Research

Is it possible to 3D print biodegradable sensors and displays? Researchers from Empa's Cellulose & Wood Materials laboratory have developed a cellulose-based material that allows just that. The mixture of hydroxpropyl cellulose with water, carbon nanotubes and cellulose nanofibrils changes color when heated or stretched – without the addition of any pigments.

Researchers at PSI have developed a new drug that could increase the survival chances of patients with metastatic prostate cancer. The drug is now being tested on patients in the PROGNOSTICS project. A research consortium consisting of the Paul Scherrer Institute, the University Hospital Basel and ETH Zurich is receiving two million Swiss francs in funding for this project.

Researchers at ETH have created an antenna for light sources on a chip using an unusual placement of a semiconductor material. In the future, efficient nanoscale LEDs and lasers could be produced in this way.

Using an extensive computer simulation of the climate, the global economy and the global energy system, researchers at PSI have been analysing different ways of mitigating climate change, together with colleagues from the US, China, Ireland, Finland and Sweden.

EPFL neuroscientists say that early hallucinations disease indicate a greater risk of cognitive decline when there is a diagnosis of Parkinson's.

Urea reacts extremely quickly under the conditions that existed when our planet was newly formed. This new insight furthers our understanding of how life on Earth might have begun.

While the use of pesticides in industrial countries is being questioned more and more critically, less is known about their consequences on human health and the environment in tropical countries. The interdisciplinary project “Pestrop” is now changing this and also shows where the necessary measures need to be taken.

Researchers from Empa and Imperial College London are developing a heat-resistant drone that can analyze the source of danger at close range in the event of a building or forest fire. This allows firefighters to optimize the strategy of a high-risk operation before entering the danger zone.

Using applied mathematics, Yunan Yang finds solutions to the inverse problems that arise in seismology, weather forecasts, and machine learning. The key to her success is something called optimal transport.

Trichodesmium, a common and ecologically important bacterium, fertilises nutrient-poor regions of the oceans and thereby enables higher life. Crucial to its success is its ability to form aggregates in order to react quickly to changes in its environment. ETH Zurich researchers have shown how the microbes organise themselves in this process.

Jamie Paik and her team of researchers at EPFL’s School of Engineering have created an origami-like robot that can change shape, move around and interact with objects and people.

When Microorganisms decompose organic material in the soil, they actively release CO₂ into the atmosphere. This process is called heterotrophic respiration. A novel model shows that these emissions could surge by up to 40 percent by the end of the century – most significantly in the polar regions.

Researchers from EPFL and the University of Geneva (UNIGE) have gained new insights into a mechanism regulating the early-stage development of mouse embryos. Instead of using an animal model, the team carried out their research on pseudo-embryos grown in the lab from stem cells.

Optical data communications lasers can transmit several tens of terabits per second, despite a huge amount of disruptive air turbulence. ETH Zurich scientists and their European partners demonstrated this capacity with lasers between the mountain peak, Jungfraujoch, and the city of Bern in Switzerland. This will soon eliminate the necessity of expensive deep-sea cables.

EPFL researchers have published a first study on the mechanics of surgical knots, with results that could be used to train surgeons to tie stronger, safer sutures – a skill that usually requires years of practice to master.