October 2022

'Deforestation-free' supply chain pledges have barely impacted forest clearance in the Amazon

external page"If soybean traders actually implemented their global commitments for zero-deforestation production, current levels of forest clearance in Brazil could be reduced by around 40 percent," says Rachael Garrett, Professor at the Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences at ETH Zurich.call_made

The Netherlands may be the first country to hit the limits of growth

"...The Netherlands was too well-suited to the era of globalisation. The trading nation with Europe’s biggest port experienced 26 years of unbroken economic growth until 2008, then a world record. Now it tops external pageETH Zurich’s KOF Globalisation Index as the world’s most globalised country."call_made

Magnetic bacteria steered into tumors to plant anti-cancer drugs

external pageScientists looking to harness the cancer-fighting capabilities of bacteria have made an impressive advance, demonstrating how magnetic forms of the microorganisms can be propelled into tumors. “We make use of the bacteria’s natural and autonomous locomotion as well,” said Simone Schürle, who led the study. “Once the bacteria have passed through the blood vessel wall and are in the tumor, they can independently migrate deep into its interior.”call_made

Also reported in...

Futurity, 27 October 2022, external pageMagnetic bacteria ‘bots’ could deliver drugs to fight tumorscall_made

Technology Netorks, 27 October 2022, external pageScientists Use Magnetic Bacteria To Fight Tumorscall_made

Quick Telecast, 27 October 2022, external pageMagnetic bacteria steered into tumors to plant anti-cancer drugscall_made

Mirage, 27 October 2022, external pageFighting tumors with magnetic bacteriacall_made

Africa needs country-specific narratives for a clean energy future, says study

external pageAhead of COP27, academics from 50 institutions (including ETH Zurich) have called for a shift in how politicians, funders and researchers think about the clean energy transition in the African continent, as a new study today highlights radically different energy needs across countries.call_made

Also reported in...

Mirage, 25 October 2022, external pageAfrica needs country-specific narratives for clean energy future – studycall_made

LatticeFlow Secures $12M to Eliminate AI Data and Model Blind Spots in Computer Vision

external pageETH Spinoff, LatticeFlow - the only artificial intelligence (AI) platform that can automatically find and fix AI data and model errors - announced a $12 million Series A funding round. The investment will enable LatticeFlow to expand the capabilities of its platform and respond to growing customer demand as more companies – including a number of Fortune 500 customers.call_made

Also reported in...

VentureLab, 27 October 2022, external pageLatticeFlow raises USD 12 million to eliminate computer vision blind spotscall_made

Stable in all kinds of shapes

external pageETH Zurich researchers have developed a structure that can switch between stable shapes as needed while being remarkably simple to produce. The key lies in a clever combination of base materials.call_made

Also reported in...

Futurity, 3 November 2022, external pageEasy-to-make structure changes shapes but remains stablecall_made

Integration on a chip: Miniaturized infrared detectors

external pageA team of scientists at Empa, ETH Zurich, EPFL, the University of Salamanca, Spain, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the University of Basel has built a proof-of-concept miniaturized Fourier-transform waveguide spectrometercall_made.

Also reported in...

AZO Optics, 26 October 2022, external pageAnalyzing Miniaturized Infrared Detectors in Electronicscall_made  

Nanowerk, 25 October 2022, external pageMiniaturized infrared detectors based on quantum dot photodetectorscall_made

ScienceDaily, 25 October 2022, external pageMiniaturized infrared detectorscall_made

Optics, 27 October 2022, external pageEmpa miniaturizes infrared detectors with quantum dotscall_made

Flipped learning benefits ‘easy to replicate in normal classroom’

external page“We found active learning is rarely present and when it is, it doesn’t have an effect,” the study’s lead author Manu Kapur, professor of learning sciences and higher education at ETH Zurich, said.call_made

New Entanglement Results Hint at Better Quantum Codes

external pageETH Zurich professor, Renato Renner comments on the findings of a team of physicists that has entangled three photons over a considerable distance, which could lead to more powerful quantum cryptography.call_made

Six material innovations aimed at slashing concrete's outsized carbon footprint

external pageETH Zurich researchers have developed a system of 3D-printed formwork elements. Made from recyclable mineral foam, these can be placed inside the moulds used to make pre-cast concrete panels, creating a pattern of hollow cells throughout the slab.call_made

Silkworms Spin a Potential Microplastics Substitute

external pageFinding substitute materials for intentionally added microplastics is “the only place we are able to really control” microplastic pollution, aside from reducing mismanaged plastic waste overall, says ETH Zurich environmental analytical chemist Denise Mitranocall_made, who was not involved in the (MIT) study.

