An international study led by researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI has used a new method to identify the various sources of aerosols that create smog in Beijing. A number of studies have estimated that air pollution is responsible for several million deaths worldwide every year. In order to take appropriate measures to keep the air clean, it is important to know where the pollutants come from.

A team of scientists from EPFL and other research institutes have identified just how an Alpine flower is surviving by adapting its genes to local habitats. This discovery has important implications for the protection of ecosystems under threat. In the Alps, adventurous hikers aren't the only ones to regularly climb to new heights.

Extreme heatwaves are on the rise. When do they become critical for forest trees? In the hot summer of 2023, a research team led by the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) investigated this in Switzerland, southern France and Spain.

Researchers a novel AI-driven model designed to predict protein sequences from backbone scaffolds, incorporating complex molecular environments. It promises significant advancements in protein engineering and applications across various fields, including medicine and biotechnology. Image caption: Schematic representation of sequence prediction with CARBonAra.

The brain chemical orexin is crucial when we choose between sport and the tasty temptations that beckon everywhere we turn. This research finding could also help people who find it difficult to motivate themselves to exercise. Should I go and exercise, or would I rather go to the café and enjoy a delectable strawberry milkshake? Until now, what exactly happens in our brain when we make this decision has been a mystery to science, but researchers at ETH Zurich have found the solution.

Researchers have published a programmable framework that overcomes a key computational bottleneck of optics-based artificial intelligence systems. In a series of image classification experiments, they used scattered light from a low-power laser to perform accurate, scalable computations using a fraction of the energy of electronics.

An international team of astrophysicists with participation of the University of Zurich proposes a novel method to detect pairs of the biggest black holes found at the centers of galaxies by analyzing gravitational waves generated by binaries of nearby small stellar black holes. The origin of supermassive black holes found at the centers of galaxies, is still one of the biggest mysteries in astronomy.

In a collaboration with EPFL Lausanne, ETH Zurich and the University of Southern California researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have used X-rays to look inside a microchip with higher precision than ever before. The image resolution of 4 nanometres marks a new world record. The high-resolution three-dimensional images of the type they produced will enable advances in both information technology and the life sciences.

In a new study, scientists found that rhinoceros beetles use passive mechanisms to deploy and retract wings instead of muscles. The findings inspired them to design a new microrobot, demonstrating a simple, yet effective, approach to the design of insect-like flying micromachines. Birds, bats, and bees all'use distinct muscles to deploy and retract their wings.

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI and the Australian National University have re-determined the half-life of samarium-146 with great precision. The result fits perfectly with the data astrophysicists and geochemists have obtained from extraterrestrial samples. The study appears today in the journal Nature Scientific Reports.

An international team of researchers led by the University of Bern has used observation-based computer modelling to find an explanation for how macromolecules can form in a short time in disks of gas and dust around young stars. These findings could be crucial for understanding how habitability develops around different types of exoplanets and stars.

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have used one of the most advanced energy system models in Europe to calculate the impact of digitalisation on energy consumption. Many people now work partly or permanently from home. This saves petrol because they no longer have to drive to the office - which is good for the energy transition.

Variations in genetic material allow the water flea to defend itself against parasites, forcing the parasites to adapt. This coevolutionary loop has been running for at least 15 million years, as researchers at the University of Basel have demonstrated. Hosts and their parasites are in constant competition.

Researchers have modified certain bacteria with UV light so that they produce more cellulose. The basis for this is a new approach with which the researchers generate thousands of bacterial variants and select those that have developed into the most productive. Bacteria produce materials that are of interest to humans, such as cellulose, silk and minerals.

In an important study for understanding how memories are made, scientists show that the flexibility of chromatin - packaged DNA inside the cell - plays a crucial role in "deciding" which neurons are involved in forming a specific memory. When we form a new memory, the brain undergoes physical and functional changes known collectively as a "memory trace".

Researchers at ETH Zurich have uncovered how colorectal cancer cells colonise the liver. Their findings could open up new ways to suppress this process in the future. In cases where cancer is fatal, nine out of ten times the culprit is metastasis. This is when the primary tumour has sent out cells, like seeds, and invaded other organs of the body.

Scientists have discovered how yeast cells sense physical stresses on the membranes that protect them. Cell membranes play a crucial role in maintaining the integrity and functionality of cells. However, the mechanisms by which they perform these roles are not yet fully understood. Scientists from the University of Geneva , in collaboration with the Institut de biologie structurale de Grenoble (IBS) and the University of Fribourg (UNIFR), have used cryo-electron microscopy to observe how lipids and proteins at the plasma membrane interact and react to mechanical stress.

By identifying mechanisms unique to leukaemia-causing cells, a French-Swiss team has discovered a new way to fight the disease. Acute myeloid leukaemia is one of the deadliest cancers. Leukaemic stem cells responsible for the disease are highly resistant to treatment. A team from the University of Geneva , University Hospital of Geneva (HUG), and Inserm has made a breakthrough by identifying some of the genetic and energetic characteristics of these stem cells, notably a specific iron utilisation process.

How did the 2021 national marriage equality referendum campaign in Switzerland affect the well-being of the LGBTIQ+ community? A team led by researchers at UZH has shown that LGBTIQ+ individuals and their cisgender heterosexual allies exhibited more stress hormones during the controversial campaign.

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT are using artificial intelligence to improve the categorisation of breast cancer. Not all cancers are the same. Some tumours grow very slowly or hardly ever change from a comparatively harmless pre-cancerous form to a life-threatening form.