In the Media - April 2023

Robot security guard on patrol in Switzerland

external page An autonomous two-wheeled robot developed by ETH Zurich startup, Ascento has been performing guarding tasks for security firm Securitas AG in Switzerland.

Testing hundreds of therapeutics outside the body to predict their effectiveness against multiple myeloma

external page ETH researchers have adapted their screening platform to look for ways to avoid drug resistance and offer new hope for more successful treatment outcomes. The study is published in the journal Nature Cancer.

Also reported in...

external page Bioengineer

external page Science Magazine

Taking parental leave may make dads less sexist

external page Parental leave for fathers can decrease sexist attitudes and gender bias, according to new research (co-authored by ETH Zurich researchers).

Also reported in...

external page PHYS.org

Quantum Information Has Been Experimentally Proven for the First Time To Be More Connected Than Classical Physics

external page Recently, an experiment...confirmed a strange conjecture about quantum information. It was discussed in the paper, titled "Verification of the Area Law of Mutual Information in a Quantum Field Simulator," which was published in Nature Physics. To accomplish this, theoretical guidance was provided by collaborating institutions like ETH Zürich and sevearl other institutions.

Also reported in...

external page AZO Quantum

external page Canada Today

Shrinking The Chemicals Industry’s Carbon Footprint With UniSieve

external page ETH Spinoff, UniSieve has developed a unique membrane that separates compounds by sieving them – much in the same way as people are used to using a filter to ensure their ground coffee doesn’t flow through to the cup...Professor Wendelin Jan Stark of the Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering at Switzerland’s ETH Zürich believes such innovation could have a huge impact in the fight against climate change.

Also reported in...

external page AZO Cleantech

Scientists develop safer zinc batteries as alternative to lithium-ion batteries

external page A team of researchers led by Professor Maria Lukatskaya at ETH Zurich has found a way to make zinc batteries more powerful, safer, and environmentally friendly.

Also reported in...

external page Futurity

external page Techi AI

external page Verve Times

external page ScienceDaily

external page Tech Xplore

SIEMENS TECH ENABLES SUCCESSFUL RESEARCH AT ZERO CARBON BUILDING SYSTEMS LAB

external page ETH Zurich runs unique research project on automation and energy supply for buildings in different climate zones. Project includes one-of-a-kind artificial sun.

Also reported in...

external page Industry Magazine, USA

external page Industry Asia Pacific

Scientist anticipates finding life beyond our solar system in 25 years

external page Several missions that could detect life beyond our solar system are currently in development, Swiss astrophysicist Sasha Quanz said at the recent opening of ETH Zurich‘s Centre for the Origin and Prevalence of Life.

New platform allows easier, cheaper, and safer interactions with large language models like ChatGPT

external page Researchers from ETH Zurich created a new open-source platform and programming language called LMQL. This programming language makes it easier, cheaper, and safer to interact with large language models like ChatGPT.

Also reported in...

external page Techstreet

external page TechXplore

Crypto carbon-free? FALSE

external page Lena Klaassen, a doctoral researcher at ETH Zurich's Climate Finance and Policy Group, said Riot's claim "is not correct as bitcoin miners are also relying on power sources from fossil fuels." A greener bitcoin mining process may become possible as the power grid gets more sustainable, according to Klaassen of ETH Zurich. But she warned that "until then, consuming large amounts of electricity in a grid that does not fully run on renewable energy sources will be associated with causing emissions."

Unprecedented heat extremes ‘could occur in any region globally’

external page Dr Erich Fischer – a lecturer from ETH Zurich, who was not involved in the study – has published separate research warning that “record-shattering” extremes, such as the 2021 heatwave, are becoming more frequent as the climate warms...He tells Carbon Brief that many other regions around the world have also experienced record-shattering extremes – including the record-warm 2023 New Year’s warm spell in Europe, the record warm 2022 summer in China, the first exceedance of 40C in the UK, record glacier melt rates in the Alps in 2022, and the 2020 persistent Siberian heatwave.

NASA InSight Study Provides Clearest Look Ever at Martian Core

external page “Determining the amount of these elements in a planetary core is important for understanding the conditions in our solar system when planets were forming and how these conditions affected the planets that formed,” said one of the paper’s co-authors, Doyeon Kim of ETH Zurich.

Also reported in...

external page Engineering & Technology

Gray instead of blue: Twitter removes free verification ticks

The blue verification icons on Twitter once showed that a profile belonged to a specific person. Now the tick just means someone is paying money for a subscription. external page The new subscriptions also have consequences for information services – such as earthquake reports from ETH Zurich.