Do climate policies raise energy bills?

external page"Today's climate policies are probably causing lower energy prices today, although it is complicated, and may in some cases be causing short-term price rises," said Anthony Patt, professor of climate policy at the Swiss research university ETH Zurich. "The main cause of the current rise in energy prices is geopolitics, in particular the war in Ukraine, as well as other factors unrelated to climate policy: damages at nuclear power plants, droughts," he added.call_made

Also reported in...

Mirage, 27 October 2022, external pageClimate protection benefits economycall_made

Hayabusa 2 has brought back gases from an asteroid for the first time

external pageGases brought back from the asteroid Ryugu by Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft are revealing the asteroid’s history and may help us reconstruct the evolution of the solar system. “Essentially all of our knowledge of how we think the solar system formed and what this outer solar system material looks like is based on meteorites, but those have the disadvantage that they fell to Earth and were contaminated by air and weather and people,” says Henner Busemann at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, part of the research team that analysed the Hayabusa 2 samples. “In this case we know exactly where the sample came from, and it never touched the ground or saw rain.”call_made

ETH Zurich students construct timber dome entirely from waste materials

external pageA group of research students at ETH Zurich has completed a timber geodesic dome constructed from nothing but demolition waste. The research group, led by assistant professor Catherine De Wolf of the university’s Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, sees the project as a demonstration of the potential for circular economics.call_made

Also reported in...

AZO Build, 25 October 2022, external pageExploring Circular Principles with a Waste-Based Domecall_made

The teaching of evolution theory shapes students’ beliefs and choices

external pageOp-ed by Benjamin Arold, post-doc in ETH Zurich's Center for Law and Economics on staggered reforms that reduced or expanded the coverage of evolution in US state science education standards and the lasting impact that teaching evolution has on students.call_made

10,000 Times Quicker: New Breakthrough Could Change the Field of Medical Microrobots

external pageA collaboration of international scientists, including Prof. Bradley Nelson's team at ETH Zurich, have developed a mass-production method for biodegradable microrobots that can dissolve into the body after delivering cells and medications.call_made

Will VAR be in use at Qatar 2022? World Cup to get semi-auto offside tech

external pageFIFA has tested the semi-automated offside technology at the 2021 Arab Cup and the 2021 Club World Cup. MIT Sports Lab, TRACK at Victoria University and ETH Zurich analysed and validated the data that FIFA collected over its online and offline trials of the technology.call_made

Interview with Nina Wiedemann and Valentin Wüest: developing a gradient-based control method for robotic systems

external pageNina Wiedemann, doctoral student in the Mobility Information Engineering Lab at ETH Zurich and co-author Valentin Wüest, EPFL interview with AI Hub about their recent paper on control for robotic systems, with a focus on aerial vehicles.call_made

Mestastop Solutions partners with Switzerland-based Ectica Technologies

external pageMestastop Solutions has partnered with Switzerland-based Ectica Technologies to pursue novel platform creation on cancer metastasis that would build upon Ectica and Mestastop’s proprietary technologies. Ectica Technologies is a spin-off company of ETH Zurich and University Hospital Zurich and develops advanced hydrogel-based co-cultures platforms for in vitro tumour-stroma interaction studies compatible with high-content screening.call_made

US, Switzerland Plan New Cooperation on Quantum Computing

external pageThe US will sign an agreement with Switzerland, a pioneer in quantum-computing technology.call_made

Also reported in...

