wire - news in brief

A new EU regulation aims to shrink the environmental footprint of biofuels starting in 2021. But an EPFL scientist thinks we should go one step further and take into account all compounds produced at biorefineries, not just biofuel.

EPFL's Laboratory of Soil Mechanics has developed an easily reproducible technique using bacteria and urea to reinforce sandy or gravelly terrain.

EPFL's Laboratory of Soil Mechanics has developed an easily reproducible technique using bacteria and urea to reinforce sandy or gravelly terrain.

A new joystick developed by startup MotionPilot lets users fly drones with just one hand in a fun, intuitive way.

Knowledge sharing is an important driving force behind scientific progress. In an open-science approach, EPFL's Blue Brain Project has created and open sourced Blue Brain Nexus that allows the building of data integration platforms.

A dazzling victory at the Solar Decathlon, artificial intelligence generating melodies, virtual reality to reduce phantom pain, a robot-fish spy, 12 million francs for a Center of Artificial Muscles.. Some of the EPFL's research and milestones that marked the year 2017.

A PhD student in civil engineering at EPFL and a recent architecture graduate joined forces to make a bench out of exceptionally resistant glass.

EPFL President Martin Vetterli has today unveiled plans to create the EPFL Center for Digital Trust.

Scientists see inside a sealed testament from the State Archives of Venice using EPFL technology - without breaking the wax seal­­ - and reveal the last wishes of a Venetian lady from the year 1351. EPFL physicists reveal the last wishes of a Venetian woman from the year 1351 contained in a wax-sealed document, without breaking the seal.

Opened less than a year ago, the Swiss Data Science Center - a joint initiative between EPFL and ETH Zurich - has already launched eight research projects in fields ranging from personalized medicine and environmental protection to open science. Each project brings together experts from several disciplines to join forces in tackling some of society's biggest challenges.

The EPFL Extension School offers online courses with no prerequisites, enabling participants to obtain a Certificate of Open Studies from EPFL.

Researchers at EPFL have developed a new device and analysis method that let doctors measure the neurochemicals in a patient's brain. The  Microsystems Laboratory 4 (LMIS4)'s system involves collecting microdroplets of cerebral fluid and analyzing them to obtain chemical data that can help doctors diagnose and treat neurodegenerative diseases.

An EPFL study commissioned by the Canton of Bern has come up with three possible ways of protecting the Sutz-Lattrigen archaeological site, which offers a rare insight into the lives of pile dwellers.

Just 25 years ago, Vaud astronaut Claude Nicollier boarded the Space Shuttle Atlantis for the first of what would be four missions in space.

EPFL scientists from the Center for Neuroprosthetics have used functional MRI to show how the brain re-maps motor and sensory pathways following targeted motor and sensory reinnervation (TMSR), a neuroprosthetic approach where residual limb nerves are rerouted towards intact muscles and skin regions to control a robotic limb.

An important breakthrough by EPFL researchers could lead to the discovery of a set of general laws applicable to the environmental sciences. Is there a link between a given species' body mass and its abundance, or between the size of an ecosystem and its level of biodiversity? Ecologists often find that similar relationships of this type exist in different ecosystems.

In Switzerland - not to mention the rest of Europe and the United States - freshwater fish are falling victim to a deadly disease that is rampant in the summer and dormant in the winter. It is caused by a parasite that thrives in rivers and attacks salmonid fish in particular. Researchers from EPFL, EAWAG and FIWI have come up with a mathematical model for predicting outbreaks as part of a three-year joint research program.

EPFL researchers have developed a smartphone app for passengers to evaluate their experience in real time and view other users' ratings.

The United States Food and Drug Administration has just registered Abionic's rapid allergy diagnostic system, which tests for sensitivity to four common respiratory allergens in the United States.

Use your brainwaves to control the workings of a machine and contribute to science at EPFL ArtLab's next art-science exhibition, "Mental Work" from October 27 th - February 11 th , 2018.

Given the growing number of users and the widening range of devices, streaming is no longer viable in its current form owing to the substantial amount of power and storage capacity it requires.

Fabien Sorin, an assistant professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Section, has been awarded the 2017 Credit Suisse Award for Best Teaching.

The Swiss students who went to Denver to compete in this year's Solar Decathlon are living out their dream.

crowdAI, an EPFL-developed open data science challenge platform that hosts machine learning competitions, has been awarded over $100,000 from Amazon and Nvidia for its latest challenge, "Learning to Run" .

Swiss people may be ready to live car-free under certain conditions. The findings of PostCarWorld, a cross-disciplinary study into Swiss people's contradictory relationship with cars, will be presented at EPFL on 3 October.

The world's leading researcher in entrepreneurship and EPFL Vice-President for Innovation, Marc Gruber, along with co-author Sharon Tal, have written the book "Where to play", a practical strategy th

A team of researchers has collected new data that shows a significant decrease in snow precipitation close to the ground in Antarctica, which has an impact on the ice sheet surface mass balance. Researchers have observed and characterized a weather process that was not previously known to occur in Antarctica's coastal regions.

A series of experiments at EPFL provide conclusive evidence that the brain uses a single mechanism (supramodality) to estimate confidence in different senses such as audition, touch, or vision. The study is published in the Journal of Neuroscience. Behavioral scientists and psychologists use the term "metacognition" to describe our ability to access, report and regulate our own mental states: "thinking about thinking", "knowing about knowing" "being aware about being aware", are all higher-order cognitive skills that fit this category.

Walking on two legs isn't as easy as it seems. Especially for robots, where a natural stride is a major challenge. Researchers at EPFL's Biorobotics Laboratory are testing novel systems to improve humanoids' ability to walk and interact. For humans, it comes perfectly naturally. But walking on two legs is actually a complicated task, requiring several muscles to perform delicate balancing acts.

Scientists from Switzerland and the US have shown that lymphatic vessels can enable both metastasis and T-cell invasion, opening new paths for cancer immunotherapy. Many cancers, such as melanoma, are known to metastasize and spread by expanding nearby lymphatic vessels. This process, lymphangiogenesis, also helps the tumor evade the patient's own immune system, and it would be expected that inhibiting lymphangiogenesis, could enhance the efficacy of cancer immunotherapies, which are only effective in a minority of patients.

L.E.S.S. and Flyability - two EPFL startups - are among the podium finishers in the latest TOP 100 Swiss Startups ranking, which was announced yesterday evening in Zurich.

EPFL's physicists are moving forward in their efforts to solve the mysteries of the universe. A particle detector made up of 10,000 kilometers of scintillating fiber is under construction and will be added onto CERN's particle accelerator.

Using a thermal camera mounted on a drone, an EPFL student has found a way to spot fawns before the harvester passes through.

Summer Series: Sarah Herrman is visiting Pierre Gönczy's lab at EPFL from the University of California, Santa Cruz.