Research

Researchers at ETH Zurich recently developed highly realistic simulations of the proteins on sperm and egg cells coupling together before they fuse. These findings enabled the research team to solve several mysteries of fertilisation at once, which could help to accelerate development of more targeted infertility treatments.

Achim Walter believes increased cultivation of legumes would bring major benefits. But how to persuade farmers in Switzerland to make the switch?

EPFL researchers reveal a novel method to uncover bits of our genetic blueprint that come from ancient genetic parasites, offering fresh insights into human evolution and health.

A team of researchers from Germany and Switzerland involving Empa is setting a milestone in weather and climate research: At the beginning of February, the renowned climate and weather model ICON has become available to all interested parties under an open source license. This is intended to make science and the scientific services behind it more transparent. At the same time, further scientific progress is made possible in an area from which society can particularly benefit in times of climate change.

At ETH Zurich, there is a room where the sun shines at the touch of a button; one hour it’s noon in the Sahara, the next it’s January in Berlin. Researchers use it to test newly developed building systems, components and materials.

Researchers at Empa and ETH Zurich have developed methods for making perovskite quantum dots faster and more efficient emitters, thereby significantly improving their brightness. This is relevant for applications in displays as well as in quantum technologies.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have recently developed artificial muscles for robot motion. Their solution offers several advantages over previous technologies: it can be used wherever robots need to be soft rather than rigid or where they need more sensitivity when interacting with their environment.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a sensor that utilises energy from sound waves to control electronic devices. This could one day save millions of batteries.

As part of the Ice Memory initiative, PSI researchers, with colleagues from the University of Fribourg and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice as well as the Institute of Polar Sciences of the Italian National Research Council (CNR), analysed ice cores drilled in 2018 and 2020 from the Corbassière glacier at Grand Combin in the canton of Valais. A comparison of the two sets of ice cores published in Nature Geoscience shows: Global warming has made at least this glacier unusable as a climate archive.

The European Space Agency’s most expensive and complex mission, the LISA space antenna, has reached a major milestone: it has passed the stage of intensive testing by experts in the Mission Adoption Review process - a significant step for the LISA consortium.

A global study shows that the world’s groundwater resources are dwindling: levels are falling sharply worldwide, and the decline has accelerated in the 21st century. Nevertheless, there is still reason for hope.

A new study has produced the first cost estimate of the impact that urban heat islands have on human health. The study looked at 85 European cities over the course of three full years, meaning it also took into account the protection that heat islands offer in winter – an aspect that has been little studied until now.

If the body’s natural stress response gets knocked off balance, it can result in physical and mental health disorders. Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed an agent capable of selectively inhibiting this response.

With its secretariat hosted at EPFL, the Square Kilometer Array Switzerland (SKACH) consortium is celebrating two years’ membership of a global project to develop the largest scientific facility ever built by humankind.

ETH Zurich researchers have found a virus that kills dormant bacteria. This rare discovery could help to combat germs that can’t be treated with antibiotics alone.