Pioneering Minds, 18 October 2022, external pageUS, Switzerland Plan New Cooperation On Quantum Computingcall_made

Machine Learning’s New Math

external pageLuca Benini, chair of digital circuits and systems at ETH Zurich and professor at the University of Bologna and his team had a simple insight: Instead of doing one fused multiply-add units (FMA) operation at a time, why not do two in parallel and add them together at the end? Not only does this prevent losses due to rounding between the two FMAs, but it also allows for better utilization of memory, because no memory registers are left waiting for the previous FMA to complete.call_made  

Odd cave bacterium forms a multicellular ‘body,’ like plants and animals

external pageUnlike other known forms of multicellular bacteria, HS-3 didn’t just have different kinds of cells; each type had a distinct structure and formed at different points in its life cycle, as if responding to specific environmental cues—in this case, submersion in water. For a microbe, “these details are quite peculiar, says Marco La Fortezza, an evolutionary biologist at ETH Zurich who was not involved with the work.call_made

Overcoming the Challenge of Soil Pollution

external pagePlastic pollution is a major environmental concern due to the fact it can damage natural habitats, cause harm to wildlife, and even enter the food chain, impacting food production. "We can now systematically test for soil conditions and polymer properties that allow for complete biodegradation of the polymers to CO2 and to microbial biomass – and we can assess factors that may slow down polymer biodegradation over time," Michael Sander, Professor in the ETH Environmental Chemistry Group, ETH Zurich.call_made

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Technology Networks, 14 October 2022, external pageBiodegradation of Plastics Accurately Tracked in Soilcall_made

Scientific Inquirer, 19 October 2022, external pageAccurately tracking how plastic biodegradescall_made

News Wise, 13 October 2022, external pageAccurately tracking how plastic biodegradescall_made

Science Magazine, 13 October 2022, external pageAccurately tracking how plastic biodegradescall_made

Prevalence and Drivers of Abrupt Vegetation Shifts in Global Drylands

external pageUising machine learning, researchers from ETH Zurich's Crowtherl Lab study 40,000 natural dryland ecosystems. Their study in PNAS shows that abrupt shifts in the productivity of drylands are happening rather extensively...call_made

New Study Asks: If Earth Were an Exoplanet, Could Aliens Tell It Has Life?

external pageThought experiment on how earth might appear to alien astronomers. The study is "Earth as an Exoplanet: II. Earth's Time-Variable Thermal Emission and its Atmospheric Seasonality of Bio-Indicators." It's available at the pre-press site arXiv.org, and the lead author is Jean-Noel Mettler. Mettler is a doctoral student at the ETH Zurich Department of Physics, studying Exoplanets and Habitability.call_made

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Universe Today, 14 October 2022, external pageIf Earth Were an Exoplanet, it Would Still be Tricky to Figure Out if There’s Life Herecall_made

GT, 16 October 2022, external pageAstronomers have found that the Earth may seem uninhabited to alienscall_made

New Omicron Subvariant Largely Evades Neutralizing Antibodies

A study was conducted by teh Karolinska Institutet, Sweden in collaboration with researchers at external pageETH Zurich in Switzerland and Imperial College London in the U.K. shows that the coronavirus variant BA.2.75.2, an Omicron sublineage, largely evades neutralizing antibodies in the blood and is resistant to several monoclonal antibody antiviral treatments.call_made

Also reported in...

Science Magazine, 14 October 2022, external pageNew Omicron subvariant largely evades neutralizing antibodiescall_made

Executive MBA case study: multitasking masterclass

external pageAwa Diagne on juggling a senior job at Roche with a biotech a spin-off from research by two graduates from ETH Zurich and demanding studies from ETH Zurich and University of St. Gallen's EMBA X.call_made

Experts discuss future surplus power storage technologies

external page"The grid has to constantly smooth out fluctuations in renewable generation and match supply to demand," says Gabriela Hug, a professor at the Power Systems Laboratory at ETH Zurich. Hug also heads up the ETH Energy Science Center (ESC), which recently released modeling showing that a renewable energy system is both technically feasible and economically viable.call_made  

GESDA reveals plans for Geneva quantum hub and science diplomacy curriculum

external pageGrooming tomorrow’s science diplomats. GESDA said it was also working on a curriculum on anticipatory science diplomacy to gear up the future generation of ambassadors and policy-makers that will have to negotiate the rules around emerging technologies. Twenty institutions, including ETH Zurich...came together in May for a three day forum to begin designing the framework.call_made

Also reported in...

