news 2020

The world stands still. People work at home, cars stay in garages, planes on the ground. Determining the amount of pollutants in our atmosphere is extremely exciting, especially in these times. Empa researchers are analyzing and evaluating the amounts of pollutants measured at stations throughout Switzerland.

As a new study shows, more than 10,000 years ago, people in the southwest of the Amazon began growing manioc and squash, 8,000 years earlier than previously thought. The area is thus one of the early Holocene centres of plant domestication in the world. People also changed the landscape by creating thousands of so-called forest islands.

A recent publication by Florian Altermatt, a research group leader at Eawag and Professor of Aquatic Ecology at the University of Zurich, began as an address to a gathering of legal experts.

ETH researchers analysed various possibilities for reducing the net CO2 emissions of the chemical industry to zero. Their conclusion? The chemical industry can in fact have a carbon-neutral future. Switzerland's Federal Council has decided that the country should become carbon-neutral by 2050. This may be challenging as far as car traffic and the entire power sector are concerned, but not impossible - with systematic electrification and the exclusive use of carbon-neutral energy sources, for example.

You were already collecting wastewater samples in Ticino weeks ago - why? Christoph Ort (environmental engineer): We have many years of experience in the measurement of illicit drugs in wastewater.

Large open-water fish predators such as tunas or sharks hunt for prey more intensively in the temperate zone than near the equator. With this result, a study headed by Marius Roesti of the University of Bern is challenging a long-standing explanation for the distribution of biodiversity on our planet.

Climate change is threatening the world's coral reefs, and saving them all will prove impossible. A team from EPFL has developed a method for identifying corals with the greatest adaptive potential to heat stress. The research, published in the journal Evolutionary Applications, should support improved and better-targeted marine biodiversity conservation strategies.

The Tech4Dev program connects EPFL researchers with NGOs in order to develop technologies able to address specific needs in the global South and withstand local conditions. Four projects have been awarded grants following the first call for proposals. The global North and South have differing climates, economies and infrastructure.

To date, air pollution represents the largest environmental risk to health. According to the World Health Organization, air pollution is responsible for about one in every nine deaths annually. A new study by Swiss TPH used robust modelling methodology to estimate nitrogen dioxide levels in Europe through the combination of monitors, satellites and chemical transport models.

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have developed a new method to analyse particulate matter more precisely than ever before. With its help, they disproved an established doctrine: that molecules in aerosols undergo no further chemical transformations because they are enclosed in other suspended particulate matter.

Biology shows us that there are additional ways to reduce the risk of serious coronavirus infections, in addition to hand hygiene and keeping distance, Viola Vogel writes. We all know the importance of good hand hygiene and of keeping our distance if we want to protect ourselves and others from infection with the novel coronavirus.

A particularly warm winter is coming to an end - in summer the next heat wave is looming. Is it possible to create cool zones in cities to tackle the more pronounced heat island effects due to climate change? Empa researchers have developed a simulation program that can make detailed predictions about which pavement and which type of vegetation could help.

Researchers from ETH Zurich investigated whether it would be technically and economically feasible for households to achieve energy self-sufficiency using photovoltaics alone in the temperate Swiss climate by the middle of the century. By 2050, photovoltaic technologies that convert sunlight into electricity could enable many singleand multi-family buildings in Switzerland to produce enough energy to meet their own consumption needs, including the charging of electric vehicles.

At high species richness, directed loss, but not random loss, of tree species strongly decreases forest productivity. This is shown by data from a big forest project in China in which the University of Zurich is involved. Previous studies based on random species loss could therefore bias the predictions of how more realistic extinction scenarios are likely to affect ecosystem functioning.

Wealthy individuals are increasingly investing in agriculture. Their investments boost production of plant-based raw materials for human consumption, industrial uses, and animal fodder. The resulting capital flows directly contribute to deforestation in the global South, especially in the tropics. That is the conclusion of a new study by the University of Bern's Centre for Development and Environment (CDE).

CO2 concentrations in the air continue to rise rapidly, and a rapid reduction in man-made emissions is becoming increasingly important. In order to assess the effectiveness of political measures, timely and reliable emission levels are needed. However, current methods are costly. The European Space Agency ESA is therefore working on the development of new satellites which will be able to determine CO2 emissions in the future - with the help of Empa.

As of March 2020, the new "Concrete and Asphalt" lab will strengthen Empa's research in the field of building materials. Innovative technologies and materials for sustainable production and use are particularly in demand in these areas, as these two building materials, with an annual volume of more than 4.5 billion tonnes, account for the largest proportion of all materials used worldwide by far.

As climate changes and extreme weather events become more commonplace, we will need to fundamentally rethink how we produce renewable energy. Researchers at EPFL have developed a simulation method to reduce the adverse influences due to climate-related uncertainties in the energy sector and guarantee robust operation of energy infrastructure during extreme climate events.

An international research team has studied genetic diversity among fish around the world for the first time. Their research produced a map that will serve as a tool in improving the protection of species and genetic diversity in the future. In a population of animals or plants, genetic diversity can decline much more quickly than species diversity in response to various stress factors: disease, changes to habitat or climate, and so on.

Researchers from the University of Geneva have studied the seismic activity recorded during the drilling of a geothermal well and shown that it did not spark any major earthquake. Although stopping climate change is challenging, it is imperative to slow it down as soon as possible by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.