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Event - Environment - 14.08.2023

Environment - Agronomy / Food Science - 14.08.2023
Bear-human coexistence rethought
Bear-human coexistence rethought
The media uproar over wolf attacks on livestock in Switzerland and a bear attack in Italy show how charged the issue of large carnivores and humans coexisting in Europe is.

Environment - Chemistry - 14.08.2023
Trees are not always a miracle cure for improving air quality
Master's project series (7). Donato Kofel has quantified the positive and negative effects of trees on outdoor air quality in Geneva Canton.

Microtechnics - Architecture - 11.08.2023
ETH historic building renovated to current-day standards
ETH historic building renovated to current-day standards
An ETH Zurich architectural centrepiece - the machine laboratory- has been renovated. The historically significant machine hall has been extensively restored to its original condition.

Chemistry - Research Management - 08.08.2023
Until the chemistry is just right
Until the chemistry is just right
At Empa, Dorina Opris is researching how to synthesize complex electroactive polymers for robotic components, sensors or batteries - a promising project that the European Research Council (ERC) is currently funding with one of its prestigious ERC Consolidator Grants.

Computer Science - Campus - 07.08.2023
EPFL students develop two apps to help the visually impaired
EPFL students develop two apps to help the visually impaired
STUDENT PROJECT - As part of the Assistive Technologies Challenge, EPFL students developed two apps to help people with low or no vision: one app orally communicates the information contained in a box of medicine and the other helps them find empty seats on public transport.

Pharmacology - Life Sciences - 02.08.2023
Treating anaemia with gene scissors
Treating anaemia with gene scissors
ETH Zurich molecular biologist Mandy Boontanrart is researching gene therapies that could be used to cure two of the most common types of inherited anaemia. She has now developed a promising approach for so-called beta-hemoglobinopathies. Many hereditary diseases have largely been considered to be incurable.

Campus - 31.07.2023
How to make an on-demand bus network viable
STUDENT PROJECT - For her EPFL Master's project in civil engineering, Gaelle Abi Younes examined why on-demand buses have met with only limited success. She used technical and financial models to show how they could become a genuine alternative to cars in outlying areas. Thanks to the ubiquity of smartphones, we now have a wide range of on-demand services to choose from for traveling short distances: bike-sharing programs, ridesharing, Uber, Lyft and more.

Research Management - 28.07.2023
Horizon Europe and future prospects
One-third of current Swiss scientific publications are joint papers with EU scientists. This implies that Switzerland's non-participation in the EU research programme, Horizon Europe, poses various challenges to the research community, economy, and society.

Career - Social Sciences - 27.07.2023
Many people feel their jobs are pointless
Many people feel their jobs are pointless
A sociological study by the University of Zurich confirms that a considerable proportion of employees perceive their work as socially useless. Employees in financial, sales and management occupations are more likely to conclude that their jobs are of little use to society. In recent years, research showed that many professionals consider their work to be socially useless.

Environment - 27.07.2023
Voluntary carbon offsets often fail to deliver what they promise
calls for more ambitious standards in the voluntary carbon offset market. While this would lead to fewer projects getting funded, the benefit for the climate would be greater overall.

Astronomy / Space Science - Physics - 25.07.2023

Physics - Materials Science - 25.07.2023
Masters of defects
Masters of defects
Bruno Schuler and his young team are embarking on an ambitious research project: He will selectively generate defects in atomically-thin semiconductor layers and attempt to measure and control their quantum properties with simultaneous picosecond temporal resolu­tion and atomic precision. The resulting insights are expected to establish fundamental knowledge for future quantum computers.

Chemistry - 24.07.2023

Health - 24.07.2023
Objectively linking dementia and physical inactivity
Objectively linking dementia and physical inactivity
STUDENT PROJECT - Charlyne Bürki explored the link between dementia and physical inactivity by comparing the results of subjective and objective studies. Her research uncovered some surprising findings - and led her to an indisputable conclusion.

Environment - Chemistry - 21.07.2023
EPFL Carbon Team aims to capture CO2 with sieves and sponges
EPFL Carbon Team aims to capture CO2 with sieves and sponges
The team of students is working on a unique prototype that uses graphene membranes combined with a porous, sponge-like material to pull carbon from the atmosphere.

Environment - Transport - 20.07.2023
Boosting circular economy in the automotive sector
Boosting circular economy in the automotive sector
New vehicles are responsible for around ten percent of plastic demand in the EU, and the automotive sector is the number one consumer of raw materials like aluminum, magnesium, platinum group metals, and rare earth elements.

