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Health - May 14
Life Sciences - May 13
SARS-CoV-2 is critically dependent on a special mechanism for the production of its proteins. A collaborative team led by a research group at ETH Zurich obtained molecular insights into this process and demonstrated that it can be inhibited by chemical compounds, thereby significantly reducing viral replication in infected cells.
Computer Science - May 12
Fewer typing errors when touching a smartphone keyboard: ETH Computer scientists have developed a new AI solution that enables touchscreens to sense with eight times higher resolution than current devices.
Physics - May 12
Researchers have developed a light-based approach to read out superconducting circuits, overcoming the scaling-up limitations of quantum computing systems.
Health - May 12
A study published today in Nature shows that the NHS COVID-19 app for digital contact tracing, based on the DP3T protocol, averted between 300,000 and 600,000 COVID-19 cases in England and Wales.
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Digital twins - a savvy combination of artificial intelligence and personal data - have already begun to revolutionize the way healthcare is provided. But they raise a lot of ethical and legal questions, especially given the vast amounts of medical data that must be collected to train artificial intelligence algorithms.
SARS-CoV-2 is critically dependent on a special mechanism for the production of its proteins. A collaborative team led by a research group at ETH Zurich obtained molecular insights into this process and demonstrated that it can be inhibited by chemical compounds, thereby significantly reducing viral replication in infected cells.
Researchers have developed a light-based approach to read out superconducting circuits, overcoming the scaling-up limitations of quantum computing systems. In the last few years, several technology companies including Google, Microsoft, and IBM, have massively invested in quantum computing systems based on microwave superconducting circuit platforms in an effort to scale them up from small research-oriented systems to commercialized computing platforms.
Precise touch screens thanks to AI
Fewer typing errors when touching a smartphone keyboard: ETH Computer scientists have developed a new AI solution that enables touchscreens to sense with eight times higher resolution than current devices. Thanks to AI, their solution can infer much more precisely where fingers touch the screen. We are probably all familiar with this: if you want to quickly type a message on your smartphone, you sometimes hit the wrong letters on the small keyboard - or on other input buttons in an app.
Fewer typing errors when touching a smartphone keyboard: ETH Computer scientists have developed a new AI solution that enables touchscreens to sense with eight times higher resolution than current devices. Thanks to AI, their solution can infer much more precisely where fingers touch the screen. We are probably all familiar with this: if you want to quickly type a message on your smartphone, you sometimes hit the wrong letters on the small keyboard - or on other input buttons in an app.
A study published today in Nature shows that the NHS COVID-19 app for digital contact tracing, based on the DP3T protocol, averted between 300,000 and 600,000 COVID-19 cases in England and Wales. The researchers used data from the NHS to show and quantify the epidemiological impact of such privacy-preserving apps, which are now available around the globe to help control the pandemic.
The last ice age, about 20,000 years ago, was significantly colder than previously thought. This is shown for the first time by systematically analysed samples of groundwater collected around the globe and the inert gases dissolved in it. Swiss groundwater from Uster (ZH) also contributed to the results.
Scientists have used a novel algorithmic approach on cancer cells to understand how changes in histone marks (H3K27ac) induce repositioning of chromatin regions in the cell nucleus, and described how modifications of local contacts between regulatory elements (enhancers and promoters) influence oncogene expression.
Since February 2021, the canton of Grisons is using saliva-based PCR mass testing within its mobile workforce as a potential means to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and reduce infection rates. Empa researchers are now leading the analysis of data from the first eight weeks of the testing regime. They observed a reduction in the incidence rate between 20 and 50%, depending on the business sector, and a noticeable reduction in the test positivity rate among those who were regularly tested.
The world's largest nature conservation area lies in southern Africa, comprising 520,000 square kilometers that span five countries. A study has now shown that the critically endangered African wild dog mostly remains within the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA) during its long periods of migration.
