wire - news in brief

3-D X-ray imaging makes the finest details of a computer chip visible
Researchers of the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have made detailed 3-D images of a commercially available computer chip. This marks the first time a non-destructive method has visualized the paths of a chip's internal wiring (just 45 nanometres — 45 millionths of a millimetre — wide) and its 34-nanometre-high transistors clearly without distortions or deformations.

Is Reliable Artificial Intelligence Possible?
In the quest for reliable artificial intelligence, EPFL scientist Marcel Salathé argues that AI technology should be openly available.

Honour for Empa Environmental Scientist

Spiders Eat 400-800 Million Tons of Prey Every Year
It has long been suspected that spiders are one of the most important groups of predators of insects.

Rays of hope for patients
Tumours of the eye are rare. Yet for those affected, they mean a stroke of fate that involves not only the loss of vision but often the whole eye as well.

Sandoz announces winners of inaugural Healthcare Access Challenge (Sandoz HACk)
Three winners, chosen by expert panel at Wired Health 2017 in London, identified innovative approaches to address access challenges in Ghana, the Maldives and the Philippines.

Novartis Kisqali (ribociclib, LEE011) receives FDA approval as first-line treatment for HR+/HER2- metastatic breast cancer in combination with any aromatase inhibitor
Novartis Kisqali (ribociclib, LEE011) receives FDA approval as first-line treatment for HR+/HER2- metastatic breast cancer in combination with any aromatase inhibitor Approved based on a first-line P

Joint Efforts Towards Treating Paralysis
EPFL scientists Stéphanie Lacour and Grégoire Courtine report on the status of their research and share their vision about the future of wearable neuroprosthetics at this year's edition of South by South West in Austin, Texas, on March 12 th .

New professors appointed
The ETH Board appointed three new professors and awarded the title of Professor to five recipients upon application of ETH President Lino Guzzella At its meeting of 8/9 March 2017, the ETH Board appo

Nominations of EPFL professors
The Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology has announced the appointment of three professors at EPFL.

Ali H. Sayed appointed new dean of the School of Engineering

People who Trust Their Doctor Tend to Feel Better
Confidence in doctors, therapists and nursing staff leads to an improvement in subjectively perceived complaints, satisfaction and quality of life in patients. This is the conclusion of a meta-analysis by psychologists at the University of Basel, published in the journal PLOS ONE. Trust in doctors, therapists and nursing staff is a key requirement when treating patients, and is already laid down as a principle in the ethical guidelines and professional codes of each clinical field.

An insight into the workplace of tomorrow
Could we soon be working alongside robots' Treffpunkt Science City will focus on this and other questions at the Experience Sundays dedicated to "Working in the World 4.0".

Building a nomadic pavilion out of old skis
Could recovered materials play a key role in tomorrow‘s civil engineering' EPFL researchers set out to answer that question by creating an easily demountable pavilion out of more than 200 reclaimed skis.

Building a nomad pavilion out of old skis
Could recovered materials play a key role in tomorrow‘s civil engineering' EPFL researchers set out to answer that question by creating an easily demountable pavilion out of more than 200 reclaimed skis.

Up-and-coming scientists compete at EPFL
On Saturday, EPFL hosted 250 budding young scientists - aged between 8 and 15 - in the fifth annual ‘Curious and Inventive' science competition, run by the school's Science Outreach Department.

New data demonstrate Sandoz proposed biosimilar adalimumab has equivalent efficacy to reference medicine
Sandoz proposed biosimilar adalimumab (GP2017) shown to have equivalent efficacy and a similar safety profile as reference medicine, Humira * Comprehensive development program show potential of GP2017 to treat inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and plaque psoriasis Study reinforces strength of Sandoz pipeline and its key role in the broader Novartis immunology portfolio Holzkirchen, 6 March 2017 - Sandoz, a Novartis division, and the pioneer and global leader in biosimilars, today presented data for its proposed biosimilar adalimumab (GP2017).

Novartis’ Cosentyx shows almost all psoriasis patients rapidly regain skin clearance following a treatment pause
New analysis shows 94% of patients on Cosentyx regained PASI 75, with up to 80% of patients regaining PASI 90 to 100 after only 16 weeks of retreatment   Cosentyx has shown superior and sustained results versus both Stelara and Enbrel, delivering long-lasting clear or almost clear skin (PASI 90 to 100) ,   Cosentyx has treated 80,000 patients worldwide to date and is the only IL-17A inhibitor approved in psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis and ankylo

Learning languages on the Hönggerberg campus

Mathematics as key competency
Data collection and analysis is becoming increasingly important in today's world. This is particularly true for the economic and societal development of poorer nations.

Environmental aspects in financial market policy: Federal Council is informed of progress made
Bern, 03.03.2017 - Sustainability is important also for the financial markets.

New "heart" for CERN’s CMS experiment
CERN's CMS experiment - one of the detectors at the Large Hadron Collider received a new heart today - a pixel detector much like a high-speed digital camera that snaps images up to 40 million times per second. Earlier today, physicists and engineers at CERN replaced the heart of the Compact Muon Solenoid ( CMS ) experiment, one of the two general purpose particle physics detectors that discovered the Higgs boson in 2012.

X-ray pulses make atomic oscillations
Researchers from the Max Born Institute in Berlin, Empa and the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have, for the first time, been able to observe minute, ultrafast atomic oscillations in a crystal lattice with the help of a new experimental technique. These oscillations, which are triggered by light pulses, are based on a physical effect - Raman scattering - which was postulated about 100 years ago.

