In the Media - February 2024

Scientists use food industry byproduct to recover gold from electronic waste

external page Transforming base materials into gold was one of the elusive goals of the alchemists of yore. Now Professor Raffaele Mezzenga from the Department of Health Sciences and Technology at ETH Zurich has accomplished something in that vein. He has not of course transformed another chemical element into gold, as the alchemists sought to do. But he has managed to recover gold from electronic waste using a byproduct of the cheesemaking process.

Do We Have Cosmic Dust To Thank For Life On Earth?

external page Where did the required quantities of sulphur, phosphorus, nitrogen and carbon come from? Geologist and Nomis Fellow Craig Walton is convinced that these elements came to Earth primarily as cosmic dust. Craig Walton has been working at the Centre for Origin and Prevalence of Life (COPL) at ETH Zurich. He developed a model in collaboration with sedimentation experts and astrophysicists from the University of Cambridge.

Also reported in...

external page Technology.org

Earth as a Test Object

external page Physicists at ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich wanted to know whether the planned LIFE space mission could really detect traces of life on other planets. Yes, it can. The researchers reached this conclusion with the help of observations of our own planet. Life is indeed possible on Earth. This has been demonstrated in a study conducted by the Institute of Particle Physics and Astrophysics at ETH Zurich. Of course, the researchers didn’t intend to answer the question. Instead, they used the Earth as an example to prove that the planned LIFE (Large Interferometer for Exoplanets) space mission can succeed – and that the planned measurement procedure works.

Also reported in...

external page Astrobiology

external page PHYS.org

external page Science Magazine

external page Space Weekly

external page Techno-Science

Quantum Leap Forward: Zurich Instruments Unveils the SHF+ Product Line for High- Fidelity Qubit Control

external page Zurich Instruments (an ETH Zurich spinoff acquired by Rohde & Schwarz) launches the newest system for control and readout of superconducting qubits, including a full measurement software framework: the SHFSG+ Signal Generator, SHFQC+ Qubit Controller, and SHFQA+ Quantum Analyzer. Designed to the limits of analog performance, the SHF+ product line unites high-fidelity qubit control and quality performance and accelerates the development of longer coherence time qubits and scaling up QPUs.

Dehydrate the stratosphere to curb global warming? Scientists float risky new strategy

external page “Intentional stratospheric dehydration,” as it’s called, could only cool the climate moderately, offsetting roughly 1.4% of the warming caused by increased carbon dioxide over the past few hundred years. But for geoengineers who have talked about cooling the planet by loading the stratosphere with thousands of tons of reflective particles, “it’s clearly a new idea,” says Ulrike Lohmann, an atmospheric physicist at ETH Zürich. “This is something that could work.”
 

Midday sun at the touch of a button  

external page 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. Arno Schlüter, ETH Professor of Architecture and Building Systems, said: “If you want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings, then you have to take materials, building technology and occupant behaviour into consideration. In the Zero Carbon Building Systems Lab, we can explore how these factors interact.”
 

Ukrainian Troops Spotted Disk-Shaped UFO Hovering Over the Warzone

external page Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, the longest-serving associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA, stated he is certain that something is out there after reviewing several documents and speaking with witnesses...He emphasized that we must not ignore the spy balloon phenomenon since doing so will leave us rudely taken aback. The UFO expert left NASA to head to ETH Zurich in his home country, Switzerland.

Remission Rates Similar Among Patients with RA Receiving Adalimumab, Other Biologics

external page “Despite the advances in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and the availability of several biologic/targeted synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, up to 60% of patients will either not respond or lose response to therapy over time,” wrote a team of investigators led by Enriqueta Vallejo-Yagüe, PhD, associated with the Pharmacoepidemiology Group, Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and the Institute of Primary Health Care (BIHAM), University of Bern, Switzerland. “Thus, evidence-based decision on the optimal (treatments) for each patient remains challenging.”

A big boost to Europe’s climate change goals

external page While carbon pricing has been shown to reduce carbon emissions, its revenue-generating effects may prove to be one of its most important contributions, says ETH Zurich climate policy researcher Janna Hoppe, who coauthored an analysis of the effects of climate policies in the 2023 Annual Review of Environment and Resources. “Having some source of revenue that can be redistributed in order to make these policy instruments more just will always play a very critical role,” she says.

