Research

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.

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.