A team of Swiss and international climate scientists has shown that the risk of glacial lake outburst floods in the Himalayan region and the Tibetan plateau could triple in the coming decades. The "Third Pole" of the Earth, the high mountain ranges of Asia, bears the largest number of glaciers outside the polar regions.
Biomarker Detects Severe COVID-19 Early On
Severe cases of COVID-19 can now be detected at an early stage. Researchers at the University of Zurich have identified the first biomarker that can reliably predict which patients will develop severe symptoms. This can help to improve the treatment of severe cases of COVID-19. Most people who are infected with SARS-CoV-2 develop no or only mild symptoms.
Severe cases of COVID-19 can now be detected at an early stage. Researchers at the University of Zurich have identified the first biomarker that can reliably predict which patients will develop severe symptoms. This can help to improve the treatment of severe cases of COVID-19. Most people who are infected with SARS-CoV-2 develop no or only mild symptoms.
Through a unique combination of computer simulations and laboratory experiments, researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have discovered new binding sites for active agents - against cancer, for example - on a vital protein of the cell cytoskeleton. Eleven of the sites hadn't been known before.
A premature start in life can cause problems even into teenage years. A study by the University of Basel and the University Children's Hospital Basel (UKBB) indicates that training motor skills in these children helps even when they are older. Children that are born before the 37 th week of pregnancy remain under close medical supervision while they are young.
Humans are exposed to a variety of toxins and chemicals every day. According to the epithelial barrier hypothesis, exposure to many of these substances damages the epithelium, the thin layer of cells that covers the surface of our skin, lungs and intestine. Defective epithelial barriers have been linked to a rise in almost two billion allergic, autoimmune, neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases.
With the help of their custom-built super-resolution microscope, EPFL biophysicists have discovered where and why mitochondria divide, putting to rest controversy about the underlying molecular machinery of mitochondrial fission. Mitochondria either split in half or cut off their ends to self-regulate.
Researchers at ETH Zurich have succeeded in turning specially prepared graphene flakes either into insulators or into superconductors by applying an electric voltage. This technique even works locally, meaning that in the same graphene flake regions with completely different physical properties can be realized side by side.
Climate action potential in waste incineration plants
The climate action potential of carbon capture during the processing of biomass feedstock is considerable, ETH Zurich researchers have calculated. If this potential is to be fully exploited in practice, however, there are challenges to overcome. Over the coming decades, our economy and society will need to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions as called for in the Paris Agreement.
The climate action potential of carbon capture during the processing of biomass feedstock is considerable, ETH Zurich researchers have calculated. If this potential is to be fully exploited in practice, however, there are challenges to overcome. Over the coming decades, our economy and society will need to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions as called for in the Paris Agreement.
Scientists are beginning to understand why corals in the Gulf of Aqaba, along with their symbiotic algae and bacteria, resist higher temperatures particularly well. Even under the most optimistic scenarios, most of the coral reef ecosystems on our planet - whether in Australia, the Maldives or the Caribbean - will have disappeared or be in very bad shape by the end of this century.
The images leave no one cold: giant vortices of floating plastic trash in the world's oceans with sometimes devastating consequences for their inhabitants - the sobering legacy of our modern lifestyle. Weathering and degradation processes produce countless tiny particles that can now be detected in virtually all ecosystems.
Stress and Mental Health Problems During First COVID-19-Lockdown
One-third of children and adolescents experienced mental health problems during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Switzerland. Parents and young adults also perceived considerable stress, yet the perceived stresses differed from those of children and adolescents, the first Switzerland-wide representative study by the University of Zurich and La Source School of Nursing Lausanne has shown.
One-third of children and adolescents experienced mental health problems during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Switzerland. Parents and young adults also perceived considerable stress, yet the perceived stresses differed from those of children and adolescents, the first Switzerland-wide representative study by the University of Zurich and La Source School of Nursing Lausanne has shown.
News from the Lab is a selection of science news that are significant or interesting for a broad readership.
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