Roche’s Perjeta regimen helped people with an aggressive type of early breast cancer live longer without their disease returning compared to Herceptin and chemotherapy
Phase III APHINITY study shows Roche's Perjeta regimen helped people with an aggressive type of early breast cancer live longer without their disease returning compared to Herceptin and chemotherapy

Globi at ETH
ETH Zurich received a visit from one of Switzerland's most famous comic book heroes this morning. While his latest book was presented to media professionals and members of the book trade, Globi entertained a group of around 30 children who had received an exclusive invitation to the event.

Better health services for the chronically ill
The SNSF is launching the National Research Programme ‘Smarter Health Care'. 29 research teams will be looking for ways of providing better and more cost-efficient health services for people with chronic diseases.

Researchers Imitate Molecular Crowding in Cells
Enzymes behave differently in a test tube compared with the molecular scrum of a living cell. Chemists from the University of Basel have now been able to simulate these confined natural conditions in artificial vesicles for the first time. As reported in the academic journal Small, the results are offering better insight into the development of nanoreactors and artificial organelles.

Crystalline and liquid at the same time
When matter is cooled to near absolute zero, intriguing phenomena emerge. These include supersolidity, where crystalline structure and frictionless flow occur together. ETH researchers have succeeded in realising this strange state experimentally for the first time. Solid, liquid or gas - we encounter these three clearly defined states of matter every day.

Stem cells derived neuronal networks grown on a chip as an alternative to animal testing
Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) Scientists at the Institute for Infectious Diseases, University of Bern have developed an in vitro stem cell-based bio

Welcome to Esiville
With increasing expansion of solar and wind plants, integrating irregularly generated power into the existing energy system is becoming a challenge.

Novartis shareholders approve all resolutions proposed by Board of Directors at the Annual General Meeting
Shareholders approve 20 th consecutive dividend increase to CHF 2.75 (+2%) per share for 2016; representing a 3.5% yield and approximately 69% payout of free cash flow   Dr. Joer

Sustainable ceramics without a kiln
ETH material scientists have developed a new method of manufacturing ceramics that does not require the starting materials to be fired. Instead, they are compacted under high pressure at room temperature in a significantly more energy-efficient process. The manufacture of cement, bricks, bathroom tiles and porcelain crockery normally requires a great deal of heat: a kiln is used to fire the ceramic materials at temperatures well in excess of 1,000°C.

At home in NEST
Two students are now living in the NEST unit Vision Wood. Communications intern Ramona Ronner visited Patryk Spera and David Norris in their very unusual flat, and talked to them about their life in a research environment.

Employment barometer in the 4th quarter 2016: Employment growth remains stable
Neuchâtel, 27.02.2017 (FSO) - In the 4th quarter 2016, total employment (number of jobs) rose by 0.3% in comparison with the same quarter a year earlier (+0.2% with previous quarter).

Using google to map our ecosystem
Researchers in the Singapore-ETH Centre's Future Cities Laboratory developed a method to quantify ecosystem services of street trees. Using nearly 100,000 images from Google Street View, the study helps further understanding on how green spaces contribute to urban sustainability. Do you remember the last time you escaped the hot summer sun to enjoy a cool reprieve in the shade beneath a broad-leafed tree? While sizzling summer days may seem far away right now in the northern hemisphere, tropical cities like Singapore deal with solar radiation on a daily basis.

Federal Councillor Berset visits the Disney lab
Federal Councillor Alain Berset was invited by Lino Guzzella to visit ETH Zurich on Friday. Berset seemed very impressed by what he saw at the Disney Research Zurich research laboratory.

Novartis receives positive CHMP opinion for Tafinlar + Mekinist in BRAF-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients
If approved, Tafinlar + Mekinist will be the first targeted therapy specifically for NSCLC patients with a BRAF V600 mutation CHMP opinion based on positive data from pivotal study of patients with B

Antarctica: the ACE expedition completes its second leg
The ACE expedition has arrived in Chile. This marks the end of its second leg, during which the researchers made a stop on Antarctica, explored little-known ecosystems using a remote-controlled submersible and visited relatively uncharted territory.

Novartis drug Zykadia receives FDA Priority Review for first-line use in patients with ALK+ metastatic NSCLC
Priority Review based on Phase III study results showing 16.6 month median progression-free survival in previously untreated ALK+ metastatic NSCLC patients on Zykadia vs.

Reappointment of Gian-Luca Bona

2nd edition of the Swiss Cleantech
Six years after it first appeared, the second edition of the Swiss Cleantech Report was unveiled today at a press conference in Zurich.

Reduction of energy consumption and CO2 emissions: promotion or steering?
Policy interventions to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions have a variety of effects on the economy and on households.

Seven terrestrial exoplanets around a nearby star
An international team of astronomers has discovered a compact analogue of our inner solar system about 40 light-years away. Brice-Olivier Demory of the Center of Space and Habitability at the University of Bern, analysed the data collected with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and calculated that the newly detected exoplanets all have masses less or similar to the Earth.

‘For EU countries, Switzerland is an interesting laboratory’
Vincent Kaufmann, an EPFL researcher, has co-authored an essay on Switzerland's recent referendums on mobility and the free movement of people.

Innovation cannot be taught; it must be learned
ETH President Lino Guzzella welcomed Alexander van der Bellen to the University on Friday, where the Austrian President was shown how ETH is encouraging innovation.

Selenium deficiency promoted by climate change
As a result of climate change, concentrations of the trace element selenium in soils are likely to decrease.

Informatics, innovation and ethics: 36 research projects explore big data
The SNSF is launching the National Research Programme ‘Big Data', which aims to develop novel methods of information analysis, to create specific applications and to suggest solutions to the ethical and legal challenges posed by big data. Several billion gigabytes of data are created each day.