Inspired by Brain Cells: Scientists Develop Novel Computer Components

external page A team of researchers from the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa), ETH Zurich, and the “Politecnico di Milano” has now developed a memristor that is more powerful and easier to manufacture than its predecessors. The researchers have recently published their results in the journal Science Advances.

Also reported in...

external page TeknoLogic

What previous bird flu outbreaks teach us

external page The researchers from the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering at ETH Zurich in Basel aimed to understand how the disease spread at poultry markets, and to draw conclusions that would help improve future efforts to monitor and control bird flu outbreaks. The work is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  

Materials scientist working to revolutionize concrete and radically reduce CO2 emissions

external page Franco Zunino works in the Physical Chemistry of Building Materials group at ETH Zurich's Institute for Building Materials. A native of Chile, he has been doing research in Switzerland for six years, as he says, "for the future of our planet."

Companies’ zero-deforestation commitments have potential to halve cattle-driven deforestation in Brazilian Amazon

external page “With this evidence, supermarkets can use their influence to help improve Brazilian cattle production. But more needs to be done to improve the rigour of corporate policies and the market coverage of policy adopters, even in relatively well-covered regions such as the Brazilian Amazon,” said Dr Sam Levy at ETH Zurich and New York University, lead author of the report.

Also reported in...

PHYS.org, 19 April 2023, external page Companies' zero-deforestation commitments have potential to halve cattle-driven deforestation in Brazilian Amazon

Heaviest Schrödinger cat achieved by putting a small crystal into a superposition of two oscillation states

external page A team of researchers led by Yiwen Chu, professor at the Laboratory for Solid State Physics, has now created a substantially heavier Schrödinger cat by putting a small crystal into a superposition of two oscillation states. Their results, which have been published this week in the journal Science, could lead to more robust quantum bits and shed light on the mystery of why quantum superpositions are not observed in the macroscopic world.

Also reported in...

external page Newsbreak

external page World Today News

external page Yahoo! Life

external page Verve Times

external page LIVE SCIENCE

external page Gizmodo

external page New Atlas

Researchers reveal a map to study novel form of cell-to-cell communication

external page An international team led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine with the National Institutes of Health Extracellular RNA Communication Consortium and the Bogdan Mateescu laboratory at the ETH Zürich and University of Zürich has developed a new powerful resource to study extracellular RNA (exRNA), a novel form of cell-to-cell communication. The study, published in the journal Cell Genomics, lays the foundation to examine how exRNA and its carrier proteins found in bodily fluids function in a healthy as well as a diseased setting, potentially providing a means to accurately implement early detection and monitor disease processes.

Also reported in...

external page News Medical and Life Sciences

external page Tech and Science Post

external page PHYS.org

external page Knowledia

Solar hydrogen production scaled up in real world test

external page Although there is a long way to go before such technology could be used in our homes – particularly as hydrogen is difficult to store at standard temperatures and pressures – the work demonstrates the technical feasibility of such devices, says Aldo Steinfeld, a professor at ETH Zurich, Switzerland and expert in solar fuels. ‘Moving from the laboratory to the field is a critical phase in technology development,’ he adds. ‘The authors have successfully accomplished this phase by demonstrating the on-sun operation of the entire solar fuel system at the kW scale under real, intermittent solar irradiation conditions. The findings are relevant for the large-scale implementation of the technology.’

Swiss National Startup Team 2023: 10 biotech innovators heading to Boston

external page Ten startups, selected from more than 70 applications by a jury of investors and biotech experts, will attend a roadshow in Boston, one of the world’s most important life science hubs...Venture Leaders is organized by Biotech VentureLab in partnership with ETH Zurich et al.

TAWANI Foundation Gifts Over $1.3M to the SETI Institute and the Field Museum in Honor of Earth Day

external page The TAWANI Foundation announces its commitment of $1.3M to the SETI Institute and continued support for the Robert A. Pritzker Center for Meteoritics and Polar Studies at the Field Museum in honor of Earth Day...The Center is also engaged in polar studies in collaboration with ETH Zurich (as well as several other institutions).

ETH Zurich's LIFE space mission aims to detect life on exoplanets

external page With a constellation of five satellites, the international LIFE initiative led by ETH Zurich hopes to one day detect traces of life on exoplanets. A laboratory experiment in the Department of Physics is now set to demonstrate the planned measurement method.

Smart earpiece helps people relearn physical actions faster and more easily after a stroke

external page ETH researchers Paulius Viskaitis and Dane Donegan from the Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory have developed a new system that is set to make vagus nerve stimulation much easier and available much faster.