Computer Science - Life Sciences - 18.07.2023
How AI models teach themselves to learn new things
How AI models teach themselves to learn new things
Large language models such as GPT-3 are able to learn new concepts by interacting with their users. Researchers at ETH and Google may now have uncovered a key mechanism behind this capability. Despite their huge success, the inner workings of large language models such as OpenAI's GPT model family and Google Bard remain a mystery, even to their developers.

Microtechnics - Computer Science - 17.07.2023
Robot snake slithers brilliantly after much trial and error
STUDENT PROJECT - Intelligent robots - for search and rescue, exploration and surveillance - are a new and challenging field. Unique and versatile, could robot snakes advance the abilities of machines in these fields? Serpentine robots are a ground-breaking innovation in robotics. These flexible and slithering machines excel at navigating complex and confined spaces, offering immense potential in various fields.

Environment - Campus - 13.07.2023

Environment - Innovation - 13.07.2023
'co-operate': model for climate-friendly construction
’co-operate’: model for climate-friendly construction
The future Empa and Eawag campus is set to become an inspiring space for new ideas and innovation, also with a view to environmentally and climate-friendly construction of the future.

Health - Environment - 12.07.2023
EPFL launched a pioneering project to detect pollen, dust and smoke
EPFL launched a pioneering project to detect pollen, dust and smoke
Since the start of this year, a suite of instruments has been hard at work detecting a broad spectrum of aerosols at the MeteoSwiss weather station in Payerne, in Vaud Canton.

Environment - 11.07.2023
CO2 statistics 2022: Emissions from gasoline and diesel down slightly
CO2 statistics 2022: Emissions from gasoline and diesel down slightly
CO2 emissions from fuels (gasoline and diesel) decreased by 1.1 percent in 2022 compared to the previous year.

Environment - Computer Science - 11.07.2023
A new app to identify plants more precisely
A new app to identify plants more precisely
There are plenty of plant identification apps - but only few, that directly help research.

Environment - Administration - 11.07.2023
’Federal systems are experimental spaces for a sustainable state.’
Steps toward sustainability are an important topic for many administrations. How does -sustainabilization- work in the Swiss cantons? Marius Christen and Basil Bornemann from the University of Basel examined this question.

Environment - 11.07.2023
Birds and the heat
Birds and the heat
In the last few days it has been exceptionally hot. Not only we humans feel the effects of the current weather situation, also the birds have to come to terms with the high temperatures.

Music - Event - 10.07.2023
Does exoticism in music still exist?
Does exoticism in music still exist?
For their project -The Armenian presence at the Montreux Jazz Festival - A study of the Tigran Hamasyan Quintet concert in 2014-, Léandre Guy and Basile Tornare explored what exoticism means in music and the limits of genres.

Health - Environment - 10.07.2023
Moderate Temperatures Also Cause Death - Not Only Extreme Heat
Moderate Temperatures Also Cause Death - Not Only Extreme Heat
Recent analyses by Swiss TPH show that not only heat waves, but also moderately hot temperatures, contribute to heat-related fatalities. On behalf of the Swiss federal government, Swiss TPH now monitors heat-related deaths in Switzerland on an annual basis. This monitoring provides a long-term record of the effects of climate change on health and helps to identify adaptation measures.

Computer Science - 06.07.2023
One app brings all means of transport together
One app brings all means of transport together
A new mobility app brings together public transport, micromobility solutions and private carpooling.

Life Sciences - Health - 05.07.2023
Working together to train and empower the next generation of biomedical researchers
Working together to train and empower the next generation of biomedical researchers
ETH Zurich and Roche are joining forces in Basel to advance the development of new methods that facilitate the search for medicines. Together, they will train specialists for the biomedical challenges of our time. ETH Zurich and Roche are to collaborate more closely in two new research and training programmes.

Life Sciences - 04.07.2023

Health - Pharmacology - 03.07.2023
Fighting tumours down to the last cancer cell
Researchers at PSI have developed a new drug that could increase the survival chances of patients with metastatic prostate cancer. The drug is now being tested on patients in the PROGNOSTICS project. A research consortium consisting of the Paul Scherrer Institute, the University Hospital Basel and ETH Zurich is receiving two million Swiss francs in funding for this project.

Art and Design - 03.07.2023
Bringing Leonardo da Vinci's designs to life
Bringing Leonardo da Vinci's designs to life
STUDENT PROJECTS - Fourteen mechanical engineering students spent a semester getting inside the head of Leonardo da Vinci. Using his drawings from the 15th and 16th centuries, the teams built ingenious machines - altering the design in some cases - in order to better understand how they worked. The "Da Vinci Project," a concurrent engineering project devised by Prof. Pedro Reis, created a buzz of excitement among the three participating teams of final-year Bachelor's students.