news 2020
Environment - Feb 25
Wealthy individuals are increasingly investing in agriculture. Their investments boost production of plant-based raw materials for human consumption, industrial uses, and animal fodder. The resulting capital flows directly contribute to deforestation in the global South, especially in the tropics.
Physics - Feb 24
For the first time, researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have recorded a "3D film" of magnetic processes on the nanometer scale.
Health - Feb 21
Scientists highlight the importance of monogenic diabetes and the consequences in terms of care of a precise diagnosis.
Astronomy - Feb 24
Fifteen months after the successful landing of the NASA InSight mission on Mars, first scientific analyses of ETH Zurich researchers and their partners reveal that the planet is seismically active.
Mechanical Engineering - Feb 21
An experiment by EPFL researchers has confirmed a theory that has been used in mechanics for over half a century - despite never having been fully validated. The team could now use the theory in bolder and more innovative ways in their quest to develop ever better energy systems.
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Investments by the super-rich drive deforestation
Wealthy individuals are increasingly investing in agriculture. Their investments boost production of plant-based raw materials for human consumption, industrial uses, and animal fodder. The resulting capital flows directly contribute to deforestation in the global South, especially in the tropics. That is the conclusion of a new study by the University of Bern's Centre for Development and Environment (CDE).
Wealthy individuals are increasingly investing in agriculture. Their investments boost production of plant-based raw materials for human consumption, industrial uses, and animal fodder. The resulting capital flows directly contribute to deforestation in the global South, especially in the tropics. That is the conclusion of a new study by the University of Bern's Centre for Development and Environment (CDE).
For the first time, researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have recorded a "3D film" of magnetic processes on the nanometer scale. This reveals a variety of dynamics inside the material, including the motion of swirling boundaries between different magnetic domains. The insights were gained with a method newly developed at the Swiss Light Source SLS.
Fifteen months after the successful landing of the NASA InSight mission on Mars, first scientific analyses of ETH Zurich researchers and their partners reveal that the planet is seismically active. The recorded data enables a better understanding of the interior of Mars, the primary goal of the InSight mission.
Scientists highlight the importance of monogenic diabetes and the consequences in terms of care of a precise diagnosis. Diabetes affects more than 400 million people worldwide and is a major public health problem. Although commonly referred to as a single disease, it actually constitutes a group of metabolic disorders with hyperglycaemia as a common feature.
Scientists finally confirm a 50-year-old theory in mechanics
An experiment by EPFL researchers has confirmed a theory that has been used in mechanics for over half a century - despite never having been fully validated. The team could now use the theory in bolder and more innovative ways in their quest to develop ever better energy systems. Some theories are widely used even though they have never been experimentally validated.
An experiment by EPFL researchers has confirmed a theory that has been used in mechanics for over half a century - despite never having been fully validated. The team could now use the theory in bolder and more innovative ways in their quest to develop ever better energy systems. Some theories are widely used even though they have never been experimentally validated.
UNIGE researchers have discovered a new nano-structure that lies at the center of our cellular skeleton. This discovery will allow to better understand how the cell maintains its architecture as well as the pathologies associated with dysfunctions of this structure. All animal cells have an organelle called a centrosome, which is essential to the organization of their cell skeleton.
In a study, researchers have shown that it is possible to predict the risk of relapsing into depression after stopping antidepressant medication. People who relapse take longer to decide how much effort to invest for a reward. Depressive disorder is a major public health problem with an unpredictable course.
In a breakthrough for Parkinson's disease, scientists at EPFL have reconstructing the process by which Lewy bodies form in the brain of patients. The study offers new insights into how Parkinson's disease begins and evolves, and opens up a set of potential new treatment targets. The brains of patients with Parkinson's disease contain distinct, characteristic structures called 'Lewy bodies', after Friedrich Heinrich Lewy who first reported their discovery in 1912.
By identifying the role of a specific protein in the development of obesity-related liver diseases, UNIGE researchers pave the way for better diagnosis, and potentially better treatment. Hepatocellular carcinoma, a very common liver cancer linked to the presence of fat in the liver, is one of the leading causes of cancer death worldwide.
Scientists from EPFL (Switzerland) have extended performance modelling techniques to the field of computational brain science. In a paper published in Neuroinformatics, they provide a quantitative appraisal of the performance landscape of brain tissue simulations, and analyze in detail the relationship between an in silico experiment, the underlying neuron and connectivity model, the simulation algorithm and the hardware platform being used.