Also reported in...

external page Geek Tech

external page TrendRadars

VR gloves: from Power Glove to Manus Metagloves, the history and future of a revolutionary technology

external page Together with colleagues from EPFL and ETH Zurich, an EMPA team is developing next-generation VR gloves, which will allow to adapt to the curves of each hand and to be printed largely in 3-D.

10 promising spin-offs from ETH Zurich to watch in 2023 as AI and robotics boom

external page ETH Zurich (has) a comprehensive process for selecting and supporting spinoff companies based on its research. The process involves identification of commercial potential, evaluation of the business plan, incubation and support, and mentoring and networking. While it has a rigorous process for selecting and supporting spinoff companies, a total of 540 ETH spin-​offs have been founded in the past 49 years.

Swiss design in Milan

external page Feature segment on ETH Zurich's interactive exhibition featuring assistive technologies and experiences with how inclusive design enables people to participate - imagine a world without barriers. (Note: segment starts at minute 19:00 / in Italian)  

HARTING focuses on sustainability

external page Swissloop is a student association at ETH Zurich whose mission is to research the Hyperloop technology...Live in Hanover, HARTING and Swissloop will be showing the Lavinia Heisenberg pod from 2022. For this, the HARTING Technology Group supplied the space-saving Ethernet connection with the ix Industrial®.

State of the Art And Future Directions of Rowhammer (ETH Zurich)

external page A new technical paper titled “Fundamentally Understanding and Solving RowHammer” was published by researchers at ETH Zurich...“We provide an overview of recent developments and future directions in the RowHammer vulnerability that plagues modern DRAM (Dynamic Random Memory Access) chips, which are used in almost all computing systems as main memory. RowHammer is the phenomenon in which repeatedly accessing a row in a real DRAM chip causes bitflips (i.e., data corruption) in physically nearby rows. This phenomenon leads to a serious and widespread system security vulnerability...

How to make self-folding surgical tools

external page For minimally invasive surgery, the instruments used must be small. ETH Zurich researchers have now developed a method to transport large devices through a narrow catheter. This expands the possibilities for designing minimally invasive surgical tools.

Also reported in...

external page Cool Business Ideas

Turbulent affairs: Scientists enhance the simulation of strong flow phenomena

external page Now, with the help of the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre’s (CSCS) supercomputer “Piz Daint”, mathematician Siddhartha Mishra of ETH Zurich is working to overcome current barriers to simulating and comprehending highly turbulent flows.

How Drugs Get into the Blood

external page ...Researchers are trying to understand which molecules can penetrate cell membranes and how exactly they do this. For one important and promising class of substances—cyclic peptides—chemists at ETH Zurich have now decoded additional details of the relevant mechanism. “The more we know about this mechanism and the properties a molecule must have, the earlier and more effectively researchers can take this into account when developing new drugs,” says Sereina Riniker, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences. She led the study, which has now been published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.

Also reported in...

external page Technology.org

external page News Wise

Return of the GEDI: Space-based, forest carbon-mapping laser array saved

external page Since GEDI data became publicly available in 2020, researchers and governments have been using it for a variety of applications...Thomas Crowther, a professor of ecology at ETH Zurich, has used data from the mission to study biodiversity around the world. It’s helped aid his understanding of how changes in the structure of the ecosystem affect biodiversity in different regions, he said, “For example, the diversity of birds can change as the forest structure changes,” Crowther told Mongabay in an email interview. “Therefore, when we are trying to model the variations in bird diversity, it is incredibly useful to have GEDI data that shows how the structure of the ecosystem changes across forest landscapes. We use this, and similar approaches to understand all aspects of biodiversity.”

Torsten Hoefler Named First Winner of Jack Dongarra Early Career Award

external page Professor Torsten Hoefler of ETH Zurich, Switzerland, has been named the inaugural Jack Dongarra Early Career Award recipient. This award acknowledges his significant contributions to converging high performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI).

Also reported in...

external page HPC WIRE

Araris Biotech AG Acquires ARS Pharmaceutical’s Nectin-4 Antibody

external page Araris Biotech AG, an ETH Zurich and PSI spin-company pioneering a proprietary antibody-drug conjugate (ADC)-linker technology...announced the execution of an asset purchase agreement for the acquisition of ARS Pharmaceutical’s Nectin-4 antibody...Araris intends to use the antibody in the development of a differentiated Nectin-4 ADC using its proprietary linker technology to broaden its ADC pipeline.

