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Renovating buildings to improve their energy efficiency is a crucial step towards Switzerland achieving its climate targets. researchers can now reveal the most effective renovation strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions: replace fossil-fuel heating systems and harness the potential of bio-based building materials like straw and hemp.

Measuring between 3 to 3.5 meters, 16 million years old: Paleontologists from the University of Zurich have announced the discovery of a new species of freshwater dolphin in the Peruvian Amazon region. Surprisingly, its closest living relatives can be found in the river dolphins of South Asia.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have succeeded in detecting heavy precipitation events directly with GPS data. The results of their study could significantly improve meteorological monitoring and forecasting. An exceptionally severe storm swept over Zurich on 13 July 2021 shortly before 2 a.m.: howling squalls, constant lightning and torrential rain woke people up with a start.

An artificial intelligence system developed at EPFL can produce 3D maps of coral reefs from camera footage in just a few minutes. It marks a major leap forward in deep-sea exploration and conservation capabilities for organizations like the Transnational Red Sea Center (TRSC). Corals often provide a colorful backdrop to photographs of shimmering fish captured by amateur divers.

Scientists have developed a sustainable method to make high-performance plastics from agricultural leftovers, turning them into valuable materials. In our rapidly industrialized world, the quest for sustainable materials has never been more urgent. Plastics, ubiquitous in daily life, pose significant environmental challenges, primarily due to their fossil fuel origins and problematic disposal.

Ecological communities in rivers and lakes are responding to climate change in a similar way to communities on land. This is shown by the first comprehensive comparison of freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems around the globe, co-led by Eawag and WSL. When temperatures rise, warm-loving species are the main beneficiaries.

Engineers from EPFL and partner organizations have developed a method for classifying lacustrine deltas based on morphological parameters, in order to determine which of the deltas severely altered by human activity are best suited for restoration to their natural state. The Reuss delta on the edge of Lake Lucerne is once again a nature-lover's paradise, complete with gravel islands and stretches of shallow water where plants, animals and bathers coexist in harmony.

In Switzerland, wastewater treatment has traditionally focused on domestic wastewater - in particular, removal of the nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus. Only more recently has attention also been focused on problematic residues of medicines, pesticides and other chemicals. A new Eawag study, commissioned by the federal authorities, now shows that there is also potential for improvement in the case of emissions from chemical and pharmaceutical plants - both at wastewater treatment plants and within the industrial facilities.

The cost of removing large quantities of CO2 from the air will fall in the medium term, but not as much as previously hoped. This is the conclusion reached by researchers on the basis of new calculations. Efforts to reduce carbon emissions should therefore continue at pace, says the research team. Switzerland plans to reduce its net carbon emissions to zero by no later than 2050.

Glacier-fed streams are undergoing a process of profound change, according to scientists in a paper appearing in Nature Geoscience. This conclusion is based on the expeditions to the world's major mountain ranges by members of the Vanishing Glaciers project. Microbial life will flourish in mountain streams because of ongoing glacier shrinkage.

Do museums, theaters and cultural institutions have a good record in terms of social and environmental sustainability - Researchers at the University of Lausanne have conducted an international survey of over 200 major institutions.

Artificial intelligence and automated laboratory infrastructure are massively accelerating the development of new chemical catalysts. With these tools, researchers at ETH Zurich are developing catalysts for efficiently and cost-effectively synthesising the energy source methanol from CO2. Catalysts are chemistry's hard-working little helpers.

Forests are under pressure and rapidly changing. In order to be able to react to these changes, forest monitoring is of crucial importance. The Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL launched an initiative (SwissAIM) to improve forest monitoring. A new study sheds light on why the initiative is needed.

Tire wear of motor vehicles is responsible for a large proportion of microplastics in the environment. Researchers from Empa and the company wst21 have summarized the results of various studies in a recently published basic report in response to postulate Po 19.3559 and presented approaches for reduction.

Climate changes usually happens over long periods of time, but during the last glacial period, extreme fluctuations in temperature occurred within just a few years. Researchers at the University of Basel have now been able to prove the phenomenon also occurred during the penultimate glacial period. In recent geological history, the so-called Quaternary period, there have been repeated ice ages and warm periods.

Madagascar is home to over 11,000 plant species, 80 percent of which are found nowhere else on Earth. A recent study by the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL and ETH Zurich has put forward a new hypothesis for the underlying cause of Madagascar's rich plant biodiversity, which has been regarded as an unsolved mystery of natural history.

It abseils from a height and swings around obstacles: robot Avocado will one day manoeuvre through the canopy of the rainforest and collect data for researchers about this hard-to-reach habitat. It's called Avocado and does actually look a bit like one: currently being developed by researcher on, the innovative robot has a robust housing similar in shape to the green fruit.

As part of the Ice Memory initiative, PSI researchers, with colleagues from the University of Fribourg and Ca' Foscari University of Venice as well as the Institute of Polar Sciences of the Italian National Research Council (CNR), analysed ice cores drilled in 2018 and 2020 from the Corbassière glacier at Grand Combin in the canton of Valais.

Ozone causes visible damage to the foliage of European deciduous trees, as shown by a large-scale study led by the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL. The researchers found that some plants under certain environmental condition react particularly sensitively to ozone, which is toxic at ground level.

At night or during cold winter days, lake water cools faster near the shore than in the middle of the lake. This creates a current that connects the shallow shore region with the deeper part of the lake. An international team led by researchers were able to show for the first time that this horizontal circulation transports gases such as oxygen and methane.