annually in Stuttgart, Germany.

AQUA & GAS No 3 | 2012 Interview Prof. Urs von Gunten

Thinking out of the box pays off !
Best Paper Award at the 20th ACM/SIGDA International Symposium on Field-Programmable Gate Arrays for the Processor Architecture Laboratory team.

Reprogramming tumor-promoting macrophages for anti-cancer therapy
Researchers who have recently established their laboratory at the EPFL School of Life Sciences have identified a small RNA molecule that limits the pro-tumoral functions of macrophages.

Dr Joël Jaffrain's PhD public defense on 17 February 17, 2012
Professor A. Berne, thesis director, and the whole LTE team, congratulate J. Jaffrain for his thesis on “Experimental quantification of the variability of the raindrop size distribution at small scales".

Getting a handle on chronic pain
Chronic pain has a significant impact on the physical, social and emotional functioning of those who suffer from it.

Breaking Down Cancer's Defense for Future Vaccines
Researchers at the EPFL have identified an important mechanism that could lead to the design of more effective cancer vaccines. Their discovery of a new-found role of the lymphatic system in tumour growth shows how tumours evade detection. Tumour cells present antigens or protein markers on their surfaces which make them identifiable to the host immune system.

Solar collaboration openings in the Middle East

Michaël Grätzel awarded the Albert Einstein World Award of Science

Phage tails contain a central spike protein
Phage Pierces the Host Cell Membrane with the Iron-Loaded Spike. Bacteriophages with contractile tails and the bacterial type VI secretion system have been proposed to use a special protein to create an opening in the host cell membrane during infection.

Information security: weakness in popular protection system
An unexpected flaw has been detected of a system that is widely used for protection of online transactions.

A new book on "Remote Sensing Image Processing"
The book "Remote Sensing Image Processing", edited by Gustavo Camps-Valls (Universitat de València), Devis Tuia ( LASIG laboratory), Luis Gómez-Chova, Sandra Jiménez and Jesús Malo, is now available at Morgan and Claypool publishers. The book deals with Earth observation, which is the field of science concerned with the problem of monitoring and modeling the processes on the Earth surface and their interaction with the atmosphere.

Cleaning up Earth's orbit: A Swiss satellite to tackle space debris
The proliferation of debris orbiting the Earth – primarily jettisoned rocket and satellite components – is an increasingly pressing problem for spacecraft, and it can generate huge costs.

Calnexin - a stable component of the ribosome-translocon complex
Palmitoylated calnexin is a key component of the ribosome-translocon complex. A third of the human genome encodes N-glycosylated proteins.

Brain Awareness Week 2012 - Lausanne

New immunotherapeutic agent for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease
Selective neutralization of APP-C99 with monoclonal antibodies reduces the production of Alzheimer's Aβ peptides.

The art of shutting down a nuclear plant
Gaëtan Girardin, researcher in nuclear engineering, gives us the key to understanding nuclear reactor safety.

New therapeutic strategies for the treatment of Parkinson's disease
Mimicking Phosphorylation at Serine 87 Inhibits the Aggregation of Human α-Synuclein and Protects against Its Toxicity in a Rat Model of Parkinson's Disease. Several lines of evidence suggest that phosphorylation of α-synuclein (α-syn) at S87 or S129 may play an important role in regulating its aggregation, fibrillogenesis, Lewy body formation, and neurotoxicity in vivo.

"You have to go global, and right from the start."
How do you go about setting up a business? Hervé Lebret, start-up specialist and head of the Innogrant program at EPFL, answers a few questions.

Scientists vs. Engineers
Inventors with which type of education generate broader patents? Scientists or Engineers? Marc Gruber's latest paper to be published in Management Science explores the issue. Abstract: Building on the seminal work of Allen (1977), we contribute to the emerging micro-level theory of knowledge recombination by examining how individual-level characteristics of inventors affect the breadth of their technological recombinations.

Nanoelectronics: Ferroelectric devices show potential
News and Views The quest for a non-volatile memory technology that offers high storage density, high read and write speeds, and low power consumption has triggered intense research into new materials, mechanisms and device architectures. Among the successful memory technologies to emerge from these efforts have been the atomic switch, the resistive RAM and the magnetic tunnel junction.

Antimalarial successful joint research
Malaria remains a scourge of mankind, and the protozoan parasite responsible for the most virulent form of the disease, Plasmodium falciparum, is developing resistance against even the most recent molecules in the antimalarial arsenal.