Also reported in...

external page BioSpace

external page Fidelity

external page Pipeline Review

Quantum superposition reaches the microscopic world: Is a quantum computing revolution on the horizon?

external page Recently, Mathieu Fadel of the ETH Zurich and colleagues were able to place a single-microgram crystal in a state of quantum superposition to test the validity of quantum mechanics in the microscopic world. The results of their research have been published in the journal Physical review letters. This work should make it possible to test quantum mechanics and its possible modifications using massive objects of microscopic size.

Also reported in...

external page News Founded

external page Geeky News

external page Archyworldys

Spanish industry kicks off EU green hydrogen race

external page “The sense of urgency is that everyone seems to be racing to be the first to export green hydrogen," said Alejandro Núñez-Jiménez, an expert in green hydrogen policy at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. "Once you build energy infrastructure, it’s going to be there for decades. So it’s really a game where the first one might lock in the situation for many years.”

Also reported in...

external page Santa Fe New Mexican

external page SW Iowa News

(As well as numerous regional radio broadcasts in the U.S.)

Swiss Hyperloop Team Wins Top Prize for Innovation at Not-A-Boring Competition

external page At the 2023 "Not-A-Boring Competition" in Bastrop, Texas, at the beginning of April, the "Swissloop Tunneling" team from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich won the top prize for innovative design. Sponsored by Gebrüder Weiss, the group of more than 40 students retained their title as the team with the most innovative design in this competition hosted by The Boring Company.  

How You Use Your Mouse Or Type Says A Lot About Your Stress Levels At Work

external page Researchers at ETH Zürich, Switzerland, have developed a model to detect the levels of stress someone is experiencing at work based on how they type and move their mouse. The results may help prevent chronic stress before it becomes too serious.

Also reported in...

TrendRadar, 14 April 2023, external page Keyboards and mice could provide an early warning of worker stress

Gizmodo Australia, 14 April 2023, external page Tech News: 5 Things to Know in Australia Today

ScienceDaily, 11 April 2023, external page Detecting stress in the office from how people type and click

Archyworldys, 13 April 2023, external page Click and hammer: Stressed people type differently

New Atlas, 13 April 2023, external page Keyboards and mice could provide an early warning of worker stress

Scandinavian News, 12 April 2023, external page Researchers find level of work stress among people from typing, mouse clicks

A new approach to minimally invasive surgical instruments

external page ETH Zurich scientists have now developed a method for minimally invasive surgical instruments. Through this method, scientists can bring large objects into the body through a narrow catheter.

Also reported in...

EE News, 12 April 2023, external page How to make self-folding surgical tools

Computer Simulations Unveil Promising Mechanisms for Future Oral Drug Delivery Solutions

external page “The more we know about this mechanism and the properties a molecule must have, the earlier and more effectively researchers can take this into account when developing new drugs,” said Sereina Riniker, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences.

Also reported in...

Futurity, 25 April 2023, external page How do drugs get into the blood?

ETH Zurich boosts medical research with new site in Schlieren

external page ETH Zurich is boosting its medical research and establishing a new site in Schlieren. It is leasing a new building (SSA) right next to the Bio-​Technopark in Schlieren; the site is currently being set up as a laboratory building for medical research...“ETH Zurich is not just committed to basic biomedical research, it also helps ensure that findings from research find rapid application in clinics and in patient care,” says Christian Wolfrum, Vice President for Research, “and as such, it also invests in translational research.” “The Schlieren site is well suited for this purpose, because the physical proximity to our medical partners such as UZH, USZ and KS Baden will promote rapid transfer of our research results to practical application,” says Wolfrum.

Marking time

external page Radiocarbon timestamps left in ancient tree rings by cosmic ray bombardments can date historical events with unprecedented precision...Using techniques developed in part by Lukas Wacker, a physicist at ETH Zürich...

Russian hacker who broke into Democratic emails in 2016 has himself been breached, Ukrainian hackers say

external page Reuters was not able to independently verify the hackers’ claim. Stefan Soesanto, a researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, told Reuters that the leak “looks pretty credible.”

Also reported in...

Reuters, 11 April 2023, external page Ukrainian hackers say they have compromised Russian spy who hacked Democrats in 2016

Arab News, 14 April 2023, external page Ukrainian hackers say they have compromised Russian spy who hacked Democrats in 2016

How one ski resort is changing the way we think about sustainable ski travel

external page Travelling by train in Switzerland – rather than driving – is especially helpful. Professor Reto Knutti, climate scientist and professor of climate physics at ETH Zurich's Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science and a member of the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was one of the esteemed scientists who contributed to the reports that present evidence that human activities, mainly the burning fossil fuels, have warmed the climate by more than one-degree celsius already, causing severe impacts...