Science Business, 17 October 2022, external pageCERN joins with leaders from research and industry to propose an Open Quantum Institutecall_made

Switzerland’s ETH Zurich remains top university on the continent

external pageThis year ETH Zurich remained the highest ranking university in continental Europe, according to Times Higher Education.call_made  

Researchers want to make salt printing marketable

external pageMaterials scientists Nicole Kleger and Simona Fehlmann have developed a 3D printing process for creating salt templates that they can fill with other materials.One area of application is the creation of highly porous lightweight metal components. The Pioneer Fellows anticipate transfering "Sallea" to industry.call_made

Also reported in...

CHEM EUROPE, 6 October 2022, external pageETH Zurich researchers want to make salt printing marketablecall_made

Whirlpools 101: how they form, are they dangerous, and how to survive one

external pageResearchers from the University of Miami and ETH Zurich claim that some of the ocean's biggest water eddies are mathematically equivalent to the enigmatic black holes of space.call_made

How to turbocharge collaboration in innovation ecosystems

external pageThe innovation story of ETH Zurich spinoff Veezoo's machine learning technology and one of the world's largest insurance companies, AXA.call_made

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News Update, 14 October 2022, external pageHow to turbocharge collaboration in innovation ecosystemscall_made

How alpine plants respond to climate change

external pageResearchers from ETH Zurich are studying how alpine vegetation is responding to a warming climate—and how some plant communities are continuing to stand firm against newcomers from lower elevations.call_made

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Environmental News Network, 14 October 2022, external pageAlpine Plants Respond to Climate Changecall_made

How to store data for 1,000 years

external pageDNA can be protected by encapsulating it inside other materials such as glass beads – mimicking how genetic material is protected within ancient fossils. Robert Grass, a researcher at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and his team have shown these beads protect the DNA from both chemicals and heat.call_made

Accurately tracking how plastic biodegrades

external pageUntil now based on existing methods, it hasn’t been possible to follow the process of polymer biodegradation in its entirety. But over the past few years, the Environmental Chemistry Group at ETH Zurich has developed a new approach to track and measure whether and to what degree a polymer biodegrades in a soil. Their findings have just been published in Nature Communications.call_made

With trade agreements to more equality: when Switzerland controls Indonesia – and Indonesia controls Switzerland

external pageETH Zurich and Singapore-ETH Centre professor, Renate Schubert writes an op-ed on one of the first trade agreements to contain explicit clauses on ecological and social standards at product level is the agreement between Switzerland and Indonesia...call_made

Scientists grow human brain cells in rats to study diseases

external pageResearchers at ETH Zurich in Switzerland published a study in Nature earlier this month describing how they are growing brain-like tissue from stem cells in the lab and then mapping the cell types in various brain regions and genes regulating their development. Some are using these structures to study autism.call_made

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CBS News, 12 October 2022, external pageScientists transplant human brain cells into the brains of baby ratscall_made

ABC News, 12 October 2022, external pageScientists grow human brain cells in rats to study diseasescall_made

ABS CBN News, 13 October 2022, external pageHuman brain cells implanted in rats offer research gold minecall_made

Yahoo! News, 12 October 2022, external pageHuman brain cells implanted in rats offer research gold minecall_made

Archynetys, 8 October 2022, external pageMapping Human Brain Advancement – Neuroscience Informationcall_made

Neuroscience, 7 October 2022, external pageMapping Human Brain Developmentcall_made

News Medical Life Sciences, 7 October 2022, external pageResearchers take new approach to studying the development of the human braincall_made

Laboratory News (UK), 10 October 2022, external pageEnabling miniaturisations of automated organoid drug screenscall_made

Natural News, 20 October 2022, external pageScientists grow human brain cells in rats to study brain development and diseasescall_made

The Mining Journal, 20 October 2022, external pageHuman brain cells in rats helps study of diseasescall_made

ETH Zurich ranked top university in continental Europe

external pageSwitzerland’s federal technology institute ETH Zurich remains the top university in continental Europe, according to the latest Times Higher Education World University Rankings.call_made

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Times Higher Education, 12 October 2022, external pageWorld University Rankings 2023: the opportunities and threats aheadcall_made

and numerous other publications

What is the 'man in the moon' and how did it form?

