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It is not easy to make batteries cheap, efficient, durable, safe and environmentally friendly at the same time. Researchers at ETH Zurich have now succeeded in uniting all of these characteristics in zinc metal batteries. The world needs cheap and powerful batteries that can store sustainably produced electricity from wind or sunlight so that we can use it whenever we need it, even when it's dark outside or there's no wind blowing.

Modern brick facades mostly consist of homogeneous bricks. The Keller companies and HSLU researchers have developed a production process for bricks that opens up completely new design possibilities for architects. The joint Innosuisse research project arose from an award-winning thesis in the Master Design at HSLU.

Researchers have developed fiber-like pumps that allow high-pressure fluidic circuits to be woven into textiles without an external pump. Soft supportive exoskeletons, thermoregulatory clothing, and immersive haptics can therefore be powered from pumps sewn into the fabric of the devices themselves.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed an electronic yarn capable of precisely measuring how a person's body moves. Integrated directly into sportswear or work clothing, the textile sensor predicts the wearer's exhaustion level during physical exertion. Exhaustion makes us more prone to injury when we're exercising or performing physical tasks.

Scientists from the Adolphe Merkle Institute and Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, USA) have developed a flexible robot, inspired by earthworms, that can squeeze into small spaces and move in all directions regardless of the surface . Soft robots with worm-like mechanical properties and shape can, in principle, move over rough terrain and into tight spaces inaccessible to other robots.

Researchers at ETH Zurich achieved a shape memory effect for the first time with objects that are only a few nanometers in size. This can be used to manufacture tiny machinery and robotic devices on the nanoscale. Alloys that can return to their original structure after being deformed have a so-called shape memory.

Researchers have for the first time estimated how probable the accidental release of nanomaterials will be in the future. They based this on models from the nuclear industry. For a risk assessment, the results now have to be linked to information about the hazardous nature of the materials. Every year, more than two million tonnes of nanomaterials are produced and used for a wide variety of consumer goods.

The next unit at NEST, the research and innovation building of Empa and Eawag, goes by the name of STEP2. For about two years, partners from research and industry have been working on various innovations in the fields of circular economy, digital and industrial fabrication, building envelope and energy systems, turning them into products ready for market entry.

Researchers have published a method for 3D-printing an ink that contains calcium carbonate-producing bacteria. The 3D-printed mineralized bio-composite is unprecedently strong, light, and environmentally friendly, with a range of applications from art to biomedicine. Nature has an extraordinary knack for producing composite materials that are simultaneously light and strong, porous and rigid - like mollusk shells or bone.

Researchers have developed an extraordinary protection against corrosion after a chance discovery. It glows in places where it is not damaged, repairs itself - and can be reused multiple times. Skyscrapers, bridges, ships, aeroplanes, cars - everything humans make or build sooner or later decays. The ravages of time are known as corrosion; nothing is safe from it.

Researchers have studied residues from the incineration of graphene-containing plastics. Conclusion of the study: Burned composite materials containing graphene nanoparticles can be considered harmless in case of acute exposure. Due to its exceptional properties, graphene is now added to a wide range of plastics.

In a new approach to security that unites technology and art, researchers have combined silver nanostructures with polarized light to yield a range of brilliant colors, which can be used to encode messages. Cryptography is something of a new field for Olivier Martin, who has been studying the optics of nanostructures for many years as head of the Nanophotonics and Metrology Lab EPFL's School of Engineering.

Despite their huge potential, the way perovskite solar cells respond to external stimuli - such as heat or moisture - has a considerable impact on their stability. Researchers at EPFL have identified the cause of degradation and developed a technique to improve stability, bringing us closer to widespread adoption of these cost-effective and efficient solar cells.

After extensive analyses, researchers found the cause of the concrete scandal in County Donegal, Ireland, where structural damage has been causing red faces and protests for years: Concrete walls of thousands of houses are riddled with cracks, necessitating expensive repairs or even demolition. For the longest time, an excessively high mica content in the concrete was thought to be the reason.

Bifacial thin film solar cells based on copper indium gallium diselenide or CIGS can collect solar energy from both their front and their rear side - and thus potentially yield more solar electricity than their conventional counterparts. So far, however, their fabrication has led to only modest energy conversion efficiencies.

Researchers from ETH Zurich have developed a new transparent gold nanocoating that harnesses sunlight to heat the lenses of glasses, thereby preventing them from fogging in humid conditions. This coating could potentially also be applied to car windshields. Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed an ultrathin, gold-based transparent coating that is able to convert sunlight into heat.

Using a new analytical method, researchers have tracked viruses as they pass through face masks and compared their failure on the filter layers of different types of masks. The new method should now accelerate the development of surfaces that can kill viruses, the team writes in the journal Scientific Reports.

Hearing-impaired people whose auditory nerve is still intact can often be helped with a cochlear implant. But inserting the implant into the inner ear is not without risks, as facial nerves can be damaged in the process. researchers have developed a novel smart drill that minimizes the risk by automatically shutting off when it comes near nerves.

Together with EPFL and ETH Zurich colleagues, an Empa team is developing next-generation VR gloves that will make virtual worlds tangible. The glove is to be tailored to each user and capable of being produced largely automatically - using a 3D printing process. Research sometimes needs a sacrifice.

For the first time, researchers have been able to make a superconducting component from graphene that is quantum coherent and sensitive to magnetic fields. This step opens up interesting prospects for fundamental research. Less than 20 years ago, Konstantin Novoselov and Andre Geim first created two-dimensional crystals consisting of just one layer of carbon atoms.