Soft robotic hand learns how to avoid buttery fingers

external page Robert Katzschmann of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich says that novice hands are too simplistic and have limited movement to imitate the different ways the human hand grasps objects, but experiments have shown that AI systems need only a small amount of information to learn to recognize the different ways an object feels . He said he would consider this AI approach when adding “senses” to the more complex, dexterous robotic hands his team is building.

Also reported in...

NewScientist, 12 April 2023, external page Soft robot hand learns how to avoid butter fingers

The shocking decline of Earth’s microbiome – and how to save it

external page “We’re starting to see scary signals that there may be this large microbial extinction event under way that we barely noticed,” says Colin Averill, an ecologist at ETH Zurich in Switzerland.

European forests lose colour due to climate change

external page The findings were revealed after researchers analysed over 20 years of forest imagery in the Mediterranean and central regions of Europe. The large-scale study involved specialists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, the Technical University of Munich and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research.

Alarmed tech leaders call for AI research pause

external page Some technologists warn of deeper security threats. Planned ChatGPT-based digital assistants that can interface with the web and read and write emails could offer new opportunities for hackers, says Florian Tramèr, a computer scientist at ETH Zürich.  

Scientists Learned How to Turn Our Blood Sugar Into Electricity

external page Researchers from ETH Zurich have tapped into the human body’s ability to produce electricity in order to show how placing a fuel cell under the skin can turn blood sugar into power.

An interview with Didier Queloz, Nobel laureate and exoplanet hunter

external page The Economist podcast on science and technology. This week, the first of two episodes on the hunt for life elsewhere. Nobel laureate, Dider Queloz, talks about how the “exoplanet revolution” has influenced the search for life elsewhere.

Also on external page Spotify or wherever you access podcast content.

QS World Rankings Selects Best Universities to Study Architecture in 2023

external page QS- Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings just announced the 2023 top universities to study Architecture and the Built Environment. The index rates over 1,400 schools and covers a total of 54 disciplines, grouped into five broad subject areas...ETH Zurich tied with Delft University of Technology for third place in the subject area of Architecture and the Built Environment, right behind MIT (second) and University College London (first).

Spark Award for new corrosion protection

external page Sprayed on like paint, this polymer can even be peeled off again, recycled and reused. More effective, reusable and self-​repairing: a new kind of corrosion protection developed by the ETH researchers Marco D'Elia, Walter Caseri und Markus Niederberger has been honoured with ETH Zurich’s Spark Award 2023. The innovation offers excellent market potential and could significantly slow down the deterioration of buildings and vehicles. 

SynSense boosts $10m round for 3D neuromorphic processor

external page SynSense in China has boosted its recent $10m funding round to support its 3D neuromorphic processor technology developed in Switzerland...The funds will be used to accelerate the development of SynSense’s 3D neuromorphic processor DYNAP-CNN2 for high-speed vision processing for autonomous systems, such as drones, robots and self-driving vehicles.

Scientists Create "Tea Bag" Implant That Manages Diabetes, Powered by the Body's Excess Sugar

external page A team of researchers has come up with an implantable fuel cell that they say can manage type 1 diabetes — and make use of glucose in the body to power itself instead of relying on an external power source. The device, devised at ETH Zurich in Basel, Switzerland, can release insulin depending on the patient's blood sugar levels, a task that is conventionally taken care of by an insulin pump attached to the outside of the body.

Also reported in...

Freethink, 3 April 2023, external page Sugar-powered implant produces insulin as needed

Healthcare Packaging, 5 April 2023, external page Blood Sugar Could Power Medical Implants

Health Tech Insider, 11 April 2023, external page New Teabag Implant Can Treat Diabetes Automatically

Robotics investments reach $620M in February 2023

external page ETH Zurich spinoff, Nanoflex Robotics, a spin-off from ETH Zurich, provides advancing robotic technologies for surgical interventions for the treatment of ischemic stroke receives USD12,000,000 in Series A funding.  

Why are forests turning brown in summer?

external page Increasing summer heat and drought are affecting European forests -- some years, trees brown prematurely and some even start to die back. Researchers from ETH Zurich and the WSL are showing how exceptional weather conditions over several years are turning forests brown.

Review: Nix Hydration Biosensor

external page Noé Brasier from ETH Zurich and University Hospital Basel in Switzerland, who had chaired an interdisciplinary session on biosensors during a virtual congress called Sensors in Medicine 2022. Brasier, whose focus is clinical applications of sweat analysis, told me, “I am convinced that noninvasive molecular diagnostics will help physicians to extend and improve remote patient-monitoring in the future.” He’s currently conducting a clinical study at ETH Zurich, where he will investigate the proteomic and partly metabolic sweat profiles in participants exposed to heat.

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