wire - news in brief

A combination of high-dose vitamin D, omega-3 fatty acids and a simple home strength exercise program (SHEP) can cumulatively reduce the risk of cancer in healthy adults over the age of 70 by 61 percent, the international DO-HEALTH study led by the University of Zurich has shown. It is the first study to test the combined benefit of three affordable public health interventions for the prevention of invasive cancers.

A research team at the University of Zurich has helped people affected by Long Covid identify the problems they most urgently want scientists to tackle, through a collaborative citizen science approach. The topics identified as most pressing include the development and clinical testing of effective therapies, appropriate healthcare structures, increased awareness as well as better data on children and adolescents affected by the disease.

How does childcare outside of the family affect the development of children and adolescents? To answer this question, researchers at the University of Zurich surveyed around 1,300 Zurich school children, their parents and teachers. The survey suggests that the more time children spend in external daycare, the more likely they are to exhibit problematic behavior; however, this behavior generally disappears at the end of primary school.

What do people with multiple sclerosis, dementia or chronic pain go through? What are their experiences of medical practices or hospitals like? What kind of support do they find helpful? The new dipe

Self-learning algorithms, rare earths, and robots bestowing blessings: In the exhibition "Planet Digital", mounted by the University of Zurich and the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, innovative research teams meet up with creative minds from the fields of design and art.

An international research team succeeded in identifying global factors that explain the diversity of form and function in plants. Led by the University of Zurich, the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena and the University of Leipzig, the researchers collected and analyzed plant data from around the world.

The majority of Swiss people approve of how their government is regulating the economy.

Professional quality media, particularly in times of crisis, help to put facts and numbers in context and stem the tide of false information.

Only very few people in Switzerland feel highly excluded - including mostly foreigners, less educated people, young people as well as older people.

UZH Space Hub and Airbus Defence and Space are sending an experiment into space on the next resupply flight to the International Space Station (ISS) with the aim of advancing the industrial production of human tissue in microgravity.

Patients with COPD are treated with drugs to improve the breathing ability in combination with inhaled corticosteroids to reduce the risk of acute worsening of the lung conditions. But the balance between reduced exacerbations and increased adverse effects of the drugs depends on the dose and on patient characteristics.

Financial scandals or just normal human behaviour? Neuroeconomists at the University of Zurich have shown in an experimental setting that most people are willing to steal half of the earnings of a la

Women are severely underrepresented in Swiss media coverage compared to men. Only about one in four people featured in media reports are female.

People who have contact with other social groups are more likely to be committed to social justice. However, an international study led by the University of Zurich has shown that for this to be the case, power relations and discrimination must be actively addressed and group-specific needs must be met.

The active ingredient aducanumab, which was discovered at the University of Zurich, has been approved for use in the United States as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease.

Researchers at the University of Zurich show how climate mitigation scenarios can be improved by taking into account that the financial system can play both an enabling or a hampering role on the path to a sustainable economic system. To limit global warming, a profound transformation of energy, production and consumption in our economies is required.

Researchers at the University of Zurich show that increased sensitivity in a specific region of the brain contributes to the development of anxiety and depression in response to real-life stress. Their study establishes an objective neurobiological measure for stress resilience in humans. Some people don't seem to be too bothered when it comes to handling stress.

For many centuries, the people of southern Sumatra saw themselves as living on a ship floating between the sea and the heavens.

Reflecting on how you have overcome past personal challenges can help you process negative experiences, a new study from the University of Zurich confirms. Actively reminding yourself of your self-efficacy could also prove useful in the coronavirus era. The unpredictable nature of life during the coronavirus pandemic is particularly challenging for many people.

Adult female giraffes who spend time in larger groups with other females live longer than less sociable individuals. The effects of sociability on survival outweigh other factors such as environment or human presence, a study of giraffes in Tanzania led by the University of Zurich has shown. A research team led by Monica Bond, research associate at the Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies of the University of Zurich (UZH), studied giraffes in Tanzania for five years.

A female-typical language style promotes the popularity of talks in the digital context and turns out to be an underappreciated but highly effective tool for social influence. This was shown by UZH psychologists in an international study in which they analyzed 1,100 TED Talks. A large part of social interaction nowadays takes place digitally.

The people of Switzerland have confirmed their faith in science in the present COVID-19 pandemic. They would like to see scientists contributing their expertise more vigorously to the public and political debate. And most of them believe that political decisions on dealing with the pandemic should be based on scientific findings and foundations.

Natural selection causes organisms to adapt continuously. Researchers at the University of Zurich now show for the first time that proteins in bacteria develop a new property more rapidly when the selection pressure is high. Natural selection can thus also increase the evolutionary capacity itself.

Bread wheat can grow in highly diverse regional environments. An important reason for its great genetic variety is the cross-hybridization with many chromosome fragments from wild grasses. This is shown by the genome sequences of 10 wheat varieties from four continents, which an international consortium including researchers from the University of Zurich has now decoded.

A new exhibition in the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich delves into the recent history of the Ayoréode, a nomadic people in the forests of Bolivia, who have had to adapt to settled life for decades.

Trust or disappointment in government crisis management is an important factor for the general mood, shows a study by the University of Zurich based on surveys in Israel and Switzerland.

In times of uncertainty, people increasingly return to traditional news media. This increased usage has not, however, resulted in additional revenues.

Researchers have investigated ancient leather balls discovered in the graves of horse riders in northwest China.

The city of Zurich supported slavery and slave trade in the 18th century financially and played a role in the deportation of thousands of Africans.

The University of Zurich is introducing five new University Research Priority Programs focusing on equal opportunities, human reproduction, rare diseases, digital religions and basic principles of learning.

In a project under Horizon 2020, researchers from seven European organizations will examine how the vision of visually impaired people can be restored using electrical stimulation of the brain.

The fourth parabolic flight organized by the UZH Space Hub takes off today from Dübendorf airfield. A reorganization taking into account Corona safety measures has made this possible.

Hematopoietic stem cells from a healthy donor can help patients suffering from acute leukemia. However, the side effects of therapies are often severe. A group of researchers led by the University of Zurich have now shown how human healthy and cancerous hematopoietic stem cells can be more selectively eliminated using immunotherapy instead of chemotherapy in mice.