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Environment - Aug 11
Astronomy - Aug 10
Researchers from ETH Zurich discover the first definitive proof that the Moon inherited indigenous noble gases from the Earth's mantle. The discovery represents a significant piece of the puzzle towards understanding how the Moon and, potentially, the Earth and other celestial bodies were formed.
Physics - Aug 9
Crystals consisting of wildly mixed ingredients - so-called high-entropy materials - are currently attracting growing scientific interest. Their advantage is that they are particularly stable at extremely high temperatures and could be used, for example, for energy storage and chemical production processes. An Empa team is producing and researching these mysterious ceramic materials, which have only been known since 2015.
Environment - Aug 10
Researchers at the University of Bern have investigated how organic, biodynamic and conventional management in vineyards affects insect fauna. They were able to show that organic - and to a lesser extent biodynamic - management provides better habitat conditions for insects than conventionally managed vineyards.
Health - Aug 5
Most vaccines require constant refrigeration during shipment to remain effective. An international research team led by ETH Zurich has now developed a special hydrogel that vastly improves the shelf life of vaccines, even without refrigeration. The development could save many lives and lower the cost of cold chains.
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Results 1 - 20 of 231.
As an additive in toothpaste, it protects our teeth from decay. But when fluoride occurs in nature in larger quantities and accumulates in groundwater, it can become a hazard for our health. For the first time, scientists have produced a detailed map of global fluoride contamination in groundwater and shown which regions of the world are particularly affected.
Researchers from ETH Zurich discover the first definitive proof that the Moon inherited indigenous noble gases from the Earth's mantle. The discovery represents a significant piece of the puzzle towards understanding how the Moon and, potentially, the Earth and other celestial bodies were formed. Humankind has maintained an enduring fascination with the Moon.
Researchers at the University of Bern have investigated how organic, biodynamic and conventional management in vineyards affects insect fauna. They were able to show that organic - and to a lesser extent biodynamic - management provides better habitat conditions for insects than conventionally managed vineyards.
Crystals consisting of wildly mixed ingredients - so-called high-entropy materials - are currently attracting growing scientific interest. Their advantage is that they are particularly stable at extremely high temperatures and could be used, for example, for energy storage and chemical production processes.
Most vaccines require constant refrigeration during shipment to remain effective. An international research team led by ETH Zurich has now developed a special hydrogel that vastly improves the shelf life of vaccines, even without refrigeration. The development could save many lives and lower the cost of cold chains.
By demonstrating that ketamine induces only a brief increase in dopamine and does not alter neuronal communication, a team from the UNIGE suggests that its therapeutic use may be safe. Commonly used in medicine as an anaesthetic, ketamine is also increasingly prescribed to relieve depressive symptoms.
Researchers of the Wellcome Sanger Institute and ETH Zurich have created the first full connectivity map of the human immune system, showing how immune cells communicate with each other and ways to modulate these pathways in disease. The immune system is made up of specialised cells, some of which individually travel through the body to scan for signs of injury or disease.
Scientists at the Institute of Virology and Immunology (IVI) and the University of Bern report on a Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (VSV)-vectored COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Their work shows that intramuscular immunization of mice with VSV-vectored COVID-19 vaccines is inducing strong antibody responses against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein if the vector has been complemented with a specific protein.
A method known as quantum key distribution has long held the promise of communication security not possible in conventional cryptography. For the first time, an international team of scientists, including researchers from EPFL, has demonstrated experimentally an approach to quantum key distribution based on high-quality quantum entanglement - offering much broader security guarantees than previous schemes.
Satellite data affords researchers a new method for quantifying carbon mobilisation in Arctic permafrost. Their findings also reveal how summer heatwaves accelerate the rate of Arctic landslides in thawing permafrost. In the northernmost region of the earth the arctic permafrost is melting at an accelerated rate.
A study by the HUG, the UNIGE and the EPFL shows that almost all Genevans (93.8%) have antibodies against SARS-CoV 2 but less than one in two (46.7%) have them against the BA.4/BA. Omicron sub-variants. A study by the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG), the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Geneva and the EPFL shows that almost all Genevans (93.8%) have antibodies against SARS-CoV 2, almost three quarters of whom acquired them through an infection.
A team of researchers at Empa developed a water-activated disposable paper battery. The researchers suggest that it could be used to power a wide range of low-power, single-use disposable electronics - such as smart labels for tracking objects, environmental sensors and medical diagnostic devices - and minimize their environmental impact.
Non-invasive brain stimulation can restore optimal motor skill acquisition in people with diminished learning capabilities, e.g. due to age. The study was carried out by scientists at EPFL. Even though we don't think about it, every movement we make in our daily life essentially consists of a sequence of smaller actions in a specific order.
Digital tools are critical to improve the care for sick children, particularly in resource-constrained settings. In a new study, Swiss TPH and partners were able to show the positive impact of a digital clinical decision support system on improving the management of childhood illness in primary care in Nigeria.
An ETH risk researcher has concluded that Energy Strategy 2050 doesn't work. The Energy Science Center at ETH Zurich disagrees: extensive research shows that the energy transition is feasible and makes sense, writes Gabriela Hug together with her ESC colleagues. Earlier this month, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper reported that huge dependence on electricity imports in winter was imminent if the Swiss federal government went through with the Energy Strategy including nuclear phase-out.
As wave specialists, seismologists map the structure of planets from the information that seismic waves carry. Now, the team led by ETH professor Andreas Fichtner is also using this knowledge for medical imaging. Both ultrasound for medical imaging and seismology for imaging the Earth's interior measure the propagation of waves through matter.
The physics of snow slab avalanches similar to that of earthquakes
Scientists from EPFL and the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF have gained deeper insight into how snow slab avalanches form, paving the way to more effective risk assessment measures for these catastrophic events that induce more avalanche accidents and fatalities every year than other types of avalanches.
Scientists from EPFL and the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF have gained deeper insight into how snow slab avalanches form, paving the way to more effective risk assessment measures for these catastrophic events that induce more avalanche accidents and fatalities every year than other types of avalanches.
The steadily worsening climate crisis caused by the accumulation of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere makes the search for ideas to store CO2 increasingly important. Prof. Ben Engel's team at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel together with colleagues from the Universities of Frankfurt and Marburg, has now shed light on the structure of an enzyme that reveals a new way of storing CO2.
Researchers have shown that people's perception of office temperature can vary considerably. Personalized climate control could therefore help enhance workers' comfort - and save energy at the same time. Global warming means that heatwaves are becoming ever-more frequent. At the same time, we're in a global race against the clock to reduce buildings' energy use and carbon footprint by 2050.
Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a method that enables time-resolved measurements of electron motion in water clusters lasting only a few attoseconds. The technique can be used for more detailed studies of water as well as faster electronics. Virtually all vital chemical processes take place in aqueous solutions.
News from the Lab is a selection of science news that are significant or interesting for a broad readership.
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