news 2018

Probiotics - live bacteria with beneficial effects on human health - are believed to hold out great promise for certain therapeutic applications. But do these bacteria remain viable when they are frozen or freeze-dried for storage? Eawag's expertise in drinking water microbiology enabled to it provide valuable support for a study of gut microbes carried out in the Food Biotechnology Laboratory at ETH Zurich.

What happens when something keeps getting smaller and smaller? This is the type of question Empa researcher Johann Michler and his team are investigating. As a by-product of their research completely novel watch springs could soon be used in Swiss timepieces. Applied research is not always initiated by industry - but oftentimes it yields results that can swiftly be implemented by companies.

EPFL scientists have developed a machine-learning approach that can be combined with experiments to determine, in record time, the location of atoms in powdered solids. Their method can be applied to complex molecules containing thousands of atoms and could be of particular interest to the pharmaceutical industry.

A new material for energy-efficient data storage reaches computer operating temperature Multiferroics are considered miraculous materials for future data storage - as long as their special properties can be preserved at computer operating temperatures. This task has now been accomplished by researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, with colleagues from Institut Laue-Langevin ILL in Grenoble.

Researchers from EPFL and Stanford have developed small drones that can land and then move objects that are 40 times their weight, with the help of powerful winches, gecko adhesives and microspines. A closed door is just one of many obstacles that no longer pose a barrier to the small flying robots developed jointly by Stanford University and Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland.

Using laser technology Empa scientists optimized a technique to weld the electronics of implantable pacemakers and defibrillators into a titanium case. The medtech company Medtronic is now using the method worldwide to produce these devices. In Tolochenaz (Canton of Vaud) the US medtech company Medtronic produces one out of five heart pacemakers available on the global market and one out of four defibrillators.

Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) In collaboration with colleagues from the ETH Zurich, researchers at the University of Bern have for the first time investigated a substance found in liverwort, which resembles THC. The psychoactive substance, which is consumed as a "legal high", also exerts analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects, which might be superior to that of THC.

Scientists at EPFL have found a new way to boost the famous anti-aging molecule NAD+ in the kidney and liver by blocking an enzyme that limits its production. Publishing in Nature, the researchers have also developed two enzyme blockers that are shown to protect against kidney and liver disease. Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) is a major player in nutrition today.

Air pollution and transportation noise are both associated with an increased risk of heart attacks. Studies on air pollution, which do not take into account traffic noise, tend to overestimate the long-term effect of air pollution on heart attacks. These are the results of a study conducted by researchers from the University of Basel and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, published in the European Heart Journal.

Air pollution and transportation noise are both associated with an increased risk of heart attacks. Studies on air pollution, which do not take into account traffic noise, tend to overestimate the long-term effect of air pollution on heart attacks. These are the results of a study conducted by the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, and published today in the European Heart Journal.

EPFL scientists have developed a miniaturized electronic platform for the stimulation and recording of peripheral nerve fibers on a chip. By modulating and rapidly recording nerve activity with a high signal-to-noise ratio, the platform paves the way to using chips to improve neuroprosthetic designs.

A new neural recording technique developed by EPFL bioengineers enables for the first time the comprehensive measurement of neural circuits that control limb movement. Tested on the fruit fly, results from the technique may inspire the development of more sophisticated robotic control approaches. One of the major goals of biology, medicine, and robotics is to understand how limbs are controlled by circuits of neurons working together.

Roche's Alecensa (alectinib) significantly reduced the risk of disease worsening or death as a first-line treatment in Asian patients with ALK-positive advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer Head-to-head phase III study of Alecensa versus crizotinib in Asian patient population showed a reduction in the risk of disease worsening or death by 78% Alecensa lowered the risk of tumour spread or growth in the brain or central nervous system

Even though the water we've used for washing our hands is barely contaminated, it usually disappears down the drain, never to be used again. A newly developed system allows handwashing water to be recycled, thus not only saving water, but also helping to prevent infectious diseases in developing countries.

According to the prevailing opinion, species-rich ecosystems are more stable against environmental disruptions such as drought, hot spells or pesticides. The situation is not as simple as it seems, however, as ecologists have now discovered. Under certain environmental conditions, increased biodiversity can also lead to an ecosystem becoming more unstable.

Graphene has been hailed as the material of the future. As yet, however, little is known about whether and how graphene affects our health if it gets into the body. A team of researchers from Empa and the Adolphe Merkle Institute (AMI) in Fribourg have now conducted the first studies on a three-dimensional lung model to examine the behavior of graphene and graphene-like materials once they have been inhaled.

Analysis of ice cores delivers continuous data for the first time on industrial soot from 1740 to today In the first half of the 19th century, a series of large volcanic eruptions in the tropics led to a temporary global cooling of Earth's climate. It was a natural process that caused Alpine glaciers to grow and subsequently recede again during the final phase of the so-called Little Ice Age.

House mice carrying a specific selfish supergene move from one population to another much more frequently than their peers. This finding of a study shows for the first time that a gene of this type can influence animal migratory behavior. It could help in dealing with invasive plagues of mice. Usually the cooperation of genes helps an organism to grow and flourish.

Researchers have carried out a study using smartphone data from young Swiss people to better understand the circumstances in which they are most likely to drink. A computer model developed from the data can estimate, with over 75% accuracy, whether alcohol was consumed on a given weekend night. Do young people drink more out on the town or at a friend's place?

On Saturday 20 October 2018, at 03:45 a.m. CET, the BepiColombo space probe is to set off on its journey to Mercury from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. On board the European Space Agency (ESA) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)'s joint space probe are instruments which were designed and built at the Physics Institute of the University of Bern: the laser altimeter BELA-the largest and most sensitive instrument of the mission-and the innovative mass spectrometer STROFIO.