A long-term study on the effects of the coronavirus pandemic is being carried out in the cantons of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft. The study contains both a digital survey that looks at the effects of COVID-19 on individual's quality of life, as well as conducts antibody testing (a seroprevalence study). Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft are equally contributing to the costs of the long-term study, which is being carried out by Swiss TPH. The study will take place from July to December 2020. This week, randomly selected people will be contacted within the two Basel cantons.

Scientists have tracked the eye movements of children to show how they make the link - spontaneously and without instructions - between vocal emotion (happiness or anger) followed by a natural or virtual face.

Living close to human settlements disturbs the social networks of giraffes. They have weaker bonds with other giraffes and fewer interactions with other members of the species, an international study led by the University of Zurich on the social structure of over 500 female giraffes in Tanzania has shown.

Swissuniversities has adopted a new transformative Open Access agreement with Springer Nature. This agreement provides Swiss researchers with access to SpringerLink with over 2'000 Hybrid journals and enables authors affiliated with the Swiss academic and research institutions to publish their accepted research papers Open Access, making this primary research immediately and freely accessible from the point of publication.

Dolphins learn new foraging techniques not just from their mothers, but also from their peers, a study by the University of Zurich has found. More than 1,000 bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Western Australia were observed over 10 years and found to have cultural behavior that is similar to great apes.

New research from ETH Zurich shows that holding events for new students before they enter university is an investment that pays off. Incoming students benefit from the chance to meet, mingle and form friendships at orientation events, which contributes to their long-term academic success.