Unstable orbits for the early solar system's various planets and space rocks meant that gravity was flinging objects everywhere, external pageaccording to ETH Zurich, a university in Switzerland. During this chaotic period, gravitational forces from larger objects, such as the masses that would eventually become planets, flung smaller objects, such as asteroids and tiny planets, out of the way, according to a 2022 study published in the journal Nature Astronomy. These smaller objects bombarded the solar system's bodies, including the moon, and left their impressions behind.call_made

How much of right-wing opposition to vaccination was Fox News’s fault?

Research published last week, though, identifies a likely role for another prominent voice on the political right: Fox News. external page“Our results show that Fox News is reducing COVID-19 vaccination uptake in the United States, with no evidence of the other major networks having any effect,” the study from researchers at ETH Zurich concluded. “[T]here is an association between areas with higher Fox News viewership and lower vaccinations,” noting that “media emphasis on minority viewpoints against scientific consensus is linked to vaccination hesitancy.”call_made

Also reported in...

WCPT 820 - Chicago, 8 October 2022, and numerous regional radio broadcasts.

Privacy protection system for biometrics developed to better ICRC humanitarian aid

external pageThe results of six scientific research projects carried out under an initiative dubbed Engineering for Humanitarian Action (supported by ETH Zurich and EPFL) are expected to be useful to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in its mission of providing better humanitarian assistance around the world, including aid distribution using biometrics.call_made

“De-hyping the Metaverse” – Jieke Pan, Mobiquity in ‘Discover Sibos 2022’

external page...Research from ETH Zurich illustrates, use cases...can often be crucial in helping us to understand new technology, but the breadth of applications being tested out by banks suggests no ‘killer app’ has thus far been stumbled upon to help pinpoint areas for the more cautious among us to follow.call_made  

How Genetics Influences Our Body Weight Beyond Genes

external pageHeredity plays a role in how strongly we are predisposed to put on excess weight. In recent years, researchers have extensively examined which genes and gene variants play a role in this, and have identified roughly one hundred obesity susceptibility genes.call_made

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Mirage, 10 October 2022, external pageHow genetics influences our body weight beyond genescall_made

NASA’s InSight Waits Out Dust Storm

external pageInSight’s seismometer (to which ETH Zurich researchers contributed and, currently, monitor Marsquakes) has been operating for about 24 hours every other Martian day.call_made But the drop in solar power does not leave enough energy to completely charge the batteries every sol. At the current rate of discharge, the lander would be able to operate only for several weeks. So to conserve energy, the mission will turn off InSight’s seismometer for the next two weeks.

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SciTech Daily, 13 October 2022, external pageStill Alive! NASA’s InSight Lander Waits Out Martian Dust Stormcall_made

EU project achieves record free-space communication speeds

external pageThe three-year Vertigo project (Very High Throughput Satellite-Ground Optical link) launched on 1 June 2019. The consortium is composed of six European industry partners and three research organisations. During the test campaign in Switzerland, project partners ETH Zurich, Onera (the French Aerospace lab) and Thales Alenia Space demonstrated a record transmission speed in free-space of up to one terabit per second (equal to 1,000 gigabits per second) on a single wavelength and over a distance of 53 kilometres.call_made  

First flight for student-built electric Sling

external pageThe all-electric aircraft e-Sling has taken off for the first time. The four-seater was developed and assembled by 20 students at ETH Zurich over two years at Innovation Park in Dübendorf, Switzerland, as part of their studies towards their bachelor degrees.call_made

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Industry Update, 7 October 2022, external pageFirst flight of student electric slingcall_made

Electrive, 10 October 2022, external pageETH Zurich launches small e-plane e-Sling with unique techcall_made  

Torsten Hoefler to Receive the IEEE Computer Society Sidney Fernbach Memorial Award 2022

external pageThe IEEE Computer Society has named ETH Zurich professor, Torsten Hoefler as the recipient of the 2022 Sidney Fernbach Memorial Award for his pioneering contributions to large-scale parallel processing systems and supercomputers.call_made

Interview with Helma Wennemers on click chemistry

external pageETH Zurich chemistry professor, Helma Wennemers explains “click chemistry” - the conceptthat won three researchers a Nobel Prize in Chemistry this week.call_made

ETH zurich explores digital design + robotic 3D printing in concrete 'eggshell pavilion'

external pageA group of architectural researchers at ETH Zurich collaborated with Gramazio Kohler to develop the ‘Eggshell Pavilion’ by integrating computational design and robotic 3D printing.call_made  

Also reported in...

