news

Swiss scientists have developed probes designed to reveal the physical forces inside living cells. A world first. The detection of physical forces is one of the most complex challenges facing science. Although Newton's apple has long solved the problem of gravity, imaging the physical forces that act in living cells remains one of the main mysteries of current biology.

A team of international scientists has been investigating new technologies that enhance the physical and cognitive skills of human beings, as well as their development and distribution in society. The need to put an appropriate framework in place is becoming increasingly urgent. Human enhancement technologies are opening up tremendous new possibilities.

Researchers in Geneva, Switzerland and the United States highlight the link between abnormal body weight in very young children and a higher risk of developing eating disorders in adolescence. Eating disorders - anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa or bine eating disorder - usually start in adolescence and often leave young patients and their families helpless.

UNIGE researchers have discovered the fundamental role of the Not1 protein, which allows proteins to find each other and assemble at a precise pace, in the right place and at the right time. To perform properly the task for which they have been synthesized, proteins must first assemble to form effective cellular "machines".

What happens in the brain of a person who uses drugs compulsively - Researchers at the UNIGE have identified the brain circuit that controls this addictive behavior. What happens in the brain of a person who uses drugs compulsively - Does this function differently in a person who uses drugs in a controlled way?To solve this enigma, neurobiologists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) have studied the differences in brain function between these two categories.

Researchers have observed that elephants regulate their body heat through their skin, which cracks into deep cracks, absorbing a maximum water. An intricate network of minuscule crevices adorns the skin surface of the African bush elephant. By retaining water and mud, these micrometer-wide channels greatly help elephants in regulating their body temperature and protecting their skin against parasites and intense solar radiation.

A research team developed a computer programme to identify mutations causing certain genetic diseases by analysing the genome sequencing data. The software can also detect the mutations leading to the appearance of tumours in patients with cancer. It is available to researchers all over the world.

Explaining the diversity of leg shapes in the animal kingdom and hereditary defects in finger Scientists have discovered a genetic mechanism that defines the shape of our members in which, surprisingly, genes play only a secondary role.

A team of physicists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) has measured a giant optical phenomenon in graphene. This material, the discovery of which was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics, consists of a single layer of carbon atoms. Its exceptional properties are at the heart of global research in disciplines as diverse as engineering, biology and chemistry, with great potential for future applications.