Research

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.

Mike Seidel is head of the Large Research Facilities Division at PSI. He knows each of the five facilities inside and out, especially the associated particle accelerators.

Like many viruses, SARS-CoV-2 relies on lipid modifications carried by host enzymes to organize their membrane structure and coordinate the function of virulence proteins. Scientists at EPFL have discovered the enzymes that transfer fatty acids to one of the main components of SARS-CoV-2, its fusion protein Spike. The findings reveal that such fatty acids are important for the production of infectious SARS-CoV-2 particles, and can help develop new drugs for treating coronaviruses and other viruses like herpes and influenza.

The CLIMACT center brings together experts in climate change from the University of Lausanne and EPFL. Its goal is to serve as an effective interface between science and society. Presentation and interviews.

Two scientists in Switzerland solved the mysterious incident. They tell us in the ETH podcast why they got interested in the incident and what happened after they published their findings.

It’s an age-old question – who lives on in a society’s collective memory after they die? New EPFL research has tracked the mentions of thousands of public figures in the year following their deaths, helping to reveal who is remembered, and who is not, after they are gone. 

EPFL and Microsoft Research scientists demonstrated ultrafast optical circuit switching using a chip-based soliton comb laser and a completely passive diffraction grating device. This particular architecture could enable an energy-efficient optical datacenter to meet enormous data bandwidth requirements in future.

An international research team whose members include an ETH Zurich professor has revealed a vulnerability in the security architecture of Intel processors. Until July, Microsoft and Google products were also affected.

The Artificial Swissness exhibit – a larger than life-sized “design brain” developed by EPFL’s Media x Design Lab (LDM) – is currently on display at the Seoul Biennale for Architecture and Urbanism, which runs until 31 October 2021. This high-tech machine can generate a virtually infinite number of architectural images of Swiss Alpine cabins.

Human cells are like tiny, multi-purpose factories. In his research, ETH biologist Gabriele Alessandro Fontana investigates how cells repair damaged DNA. The mechanisms he has identified will help us to gain a better understanding of diseases and to develop new drugs.

Valerio Piazza is creating new 3D architectures built from an inventive form of nanowire. His research aims to push the boundaries of miniaturization and pave the way to more powerful electronic devices. He has just won the 2020 Piaget Scientific Award, whose prize money will fund his work at EPFL for a year.

To measure an ecosystem’s beauty and the well-being it produces for people can help inform public environmental policy. Scientists at EPFL and Wageningen University in the Netherlands have developed a novel modeling approach for ecosystem assessments based on deep learning and millions of Flickr photos.

Ocean warming caused by anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emissions will prompt many species of marine plankton to seek out new habitats, in some cases as a matter of sur-vival. ETH Zurich researchers expect many organisms to head to the poles and form new communities – with unforeseeable consequences for marine food webs.