Research

Swiss electricity generation has a very low carbon footprint. However, this is often not the case for imports. Researchers from the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Automation, led by Empa researcher Loris di Natale, investigated how electric cars could help reduce the need for energy imports from fossil fuels.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a tiny robot that mimics the movement of a starfish larva. It is driven by sound waves and equipped with tiny hairs that direct the fluid around it, just like its natural model. In the future, such microswimmers could deliver drugs to diseased cells with pinpoint accuracy.

Changing temperatures and varying winds over the seasons cause great fluctuations in Lake Geneva. The LéXPLORE research platform monitored the movement of water within the lake for a year to learn more about how natural factors influence the lake’s mixing. The resulting analysis now paints a fuller picture of mixing in large lakes, which had previously only been studied over shorter time periods.

Like many land plants, seagrasses live in symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen and Eawag now show that seagrass in the Mediterranean Sea lives in symbiosis with bacteria that reside in their roots and provide the nitrogen necessary for growth. Such symbioses were previously only known from land plants. The study was published in the journal Nature.

In a new study, researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI show that CO₂ electrolysis can not only be profitable, but can also contribute to climate protection. With this method, carbon dioxide is captured from the atmosphere or at the point of production, such as an industrial plant. An electrolysis cell then converts the gas for industrial use, such as in chemicals production. The study, published today in the journal Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, simulates the use of different cell designs on an industrial scale.

Researchers in EPFL’s College of Humanities have used machine learning to reveal how humans bridge the often-significant gaps between signal and meaning in communication.

Our lakes, rivers and streams are teeming with the smallest creatures, plants and bacteria that are barely visible to the naked eye, if at all. An underwater camera makes it possible to observe and identify the species of these creatures in real time.

At the beginning of August this year, a part of the sixth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was released. Chemist Margit Schwikowski, head of the Laboratory for Environmental Chemistry at PSI, contributed to this work. In an interview, she explains what aerosols have to do with climate change.

Using CRISPR technology, researchers at EPFL and the University of Geneva have uncovered the complex dance of genes involved in embryonic development.

Using novel technology, researchers advance our understanding of anxiety’s connection to brain-body interactions. For the first time, they show how the brain perceives and predicts altered states of breathing; quantifying links between anxiety and the brain’s perception of the body’s inner signals.

In a study of transactions involving non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which represent digital works of art, EPFL scientists have found that the NFT market has much the same structure as interactions on social networks. Their pioneering study is the first of its kind.

These days, the cause of death in cancer patients often isn’t the primary tumour, but metastases. With his research, biochemist Nicola Aceto has found a new way to prevent the formation of such secondary tumours. To achieve this, the Latsis laureate had to repeatedly fight against the prevailing wisdom.

Buildings that own and run themselves: this idea, from the think-tank Dezentrum, was put into action for the first time at ETH Zurich in the form of a prototype. The result is a meditation cabin that shakes up the usual economic and social expectations.

Microplastics, owing to their chemical properties, can carry micropollutants into a fish’s digestive system where they are subsequently released through the action of its gastric and intestinal fluids. EPFL scientists, working in association with other research institutes, have studied this process by looking specifically at progesterone – often pointed to as an endocrine disrupter.

Green tea is seen as healthy and promotes a longer life supposedly due to its high level of antioxidants. Researchers at ETH Zurich have now cast doubt on previous assumptions about how these ingredients work.