Research

A cultural landscape reflects the combined activity of nature and humans. Where has the equilibrium of this union been lost? And how can we restore the balance? 

Athina Anastasaki joined ETH Zurich in 2019. Her research focuses on the next generation of polymers and recycling processes for these. She wants to recover all the starting materials and use them to produce new materials for other applications.

Is natural always good and artificial always bad? We talked to psychologist Angela Bearth and biotechnologist Sven Panke about science, scepticism, misunderstandings and how language influences the way we think.

Formerly widespread, native crayfish in Switzerland are now highly endangered. With support from Eawag, experts are doing everything they can to preserve the secretive river dwellers.

EPFL scientists in a European collaboration propose a personalized protocol for optimizing stimulation of optic nerve fibers, for the blind, which takes into account feedback from the viewer’s brain. The protocol has been tested on artificial neural networks known to simulate the physiology of the entire visual system, from the eye to the visual cortex. The stimulation protocol will be tested in clinical trials with partners in Rome.

For mathematician Joaquim Serra, sketches are a gateway to insight. Sketching out geometric relationships helps him unlock the abstract reasonings required to prove his theorems. On Sunday, he is being honoured for his research into partial differential equations.

A research consortium has deciphered the mechanism of CCR5 receptor activation, providing insights for the development of CCR5 drug antagonists for AIDS, cancer, and inflammatory diseases.

EPFL has just opened a new imaging center to serve as a hub for state-of-the-art technology in imaging systems. The only one of its kind in Switzerland, the center pools the imaging expertise that is currently housed at nearly a hundred laboratories in five EPFL schools. The goal is to facilitate cross-disciplinary research and anchor EPFL’s position at the cutting edge of imaging technology for research applications.

The level of self-sufficiency indicates the extent to which agricultural performance ensures food security. But it’s not geared to the challenges that confront agriculture today, says Roman Hüppi.

The most ancient ice in the Alps will be preserved in Antarctica: During its expedition to the Monte Rosa massif, the international Ice Memory team has extracted two ice cores over 80 metres long from Colle Gnifetti, at 4,500 metres. The cores are to be preserved in the ice core archive for future generations of researchers.

An EPFL Master’s student has shown that artificial intelligence can be used to further automate the process of land-use classification in Switzerland, especially for rare and complicated land categories that until now have been classified manually. A stretch of land in Valais Canton served as the sample for her research.

At PSI, researchers are studying magnetism in the range of a millionth of a millimetre. In doing so, they come across exotic phenomena such as frustrated magnets and nano-vortices, which may one day enable better data storage.

Engineers at EPFL and École Polytechnique in France analyzed the friction between pages in a book and the mechanical force needed to bend them. Drawing on their experiments, they developed a new theoretical model for predicting the elasto-frictional behavior of stacked layers.

Hydropower is considered to be CO2-neutral, but certain power plants in tropical regions produce large quantities of greenhouse gases. Researchers at Eawag have now studied how much carbon dioxide escapes into the atmosphere below the Kariba Dam in southern Africa. Such previously ignored emissions must be taken into account by future carbon budgets.

The benefits of strict climate policies are often underestimated in public debate, while the costs are generally overestimated, says Lucas Bretschger. Climate protection does not have a negative impact on economic development.