wire - news in brief

Large-Mouthed Fish Was Top Predator After Mass Extinction
Possible look of the newly discovered predatory fish species Birgeria americana with the fossil oft he skull shown at bottom right (Artwork: Nadine Bösch) The most catastrophic mass extinction on Earth took place about 252 million years ago - at the boundary between the Permian and Triassic geological periods.

A Wooden Toe: Swiss Egyptologists Study 3000-Year-Old Prosthesis
It is likely to be one of the oldest prosthetic devices in human history: Together with other experts, Egyptologists from the University of Basel have reexamined an artificial wooden big toe. The find is almost 3000 years old and was discovered in a female burial from the necropolis of Sheikh ŽAbd el-Qurna close to Luxor.

A new view of the world
The Swiss World Atlas has been published in a completely revised new edition. In addition to the usual topographic relief maps, it also contains maps on current global issues such as the environment, energy and conflicts. Since 1910, the Swiss World Atlas has accompanied generations of secondary school pupils through their geography lessons, conveying not only a comprehensive picture of the earth, but also the specific geography of Switzerland.

Landscapes remain under pressure
Bern, 01.06.2017 - Landscapes play an important role in Switzerland's quality of life and attractiveness as a location. They remain under considerable pressure: the latest results of the Landscape Monitoring Switzerland programme reveal a continuous deterioration in the quality of the country's landscapes.

Reconstructing a lake’s history by simple means
Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) The sediments of Lake Van in Eastern Anatolia (Turkey) are a valuable climate archive.

Two's company when it comes to 3D mapping
EPFL researchers have developed the terrestrial and aerial components of a European spatial and urban mapping project.

Prehistoric alpine farming in the Bernese Oberland
Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) The people in Switzerland were on the move in the High Alps and running alpine pastures 7,000 years ago and therefore much earlier than previously assumed. A study by the University of Bern that combines archaeological knowledge with findings from palaeoecology comes to this conclusion.

Archival photos offer research value
A crowdmapping project developed by EPFL and HEIG-VD gives volunteers the chance to compare the Switzerland of the 1960s with that of today through archival photos.

The dream of building bridges
The French geologist Matthieu Galvez is one of the winners of the Branco Weiss Fellowship 2016. We discuss how he will be using this fellowship, how it will benefit him and why he chose a career as a researcher.

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.

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.

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.

A novel socio-ecological approach helps identifying suitable wolf habitats in human-dominated landscapes
The wolf was eradicated in Switzerland and from large parts of continental Europe including France and Germany by the end of the 19th century. Following legal protection, the wolf population started naturally increasing and expanding, and in 1995 its presence was confirmed in Switzerland. Sightings have increased since.

Bern study rehabilitates climate models
Media releases, information for representatives of the media Media Relations (E) With new methods of reconstruction, climate researchers in Bern have been able to demonstrate that some 9,000 to 5,000 years ago, the Mediterranean climate was considerably warmer than previous studies had suggested. Among other things, previous concerns regarding the reliability of climate models could thus be dispelled.

Chronicle of a catastrophic landslide
Dramatic developments have been documented at the Aletsch glacier, where the ice has retreated at such a pace that an adjoining slope has also started to move rapidly. With the help of a unique dataset, researchers are able to demonstrate a direct connection between the ice loss of the Aletsch glacier and the slippage of the Moosfluh slope.

Bhutan's happiness stems from its hydropower too
EPFL researchers are supporting this Himalayan country's efforts to expand its hydropower capacity. At a time when dams in Switzerland are up for sale, another small mountainous country intent on preserving its natural environment is looking to further tap into its hydroelectric potential.

Three months in the Antarctic to unlock the secrets of our climate
The Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition (ACE), the first project run by the Swiss Polar Institute (SPI), will set sail this evening from South Africa.

A month at sea expanding her horizons and knowledge
EPFL student Oriane Etter and 48 other students from universities around the globe just completed the ACE Maritime University.

The open-air researcher
Atmospheric scientist Julia Schmale is starting out, together with more than fifty other researchers, on a three-month research cruise around the Antarctic.

Anchors aweigh and off to the Antarctic!
The research ship Akademik Treshnikov is due to set sail for Cape Town tomorrow, transporting researchers and equipment for a major Antarctic circumnavigation expedition.

Cadmium, cocoa beans and chocolate
Cocoa from Latin America tends to show higher cadmium levels than cocoa from other growing areas. ETH researchers have been investigating the underlying cause in Honduras and Bolivia. A few years ago, the press picked up on worrying reports by German scientists that dark chocolate can sometimes contain significant amounts of cadmium, a poisonous heavy metal.

Swiss Researchers Fly Into Weightlessness
The dream of weightlessness came true on Saturday for two researchers from the University of Basel. During a parabolic flight, the scientists tested a newly developed measuring device under reduced gravity. The instrument analyzes the deposition of sediments and is intended to support the search for life on Mars.

Second research flight into zero gravity
A year ago, the University of Zurich conducted its first parabolic flight for test purposes from Swiss soil. Now a second aircraft is ready for lift-off to research zero gravity: Tomorrow (Saturday), an Airbus A310 ZERO-G is set to take off from the air force base in Dübendorf equipped with scientific experiments from the Universities of Zurich, Basel, Lucerne and ETH Zurich.

