news 2022

A team from the University of Geneva shows that participating in camps helps develop valuable socio-emotional skills. Be able to control oneself, cooperate or help others: having socio-emotional abilities is essential for those who wish to interact positively with their peers. These skills are largely acquired during childhood and can be trained in different contexts, such as school, family or leisure.

Cancer cells use sugar molecules on their surface to disable attacks by the body's immune system. Researchers at the University of Basel now report on how this mechanism can be neutralized. November 2022 The immune system is actually extremely well equipped to get rid of abnormal cells. As a safety mechanism, special features are built into healthy cells so that the immune system recognizes them, thus preventing a mistaken attack.

Terrestrial and aquatic food webs respond differently to changes in the environment. Understanding these differences is fundamental to identifying the species most important to an ecosystem and to effectively protecting biodiversity. This is shown by a study led by the research institutes Eawag and WSL and published in the journal Nature Communications .

How much of the proteins present in foods can the human body absorb and how high is the quality of these proteins? These are the key questions in discussions about a healthy and sustainable diet. Agroscope has developed a method that can reliably measure the protein digestibility of different foods in the laboratory.

A team from the University of Geneva reveals that a drug used against herpes can fight a bacterium that is resistant to most antibiotics by weakening its defence mechanisms. The unreasonable use of antibiotics has pushed bacteria to develop resistance mechanisms to this type of treatment. This phenomenon, known as antibiotic resistance, is now considered by the WHO as one of the greatest threats to health.

The path to peace usually leads through a ceasefire. In an international project, researchers have shown the conditions under which parties to civil wars are willing to stop fighting - and why they decide to do so. Abstract Between 1989 and 2020, a total of 2202 ceasefires resulted from 109 civil wars in 66 countries.

Threat or salvation? The way in which people judge globalization depends on whether it benefits them or not. Our own experiences are crucial here, and carry more weight than forecasts of potential gains. This has been shown in an experiment by researchers at the University of Basel. November 2022 For decades, global political and economic relations have been seen as the secret to greater prosperity, and have therefore been consistently nurtured and intensified.

For the first time, researchers have been able to make a superconducting component from graphene that is quantum coherent and sensitive to magnetic fields. This step opens up interesting prospects for fundamental research. Less than 20 years ago, Konstantin Novoselov and Andre Geim first created two-dimensional crystals consisting of just one layer of carbon atoms.

Agriculture practices that preserve resources? Enough food to make sure that everyone can enjoy a healthy and balanced diet? We still are a long way from that, finds Robert Finger - and outlines the most important fields of action to make the food system more sustainable. Today, the global system that supplies us with food is facing major challenges.

A research team supported by the SNSF and including scientists from the UNIGE has studied the particular properties of the star Gamma Columbae. It is believed to be a binary star whose core has been exposed. A bright star visible to the naked eye, but until recently a star that was of no particular interest to scientists.

Daring Swiss pioneers took exciting photos and observations of glaciers in the Indian Himalayas in the 1930s. Glaciologists from WSL and the ETH Zurich now repeated their trip to collect up-to-date data. 14.09.2022 -Swiss explorers in Indian Himalaya Six Swiss pioneers explored the hidden valleys of the Garhwal range of the Indian Himalaya more than eight decades ago.

Bacteria in the small intestine adapt dynamically to our nutritional state, with individual species disappearing and reappearing. Researchers at the University of Bern and University Hospital Bern have now been able to comprehensively study the bacteria of the small intestine and their unique adaptability for the first time.

The heart disease arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy can lead to sudden death, particularly affecting young athletes. Researchers at the University of Basel have now genetically modified mice, which develop a similar disease to that found in humans. This allowed the team to identify previously unknown mechanisms and potential therapeutic targets.

A team from the HUG, the UNIGE and Endotelix has developed a new test to detect antiphospholipids. This new test could detect antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), which causes clots that lead to thrombosis and disrupts pregnancy. Endotelix The Geneva University Hospitals (HUG), the University of Geneva and their spin-off Endotelix have created the best possible target molecule for the antibodies responsible for antiphospholipid syndrome.

Global warming is changing the Arctic by causing permafrost thaw, glacier melt, droughts, fires and changes in vegetation. These developments are strongly linked to the energy exchange between land and the atmosphere. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now shown that different plant communities in the tundra play a key role in this energy exchange but are not taken into account in climate models.

To protect tropical forests in Brazil, commodities traders have made voluntary commitments to avoid buying soybeans grown in areas that have recently been deforested. Two new studies reveal just how inadequate these guidelines are in protecting Brazil from deforestation and assess the potential effect of implementing the commitments on a much larger scale.

Swiss TPH researchers tested two different drug combinations against the parasitic worm Trichuris trichiura on Pemba Island, Tanzania. Findings show that a new treatment combination (moxidectin and albendazole) is inferior compared to the current recommended treatment combination (ivermectin and albendazole).

Researchers at an EPFL lab have developed an ophthalmological device that can be used to diagnose some degenerative eye disorders long before the onset of the first symptoms. In early clinical trials, the prototype was shown to produce images with a sufficient degree of precision in just five seconds.

Following two large meteorite impacts on Mars, researchers have observed, for the first time, seismic waves propagating along the surface of a planet other than Earth. The data from the marsquakes was recorded by NASA's InSight lander and analysed at ETH Zurich in collaboration with the InSight Science Team.

Until now, Mars has been generally considered a geologically dead planet. An international team of researchers led by ETH Zurich now reports that seismic signals indicate vulcanism still plays an active role in shaping the Martian surface. Why study the terrestrial neighbour? Exploring Earth's planetary neighbours is no easy task.