Managing floods of the Changjiang (Yangtze) River in China
A group of Chinese scientists have come to the EPFL to participate in a workshop on the water management of a 1'808'500 km2 catchment basin, 43 times the surface area of Switzerland.

A toolbox for creating your start-up!
Are you a student, doctoral, post-doctoral, with a diploma from EPFL, from the University of Lausanne, or from any other Swiss university? If you dream of launching your own company, or if you want to get your project off the ground, we give you a hand-up over six months or in only 54 hours.

Sirtuin 1 at the pinnacle of metabolic control
Targeting Sirtuin 1 to Improve Metabolism: All You Need Is NAD+? (Review) Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) is an evolutionarily conserved NAD+-dependent deacetylase that is at the pinnacle of metabolic control, all the way from yeast to humans.

Advanced light management in high efficiency thin-film silicon solar
Silicon Filaments in Silicon Oxide for Next-Generation Photovoltaics. The group of Christophe Ballif (PV-LAB - Photovoltaics and Thin Film Electronics Laboratory ) demonstrate, on the basis of advanced TEM techniques, a new, mixed phase Si/SiO2 material, which they call filamentous SiOx.

Cultural System or norm circles? An exchange
Cultural System or norm circles? An exchange. This article takes the form of a debate between the two authors - Margaret S. Archer (CDH - Centre for Social Ontology ) and - Dave Elder-Vass (Loughborough University, UK) on the social ontology of propositional culture.

Pine transformed by modern alchemists
Researchers have given pinewood the hardness and smooth touch of precious wood. L'EPFL+ECAL Lab presents the first objects made of this new material in Helsinki today.

Soliton instabilities in a polariton quantum fluid

IEEE Micro's special issue: Boris Grot is part of it !
News in brief Boris Grot from the Parallel Systems Architecture Laboratory (PARSA) has been published in the last IEEE Micro's special issue; Top Picks from Computer Architecture Conferences. His paper "Kilo-NOC: A Heterogeneous Network-on-Chip Architecture for Scalability and Service Guarantees" has been written with collaborators from the University of Texas, NVIDIA and Carnegie Mellon University.

New insightes in early specification of pancreas progenitors
RNA profiling and ChIP-Sequencing reveal that PTF1a stabilizes pancreas progenitor identity via the control of MNX1/HLXB9 and a network of other transcription factors.

A guide to analysis of mouse energy metabolism
A guide to analysis of mouse energy metabolism.

Thalamic control of cortical states
The group of Carl Petersen (LSENS - Laboratoire de traitement sensoriel ) investigated the impact of thalamus on ongoing cortical activity in the awake, behaving mouse.

Central role of PGC-1? in dopaminergic neurons
Sustained expression of PGC-1α in the rat nigrostriatal system selectively impairs dopaminergic function.

The origin of midgap states revisited
Large-Scale Simulations of a-Si:H: The Origin of Midgap States Revisited. Large-scale classical and quantum simulations are used to generate a-Si:H structures.

A cobalt complex redox shuttle for dye-sensitized solar cells
A cobalt complex redox shuttle for dye-sensitized solar cells with high open-circuit potentials. Dye-sensitized solar cells are a promising alternative to traditional inorganic semiconductor-based solar cells.

Modelling cholera epidemics
Modelling cholera epidemics: the role of waterways, human mobility and sanitation.

"Minergie in the UAE, We are taking advantage of our experiences"
Jean-Louis Scartezzini, head of EPFL's Solar Energy and Building Physics Laboratory, is passionate about Minergie—a Swiss label for energy consumption in buildings and the most widely applied building energy standard in the world with almost 20,000 buildings.

Giving concrete infrastructure a second life
Rather than just fixing corroding concrete infrastructure, Professor Eugen Brühwiler and his team of engineers have shown that it can be improved using ultra-high performance fiber reinforced concrete.

3 new IC Professors elevated to IEEE Fellows in 2012
Babak Falsafi, Pascal Fua and Emre Telatar have been elevated to IEEE Fellows this year. This brings the number of IC professors who are IEEE Fellows to ten, a quarter of the faculty.

Climate and the statistics of extremes
EPFL mathematicians have shown that the risk of extreme climate events is largely underestimated.

Imaging nuclear and mitochondrial DNA
Live-Cell dSTORM of Cellular DNA Based on Direct DNA Labeling. Super-resolution (SR) fluorescence imaging relies on specially adapted microscopes and analysis software, but equally important are the fluorescent probes used to label biological proteins and molecules of interest.

