news from the lab 2016

In most cases, electricity is produced when water is heated and transformed into vapour. Vapour bubbles in the water play a decisive role in this process by collecting in a layer at a heated wall.

The Mars Camera, CaSSIS, on the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter captured its first high resolution images of the Red Planet last week.

A team that includes ETH Zurich scientists is the first to use materials with a network-like structure to create a full spectrum of intense colours.

EPFL scientists have developed a new perovskite material with unique properties that can be used to build next-generation hard drives.

Researchers led by EPFL have built ultra-high quality optical cavities for the elusive mid-infrared spectral region, paving the way for new chemical and biological sensors, as well as promising technologies. The mid-infrared spectral window, referred to as 'molecular fingerprint region,' includes light wavelengths from 2.5 to 20 'm.

EPFL researchers have been studying futuristic transport solutions for car-free urban centers. They have come up with an optimal design for a network of accelerating moving walkways. Could moving walkways help people get where they want to go in cities' This is not a new idea. The first moving walkways were seen in Chicago in 1893, and seven years later they were used at the world's fair in Paris.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have produced starch in yeast - the first time this has been achieved in a non-plant organism. The new model system now makes it easier for them to investigate how starch is formed and what role is played by the enzymes involved. In future, it may be possible to use yeast to trial specific modifications of starch.

Type-1 diabetes occurs when immune cells attack the pancreas. EPFL scientists have now discovered what may trigger this attack, opening new directions for treatments. Type-1 diabetes is the rarest but most aggressive form of diabetes, usually affecting young children and adolescents. The patient's own immune cells begin to attack the cells in the pancreas that make insulin, eventually eliminating its production in the body.

Macroscopic crystal structures can absorb unwanted vibrations or filter noise - without any electronics or electricity whatsoever.

EPFL scientists have developed a gel for growing miniaturized body organs that can be used in clinical diagnostics and drug development.

Researchers have come up with a way to link a smartwatch to the metabolic monitors used with patients in intensive care. If the sensors - which were developed at EPFL - detect an anomaly, the doctor on duty receives an alert anywhere in the hospital. Intensive care doctors may soon be able to wear a smartwatch connected to the system that keeps tabs on the vital parameters of patients in the intensive care unit.

EPFL scientists measured for the first time - at centimeter resolutions - how the snowscape of Antarctic ice in the sea changed, before and after a blizzard. This data will help build better weather models for the South Pole and the world's climate. EPFL scientists provided the first detailed measurements of how a blizzard affects snow cover on an Antarctic ice floe.

Switzerland is one the world's top countries in terms of per capita consumption of fair trade products.

A new technology developed by PlayfulVision, an EPFL startup, records all aspects of sporting events for subsequent analysis in augmented reality.

Microbiologists at EPFL and the University of Edinburgh have discovered that red squirrels in Britain and Ireland carry the two bacterial species that cause leprosy in humans. Once rampant in medieval Europe, leprosy dramatically declined by the end of the Middle Ages for reasons that are still unclear.

Non-human primates regain control of their paralyzed leg ­- as early as six days after spinal cord injury - thanks to a neuroprosthetic interface that acts as a wireless bridge between the brain and spine, bypassing the injury.

Based on computer simulations, Astrophysicists at the University of Bern conclude that the comet Chury did not obtain its duck-like form during the formation of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago. Although it does contain primordial material, they are able to show that the comet in its present form is hardly more than a billion years old.

How long do animals live? Although the question seems trivial, it is not easy to answer - especially in the case of free-ranging animals, as it is extremely difficult to determine accurate dates of birth and death of all members of a specific population. By comparison, zoos meticulously record the births and deaths of the animals in their care.

Earth's magnetic field has reversed direction hundreds of times in the course of our planet's history.

The researchers have studied the shape of the ribcage in more than 120 tetrapods - from prehistoric times up to the present day. (Image: UZH) What do enormous dinosaurs have in common with tiny shrews' They are both four-legged vertebrates, otherwise known as tetrapods. In the course of evolution, tetrapods developed various body shapes and sizes - from the mouse to the dinosaur - to adapt to different environments.