Research

The European Research Council is supporting the MEMELAND research project of a European research team with over 13.5 million euros. Nathalie Dubois from Eawag is a member of the group. The aim is to provide a new narrative for European environmental history, offering decisive insights for sustainable agriculture and climate protection in Europe.

Non-native plants promote the spread of invasive insects, increasing risks to ecosystems worldwide.

A team of three European researchers will develop an imaging method to non-invasively measure the stiffness of moving organs such as the heart. The researchers will be supported by the European Research Council.

The European Space Agency ESA has a new point of contact in Switzerland: ESA and the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have launched the European Space Deep-Tech Innovation Centre ESDI. It is now located in the immediate vicinity of PSI, in Park Innovaare.

The Empa Innovation Award recognizes outstanding projects that bridge the gap between the laboratory and industry. This year, a team of researchers from Empa and ETH Zurich is being honored for an innovative sensor system: SensAL warns quickly and precisely of life-threatening complications after abdominal surgery.

An ETH Zurich team of engineers has developed RoBoa – a snake-like robot with the ability to grow in length and slither into the most inaccessible places.

The Hotlab at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI is a unique experimental facility for analysing highly radioactive materials – its 60^th anniversary marks a milestone not only in the institute’s history but also in the history of Swiss nuclear technology as a whole. 

Imad El Haddad analyses the chemical composition and health impacts of particulate matter at the Center for Energy and Environmental Sciences of the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI. 

EPFL researchers have combined virtual reality, non-invasive brain stimulation and advanced brain imaging techniques to improve spatial navigation in healthy participants. The study is a first step in addressing dementia in an aging population without medication or surgery.

In times of climate crisis and food shortages, the cultivation of microalgae is a promising solution that could fundamentally change the way we produce animal feed, bioplastics or biofuel. However, the enormous potential is still largely untapped, which is partly due to undeveloped cultivation methods. One of the challenges is to protect the cultures against pests. A new publication by Eawag now shows that co-cultures of different microalgae are more resistant to pests than monocultures.

Quantum technologies exploit the unusual properties of the most fundamental building blocks of matter. They promise breakthroughs in communication, computing, sensors and much more. However, quantum states are fragile, and their effects are difficult to grasp, making research into real-world applications challenging. Empa researchers and their partners have now achieved a breakthrough: Using a kind of “quantum Lego”, they have been able to accurately realize a well-known theoretical quantum physics model in a synthetic material.

A secure supply of electricity from renewable energies can only succeed if we also modernise the grid infrastructure. At the Energy Science Centre (ESC), ETH researchers are looking for smart ways to make the electricity grid fit for the energy transition without expensive expansion.

There’s more to climate-neutral aviation than just reducing emissions during flights. A PSI study analyses what is needed to achieve this long-term goal.

A new study by EPFL reveals that the notorious bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa must balance between effectively colonizing human airways and developing antibiotic tolerance to survive.

In dementia diseases such as Alzheimer's, incorrectly folded proteins accumulate in the brain. Empa researchers have now resolved a particularly active species of protein fibrils with unprecedented precision. The formation of potentially toxic molecules on the surface of protein fibrils was studied from early to late stages spanning over a period of hours. The researchers recently published their results in the journal Science Advances.