Role of ATP13A2 in neuronal integrity.
PARK9-associated ATP13A2 localizes to intracellular acidic vesicles and regulates cation homeostasis and neuronal integrity.

Basis for benzothiazinone sensitivity of tubercle bacilli.
Benzothiazinones Are Suicide Inhibitors of Mycobacterial Decaprenylphosphoryl-β-d-ribofuranose 2′-Oxidase DprE1.

One step closer to controlling nuclear fusion
Using a heating system, physicists have succeeded for the first time in preventing the development of instabilities in an efficient alternative way relevant to a future nuclear fusion reactor.

Clearing the Clouds.
Clearing the Clouds: A Study of Emerging Workloads on Modern Hardware. The emergence of global-scale online services has galvanized scale-out software, characterized by splitting vast datasets and massive computation across many independent servers. In a paper appearing in ASPLOS 2012, Profs.

Variable Outcome of Mutations.
Genetics - Variable Outcome of Mutations. Why do some mutations produce a particular trait or disease, whereas others only increase the likelihood of such an outcome? One explanation is that other variations in the DNA sequence strengthen or weaken the effect of a given mutation, although environmental factors may also have an impact.

Your itineraries at a glance

Optimized 3D inkjet printing process of hydrogels.
Microdrop Printing of Hydrogel Bioinks into 3D Tissue-Like Geometries.

Keeping the supply chain moving smoothly
Too much, or… too little! Many companies need to work on improving their supply chains. EPFL researchers have analyzed the best strategies and proven that good supply chain coordination can result in significant savings.

New TMM Submission
Interactive Multiview System with Low Complexity Decoder, submitted to IEEE Transactions on Multimedia Interactive multiview video system with non-complex navigation at the decoder Thoma

New ICASSP papers
4 papers accepted for publication at IEEE ICASSP 2012. Recent LTS4 works about distributed detection with GT, distributed quantized consensus averaging, joint reconstruction of correlated compressed signals and dictionary learning on graphs have been accepted at IEEE ICASSP 2012. More info.

New TIP paper accepted
Scale-invariant features and novel descriptors for omnidirectional images accepted for publications in IEEE Transactions on Image Processing. Scale Invariant Features and Polar Descriptors in Omnidirectional Images Zafer Arican and Pascal Frossard We propose a method to compute scale invariant features in omnidirectional images.

New TIP Submission
Learning of Pattern Transformation Manifolds, submitted to IEEE Transactions on Image Processing.

The ecological house must have the feet warm

2011 News Highlights - Life Sciences
Stem cells, infectious diseases or genetic quirks are some of the subjects explored by students at the School of Life Sciences. Here is a selection of this year's headlines. FEBRUARY - Reprogrammed stem cells hit a roadblock Is there a future for stem cell therapies that don't use embryonic stem cells? An international study involving EPFL has raised doubts by showing that “reprogramming” adult stem cells leads to genetic aberrations.

420 magical moments in space...
A new tool to calculate the orientation of a satellite with respect to the Earth, developed by EPFL students, will be on board a European Space Agency rocket scheduled to launch in March 2012.

Studying the European innovation potential
Dominique Foray will share his expertise in the "Innovation for Growth" group to support the Europe 2020 strategy.

Playing and Making Location Based Learning Games
Talk by Eric Klopfer, professor at MIT January 27th 2012, 10:00, room BC 410 ABSTRACT: Playing and Making Location Based Learning Games - - Over the last ten years, The Education Arcade @ MIT has been working on location-based "Augmented Reality" learning games.

Le Corbusier, a revised vision of the architect and his work
Roberto Gargiani unveils a different vision of Switzerland's most famous architect - Le Corbusier.

Pen and Paper Computing: an old technology in a modern world
A talk by Nadir Weibel from the University of California San Diego Monday January 30th 2012, Room RLC D1 761 Access to information is one of the most crucial aspects of everyday life.

Innovative method to measure action potentials between cells.
Parameter extraction and classification of three cortical neuron types reveals two distinct adaptation mechanisms. Cortical information processing originates from the exchange of action potentials between many cell types. In order to capture the essence of these interactions it is of critical importance to build mathematical models that reflect the characteristic features of spike generation in individual neurons.

Model shows how façade pollutants make it into the environment
Peak concentrations of biocides from house paint prove prevalent in urban river basins. Anti-fungal and anti-bacterial additives in house paint are present in dangerous quantities in the Vauchère river basin in the city of Lausanne, says a study to be presented the 9th of December, at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) conference in San Francisco.