University of Zurich launches initiative for the Digital Society
Buzzwords like Industry 4.0 or Big Data and the massive spread of digital technology, such as smartphones, apps or vehicles with state-of-the-art computers, all show one thing: Thanks to digitization, our society, our world of work and our free time are in the throes of a fundamental transformation.

Freshening of the Southern Ocean
Over the past decades, the northward drift of sea ice surrounding Antarctica has strengthened.

Newly created Swiss Polar Institute to launch an Antarctic expedition
18.04.16 - The Swiss Polar Institute will study the Earth's poles and extreme environments.

Newly created Swiss Polar Institute to launch a Antarctic expedition
18.04.16 - The Swiss Polar Institute will study the Earth's poles and extreme environments.

Off to Tierra del Fuego
Levels of greenhouse gas CO2 continue to rise and are about to exceed the next threshold. Empa makes sure that this and other air pollutants can be measured correctly and in a globally comparable way.

Fireproof hybrid wood
For centuries, wood has been a popular light, solid building material. Moreover, it is a renewable and easily recyclable raw material - with one drawback: wood burns. But this doesn't necessarily have to be that way, as researchers from Empa demonstrate. Ecological construction is all the rage. Aspects such as the sustainability and energy efficiency of buildings are crucial.

Prey scarcity and competition led to extinction of ancient monster shark
It lived millions of years ago and was three times as large as the great white shark: the megalodon.

Angelika Kalt is the new Director of the SNSF

Putting carbon back where it came from: underground
17.12.15 - Will the future run entirely on renewables? According to Lyesse Laloui, the Paris Climate Conference could be catalytic, but in the meantime, we may have to bury our CO 2 emissions underground.

Revived oceanic CO 2 uptake
A decade ago scientists feared that the ability of the Southern Ocean to absorb additional atmospheric CO 2 would soon be stalled.

“An extra expenditure that paid off!”
Ten years ago, ETH Zurich began collaborating with TU Delft and RWTH Aachen on a trinational Joint Master Programme in Applied Geophysics.

Pebbles that Disrupt Landscapes
Transported by water or wind, sediments have a significant impact on the environment, and we cannot really quantify the magnitude of these events.

Paleoclimatology - revisiting a tiny prehistoric witness
New insights into the growth dynamics of minuscule marine organisms could help put the study of Earth's climate, both present and prehistoric, on a more solid footing. For hundreds of millions of years, the tiny shells of single-celled marine organisms called foraminifera have been accumulating on the ocean floor.

First atlas on oceanic plankton
In an international collaborative project, scientists have recorded the times, places and concentrations of oceanic plankton occurrences worldwide.

Computed tomography provides real-time 3D pictures showing how oil and water flow in porous rock
Media Releases For the first time, experiments using computed tomography have allowed scientists to observe in 3D the flow of oil and water in real rock on an unprecedented scale. The new approach trailed and the information gathered by the experiments contribute to an improved understanding of multiphase flow and transport in porous media.

Fast-moving floods threaten TGV train lines
Torrential storms can wreak havoc on train tracks. An EPFL laboratory has been commissioned by the French national train network, SNCF, to reproduce the consequences of extreme weather events at a very small scale.

Reconstruction of atmospheric lead concentrations in Russia since 1680
A research team from the Paul Scherrer Institute has reconstructed the concentration record of lead in the atmosphere in Russia since 1680. As no continuous atmospheric lead measurements had been made, the researchers are able to give the first outline of what the record could have been like. The results demonstrate a significant increase in the atmospheric lead concentrations since the 1930s and a significant reduction since the 1970s.

The art of shutting down a nuclear plant
Gaëtan Girardin, researcher in nuclear engineering, gives us the key to understanding nuclear reactor safety.

EPFL's long history of engineering geology
It was an era of massive construction projects - dams, roads, and bridges - and many felt there was a need to better understand and control the behavior of the soil and rock underpinnings of all these infrastructures.

EPFL's long history of Geotechnical Engineering
It was an era of massive construction projects - dams, roads, and bridges - and many felt there was a need to better understand and control the behavior of the soil and rock underpinnings of all these infrastructures.

ARVE published in "Global Change Biology"
ARVE researchers at EPFL/ENAC publish in "Global Change Biology" on the effects of land use and climate change on the carbon cycle of Europe over the past 500 years! Learn more on http://arve.epfl.ch

Getting inside the mind (and up the nose) of our ancient ancestors
Reorganisation of the brain and sense organs could be the key to the evolutionary success of vertebrates, one of the great puzzles in evolutionary biology, according to a paper by an international team of researchers, published today in Nature.

Back from Beijing prize in hand
A group of EPFL students is returning from Beijing with the third place prize from the international iCAN micro- and nanotechnology contest.

Groundwater of the Geneva basin under scrutiny from hydrogeologist
Could our drinking water resources be at risk from drought, among other things? The canton of Vaud has commissioned an EPFL laboratory to draw up a geological map of the conservation and the water resources.

EPFL takes on the Vendée Globe in Bernard Stamm’s wake
The navigator from the Swiss canton of Vaud is working with EPFL to equip his new boat, Rivages, designed for the Vendée Globe 2012.