Archinect News, 3 October 2022, external pageETH Zurich students and researchers build prototype 3D printed 'eggshell pavilion'call_made

Making tumor diagnosis kinder to kidneys

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, in collaboration with ETH Zurich, have optimized a method for tumor diagnosis using radionuclides. Potential side-effects can now be significantly reduced through a molecular trick.

Also reported in...

News Medical Life Sciences, 5 october 2022, external pagePSI researchers optimize a method for tumor diagnosis using radionuclidescall_made

Archynetys, 5 October 2022, external pagePSI scientists use radionuclides to improve strategies of tumor analysiscall_made

AlphaGalileo, 4 October 2022, external pageMaking tumour diagnosis kinder to kidneyscall_made

Newsbreak, 5 October 2022, external pageMaking tumor diagnosis kinder to kidneyscall_made

Technology Networks, 12 October 2022, external page"Molecular Trick" Makes Tumor Diagnosis Kinder to Kidneyscall_made

Araris Biotech closes $24m Series A financing round

external pageSwiss ADC maker Araris Biotech AG (an ETH Zurich and PSI spinoff) has added a $24m financing round to its CHF15.2m (S17.8m) seed round in 2020 to expand its portfolio of proprietary antibody drug conjugates.call_made

Also reported in...

GlobeNewswire, 4 October 2022, external pageAraris Biotech Closes $24 Million Financing Roundcall_made

BioSpace, 4 October 2022, external pageAraris Biotech AG Nabs $24M to Bring ADC, Linker Programs to Cliniccall_made

Life Sciences Europe, 4 October 2022, external pageAraris Biotech–SEVERAL: investment, 202210 financing round $24m...call_made

Can ETH Zurich’s New Centre Tell Us Whether Life Exists Beyond Earth?

external pageAZoQuantum spoke with Sascha Quanz, an exoplanetary scientist who will be co-leading the search for life beyond our solar system as part of the new Centre for Origin and Prevalence of Life at ETH Zurich.call_made

Also reported in...

Inferse, 25 October 2022, external page'We can find life outside the solar system in 25 years,' researcher says – Space.comcall_made

Do plants have a microbiome?

external pageMarie Skłodowska-Curie fellow, Tania Galindo from ETH-Zurich says, "...soil-borne fungi have a symbiotic relationship with the roots of many plants. They absorb and transfer nutrients from places in the soil that plant roots cannot reach, and displace pathogens." Research shows that plants with these fungi present in their microbiome tend to be healthier.call_made

Marine ice sheets were decisive in acceleration of global warming during the last deglaciation

external pageProf. Heather M. Stoll along with researchers at the University of Barcelona find that the intensity and rate of melt during the penultimate ice melting was much higher than previously thought, according to a study published in the journal Nature Communicationscall_made.

Also reported in...

Technology Networks, 3 October 2022, external pageMarine Ice Sheets Decisive in Global Warming Accelerationcall_made

Two milestones for industrial solar-thermal production of fuels

external page(ETH Zurich spinoff) Synhelion S.A. became the first company in the world to produce synthesis gas (syngas) on an industrial scale using only solar heat as an energy source.call_made

Researchers reorient monocultures to intercropping in just two generations

external pageCrops bred specifically for monoculture can adapt to community living with a diverse array of other crops over the course of just two generations, a new study (by ETH Zurich researchers) finds.call_made

The surprising Swiss-army-knife-like functions of a powerful enzyme

external pageETH Zurich researchers collaborating with researchers from McGill university have uncovered an intriguing "superpower" of blue-green algae (AKA cyanobacteria) which likely helps them be highly successful as invaders of waterways.call_made

Also reported in...

News Medical Life Sciences, 5 October 2022, external pageResearchers uncover an intriguing previously unknown ability of Swiss army knife enzymecall_made

AZO Life Sciences, 3 October 2022, external pageA strong enzyme that functions similar to a Swiss army knifecall_made