Human-Computer Interaction with a Different Touch
Talk by Hans Gellersen December 15th, 15:15, Room BC410 Touch input and two-handed interaction were intensively studied in the mid 80's but it's taken 20 years for these ideas to emerge in the mainstream, with the advent of multi-touch interfaces.

The dark sides of capillary morphogenesis gene 2.

Micro Hall of Fame award 2011

Nipping metastases in the bud
An EPFL / ISREC team has shed new light on how cancer metastases develop. The results they have obtained will open the door to new therapeutic options for treating late stage cancers and preventing secondary tumors from growing. The proliferation of metastases is often the main cause of complications and death from cancer.

Korean-Swiss Science Days: Water for the Future

INT-777 - a new drug against obesity.
TGR5 activation inhibits Atherosclerosis by reducing macrophage inflammation and lipid loading.

A new model of brain metabolism.
A two-compartment mathematical model of neuroglial metabolism using [1-11C] acetate.

HARDI reconstruction workshop, May 2nd 2012, Barcelona
LTS5 will organize a workshop on high angular resolution diffusion MR Imaging (HARDI) at the IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI 2012) conference (Barcelona, Spain, May 2-5 2012).

Chemistry - A European Journal Volume 17, Issue 47, page 13106, 2011
Interfacial Complexation Reactions of Sr2+ with Octyl(phenyl)-N,N-diisobutylcarbamoyl methylphosphine Oxide for Understanding Its Extraction in Reprocessing Spent Nuclear Fuels. Stoichiometry and complexation equilibrium constants for the extraction of strontium from spent nuclear fuels at water room-temperature ionic liquid (RTIL) interfaces are very important for medicinal use of radioisotopes and remediation of contaminated environments.

New potential anti-malarial drug targets.
Global kinomic and phospho-proteomic analyses of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. The role of protein phosphorylation in the life cycle of malaria parasites is slowly emerging. Here researchers from the Inserm-EPFL Joint Research Unit , headed by Christian Doerig , together with colleagues from UK and India, combine global phospho-proteomic analysis with kinome-wide reverse genetics to assess the importance of protein phosphorylation in Plasmodium falciparum asexual proliferation.

Climate Change on the agenda in San Francisco
Melton and Professor Kaplan's work on climate change using a combined biophysical modelling, social science, and community engagement approach will be presented at the December meeting.

ARVE researchers leading wetland groups from Europe and North America

Nonretinotopic Exogenous Attention.
Attention is captured by nonretinotopic, noninformative cues.

30% more efficient solar thermal power plants
The efficiency of solar thermal power plants is improved by more than 30% thanks to the combination of two technologies.

New insights in melanoma metastasis.
P-Rex1 is required for efficient melanoblast migration and melanoma metastasis. Metastases are the major cause of death from melanoma, a skin cancer that has the fastest rising incidence of any malignancy in the Western world. Molecular pathways that drive melanoblast migration in development are believed to underpin the movement and ultimately the metastasis of melanoma.

Jacobeus Award for Johan Auwerx.

New analysis method disentangles molecular changes in human disease.
Population-specific expression analysis (PSEA) reveals molecular changes in diseased brain. Understanding molecular changes that occur in human diseases is the key to developing new drugs and therapies. In complex human tissues like brain or blood, however, the presence of heterogeneous cell types, each with a specific function and potentially different involvement in disease, makes this task very challenging.

Architectural Integration and Design of Solar Systems, a new book
Solar thermal systems are today the most efficient renewable choice for hot water production.

Energy-efficient electronic switches.

Long-Lived States to Monitor Protein Unfolding by Proton NMR
The relaxation of long-lived states (LLS) corresponds to the slow return to statistical thermal equilibrium between symmetric and antisymmetric proton spin states. This process is remarkably sensitive to the presence of external spins and can be used to obtain information about partial unfolding of proteins.

Protein lysine desuccinylase and demalonylase activity of Sirt5.
Sirt5 Is a NAD-Dependent Protein Lysine Demalonylase and Desuccinylase. Silent information regulator 2 (Sir2) proteins (sirtuins) are nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide–dependent deacetylases that regulate important biological processes.

E. Berry winner of the "Gloucester Research Prize"

New book on Optimal Control Theory
Thomas Weber published a new book at MIT Press, which gives a rigorous introduction to optimal control theory, with an emphasis on applications in economics. Content This book bridges optimal control theory and economics, discussing ordinary differential equations, optimal control, game theory, and mechanism design in one volume.

EPFL robots will soon appear in school classrooms
EPFL scientists have developed an educational robot designed to introduce children to technology in schools.