wire - news in brief
Category
Results 101 - 150 of 402.
Biologists at Eawag have identified ten species of whitefish in the lakes of the Reuss river system. Of these, seven have been described as distinct species for the first time - although in two cases this required inspection of specimens from historical collections, since eutrophication of lakes in the 20th century also led to the extinction of fish species in Central Switzerland.
Electronic components are becoming smaller, more complex and more powerful - this calls for new solutions for joining them. An Empa team is developing nanostructured joining materials for the next generation of microelectronics and other demanding applications. Gordon Moore was right. In April 1965, the US engineer and later co-founder of Intel predicted that the number of transistors on a chip would double about every two years.
On January 31, the EPFL Spacecraft Team's onboard computer Bunny was launched in California, USA, hosted on a D'Orbit spacecraft as part of Starlink's 2-6 mission.
Restoring nature equitably
Efforts to restore degraded ecosystems have so far fallen short of meeting global targets. Sound restoration must better incorporate social processes promoting equity in order to effectively benefit people, climate and biodiversity, says Sara Löfqvist. The United Nations Biodiversity Conference in Montreal closed this past December with an unprecedented agreement to place 30 percent of global degraded landscapes under protection by 2030, especially emphasizing the need to respect indigenous and local communities rights in the process.
Efforts to restore degraded ecosystems have so far fallen short of meeting global targets. Sound restoration must better incorporate social processes promoting equity in order to effectively benefit people, climate and biodiversity, says Sara Löfqvist. The United Nations Biodiversity Conference in Montreal closed this past December with an unprecedented agreement to place 30 percent of global degraded landscapes under protection by 2030, especially emphasizing the need to respect indigenous and local communities rights in the process.
The snowfall level is rising, and the amount of snow falling - if any - is less than usual. As a result, summer and autumn droughts are becoming more frequent.
An action plan to prevent Alzheimer’s disease
As the population ages, the number of people with Alzheimer's disease in Europe will double by 2050.
As the population ages, the number of people with Alzheimer's disease in Europe will double by 2050.
One of the greatest unknowns in climate change is the question of how particulate matter affects clouds. Yu Wang is using machine learning and satellite data to investigate the surprising role of these tiny particles in the atmosphere. In autumn 2014, Iceland's Holuhraun volcano erupted, spewing daily about 120,000 tonnes of sulphur dioxide into the air at its peak.
Researchers have analyzed soil samples from the Josefwiese on behalf of the city of Zurich and detected elevated dioxin levels.
Researchers want to develop a novel type of insulating material from plant-based raw materials or waste products that can permanently bind the CO2 it contains by means of a special heat treatment - and thus act as a CO2 sink.
Antibodies against coronaviruses coldspots discovered
The coronavirus keeps evolving, and in doing so, it evades our immune defences. But does the entire coronavirus evolve, or do some portions remain unchanged? Sieving through over 10 million coronavirus sequences, two PhD students at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB, Switzerland, affiliated with the Università della Svizzera italiana) discovered that some portions of the virus spike (the molecule on the virus that is key to infect human cells) were remarkably conserved.
The coronavirus keeps evolving, and in doing so, it evades our immune defences. But does the entire coronavirus evolve, or do some portions remain unchanged? Sieving through over 10 million coronavirus sequences, two PhD students at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB, Switzerland, affiliated with the Università della Svizzera italiana) discovered that some portions of the virus spike (the molecule on the virus that is key to infect human cells) were remarkably conserved.
In 1886, the first hydropower plant went into operation in Littau, Lucerne, to supply the Swiss AC grid.
Waste causes problems not only on Earth, but also in space. A research team from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts is currently developing a space debris detector. This can autonomously control satellites that are to clean up space in the future. Above our heads, there is a huge mess: In low-Earth orbits - about 800 km above the Earth - there are currently around 5,500 active and defective satellites orbiting.
A recent publication explores the unique history of dormitories from the Middle Ages to present day.
Men Are Leaving Feminizing Occupations
Many women and men still work in sex-typed occupations. One important reason for this is that men are selectively leaving occupations that are increasingly taken up by women, a recent study from the University of Zurich has shown. This could explain swings in the sex compositions of jobs and why some specializations within occupations become female or male-dominated.
Many women and men still work in sex-typed occupations. One important reason for this is that men are selectively leaving occupations that are increasingly taken up by women, a recent study from the University of Zurich has shown. This could explain swings in the sex compositions of jobs and why some specializations within occupations become female or male-dominated.
Christophe Girot brought landscape architecture into the digital world and taught a generation of architects how to think on a larger scale.
Experts Call for Enhanced Cooperation Between Human, Animal and Environmental Health
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed weaknesses in the world's global health security networks. A global -One Health- approach is crucial for preventing, monitoring and responding to future public health emergencies.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed weaknesses in the world's global health security networks. A global -One Health- approach is crucial for preventing, monitoring and responding to future public health emergencies.
Large amounts of particulate matter in the air are known to be harmful to human health. But many questions remain unanswered: Which components are particularly dangerous? At what concentrations? The "oxidative potential" of particulate matter could serve as a criterion for assessing risks in the future - and researchers have explored it for Switzerland.
Researchers at ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal research institute WSL have developed a flying device that can land on tree branches to take samples. This opens up a new dimension for scientists previously reserved for biodiversity researchers. Ecologists are increasingly using traces of genetic material left behind by living organisms left behind in the environment, called environmental DNA (eDNA), to catalogue and monitor biodiversity.
Becoming a lab head
In this new series, we feature FMI alumni and the diverse careers they have chosen after leaving our institute.
In this new series, we feature FMI alumni and the diverse careers they have chosen after leaving our institute.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has appointed the SLF to be the world's leading competence centre for snow monitoring. The WMO's Infrastructure Commission based its decision on the fact that the SLF already possesses high-quality measuring infrastructure and over 80 years of knowledge. When the test site was set up on the Weissfluhjoch above Davos, at an altitude of 2,536 metres, more than eight decades ago, nobody could have imagined the measuring instruments and methods that would go on to be developed.
In 1986, UZH physicist and IBM Fellow K. Alex Müller and his colleague J. Georg Bednorz revolutionized solid-state physics with the discovery of the first high-temperature superconductor.
Synthetic energy carriers are carbon-neutral and make renewable energy transportable and storable in the long term. Synthetically produced methane is one of them. The problem: The production involves rather high energy losses; moreover, existing processes require the methane to be purified. To change this, researchers have developed a new, optimized reactor concept for methanation.
A tool to detect higher-order phenomena in real-world data
Researchers have developed a novel approach to network analysis that allows them to reveal and interpret, for the first time, interactions among multiple variables in data from neuroscience, economics, and epidemiology. Many phenomena - brain signals, stock prices, or COVID hospitalizations, for example - can be studied using time series data, which are collected as repeated measurements over a given time interval.
Researchers have developed a novel approach to network analysis that allows them to reveal and interpret, for the first time, interactions among multiple variables in data from neuroscience, economics, and epidemiology. Many phenomena - brain signals, stock prices, or COVID hospitalizations, for example - can be studied using time series data, which are collected as repeated measurements over a given time interval.
The newly established Postdoc Team Award allows UZH to recognize outstanding interdisciplinary research.
Are we witnessing the rise of a different, adaptive artificial intelligence (AI) that works with humans and supports them with smart decisions? Computer scientist Niao He is investigating how this kind of AI can be theoretically underpinned so that it really does provide benefits. As a researcher, Niao He has both people and technology in mind.