Researchers at ETH have measured the timing of single writing events in a novel magnetic memory device with a resolution of less than 100 picoseconds. Their results are relevant for the next generation of main memories based on magnetism. At the Department for Materials of the ETH in Zurich, Pietro Gambardella and his collaborators investigate tomorrow's memory devices.
Fruit flies have a radical strategy for dealing with free radicals
Flies belonging to the genus Drosophila combat oxidative stress by removing excess fat from their blood. This remarkable mechanism proves that evolution has no shortage of answers to a problem that affects all life on Earth. Oxidative stress affects all living organisms, and the damage it causes is believed to play a part in cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and a number of other health conditions.
Flies belonging to the genus Drosophila combat oxidative stress by removing excess fat from their blood. This remarkable mechanism proves that evolution has no shortage of answers to a problem that affects all life on Earth. Oxidative stress affects all living organisms, and the damage it causes is believed to play a part in cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and a number of other health conditions.
Researchers from the University of Geneva and the University of Manchester have discovered structures based on two-dimensional materials that emit tailor-made light in any colour you could wish for. Finding new semi-conductor materials that emit light is essential for developing a wide range of electronic devices.
Climate change will disrupt existing energy systems
As climate changes and extreme weather events become more commonplace, we will need to fundamentally rethink how we produce renewable energy. Researchers at EPFL have developed a simulation method to reduce the adverse influences due to climate-related uncertainties in the energy sector and guarantee robust operation of energy infrastructure during extreme climate events.
As climate changes and extreme weather events become more commonplace, we will need to fundamentally rethink how we produce renewable energy. Researchers at EPFL have developed a simulation method to reduce the adverse influences due to climate-related uncertainties in the energy sector and guarantee robust operation of energy infrastructure during extreme climate events.
Researchers from the University of Geneva and CY Cergy Paris University have shown that current situations conjure up past situations that share deep, structural, similarities. What clues does our memory use to connect a current situation to a situation from the past? The results of a study conducted by researchers from the University of Geneva , Switzerland, - working in collaboration with CY Cergy Paris University in France - contrast sharply with the explanations found until now in the existing literature.
Two research groups at ETH Zurich have joined forces to develop a novel light detector. It consists of two-dimensional layers of different materials that are coupled to a silicon optical waveguide. In the future, this approach can also be used to make LEDs and optical modulators. Fast and highly efficient modulators as well as detectors for light are the core components of data transmission through fibre optic cables.
Printing tiny, high-precision objects in a matter of seconds
Researchers at EPFL have developed a new, high-precision method for 3D-printing small, soft objects. The process, which takes less than 30 seconds from start to finish, has potential applications in a wide range of fields, including 3D bioprinting. It all starts with a translucent liquid. Then, as if by magic, darker spots begin to form in the small, spinning container until, barely half a minute later, the finished product takes shape.
Researchers at EPFL have developed a new, high-precision method for 3D-printing small, soft objects. The process, which takes less than 30 seconds from start to finish, has potential applications in a wide range of fields, including 3D bioprinting. It all starts with a translucent liquid. Then, as if by magic, darker spots begin to form in the small, spinning container until, barely half a minute later, the finished product takes shape.
Paleobiologists from the University of Zurich have discovered exceptional specimens in Venezuela and Colombia of an extinct giant freshwater turtle called Stupendemys. The carapace of this turtle, which is the largest ever known, measured between 2.4 to almost 3 meters. Moreover, the shell of male Stupendemys had horns ' a rare feature in turtles.
It is estimated that the number of cancer cases worldwide will double by 2040. This makes the search for genes that cause cancer even more important. A team of researchers from the University of Bern and Inselspital, University Hospital Bern, has now developed algorithms that massively simplify the hunt for "cancer genes" in a poorly understood part of our genome.
Physicists from Switzerland and Germany have unveiled fingerprints of the long-sought particle known as Mahan exciton in the room temperature optical response of the popular methylammonium lead halide perovskites. The optical properties of semiconductors are governed by the so-called 'excitons', which are bound pairs of negative electrons and positive holes.
News from the Lab is a selection of science news that are significant or interesting for a broad readership.
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