Why Chiral Thinks It Can Extend The Life Of Moore’s Law

external page ETH Zurich start-up Chiral as extending the life of Moore’s Law. The Zurich-based company, which is today announcing the completion of a $3.8 million fundraising, has developed innovation it hopes will power a new generation of microchips – and therefore a new generation of even more powerful computing and technology.

Also reported in...

external page Associated Press (AP)

external page AZO Nano

external page TechEconomy

external page Yahoo! Finance

MBZUAI celebrates UAE Innovation Month

external page A team of researchers from the MBZUAI Metaverse Centre (MMC), and collaborators from ETH Zurich, Vin AI, and Pinscreen, have introduced a new technology for generating high-fidelity photorealistic 3D avatars from a single photo, which can be animated using a webcam and potentially integrated sensors from a VR headset.

Bill & Melinda Gates offers US$28 million grant to support cassava research project aimed at boosting the crop’s productivity

external page The Bill & Melinda Gates Agricultural Innovations (Gates Ag One) has offered US$28 million (€25.8 million) grant to Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) (and researchers from 11 instititions including ETH Zurich) to spearhead a cassava research project. The grant will support the Cassava Source-Sink (CASS) project over the next 5 years to improve the productivity of one of the most important food crops in sub-Saharan Africa.

Researchers taught a robot dog to open a door with its leg

external page The robot can bust open doors, carry a backpack, and even collect rock samples. Researchers at ETH Zurich’s Robotic Systems Lab in Switzerland tried to solve that dilemma by training their own robot dog to use one of its four limbs to complete tasks like opening a door and moving objects while simultaneously relying on the other three limbs to walk and maintain balance. In a recently released paper documenting their findings, the researchers say they believe this novel use of the robot’s limb could one day aid space exploration and other scenarios where weight and mechanical real-estate are at a premium.

Also reported in...

external page NewScientist

external page Yahoo! News

Why protecting an open AI ecosystem should be a cornerstone of technology regulation

external page The world has been trying to address the risks of AI for some time now – at the company, national and global levels – to ensure that it is secure, safe, trustworthy and fair. This goal underpins the recently launched AI Governance Alliance of the World Economic Forum and the EU’s European AI Alliance, as well as nation-specific initiatives like the Swiss government’s and ETH Zurich’s Pilot Gen AI Redteaming Network.  

Solving Singapore’s urban heat island effect

external page “In an effort to cool down urban heat, the Cooling Singapore 2.0 project was initiated in 2021. This research project is in collaboration with ETH Zurich at the Singapore-ETH Centre,” Research Assistant Graces Ching informed the Office of Research...“The focus of Cooling Singapore 2.0 is to build a Digital Urban Climate Twin (DUCT) system, which models urban spaces using a system of models. Different scenarios can be simulated on the system..."

Apple’s iMessage is getting post-quantum encryption

external page Useful quantum computers aren’t a reality—yet. But in one of the biggest deployments of post-quantum encryption so far, Apple is bringing the technology to iMessage. We conclude that this protocol achieves strong security guarantees against an active network adversary who can selectively compromise parties and has quantum computing capabilities,” a research paper led by David Basin, a computer science professor at ETH Zurich, says of PQ3.

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external page Silicon Angle - Apple carried out the evaluation with the help of researchers from...ETH Zürich.

external page Apple (security research blog)

Goodbye robotic jerks: Bio-prosthetics learn the brain’s code

external page While existing neuroprosthetics have made significant strides in connectivity with the nervous system, researchers at ETH Zurich have uncovered a groundbreaking approach that promises to revolutionize the field.

Also reported in...

external page Medical Xpress

external page Sky News

external page SciTech Daily

external page Robotics & Automation News

Climate benefits of planting forests might be overestimated

external page The warming avoided by planting CO2-absorbing forests could be around 15 to 30 per cent lower than previously estimated due to feedbacks such as dark trees reflecting less sunlight...“We have always known that forests have warming effects under certain conditions and they have cooling effects under others. What this study shows is that the overwhelming net effect of forests is a cooling one,” says Thomas Crowther at ETH Zurich in Switzerland. “But most importantly, even if they didn’t have such a cooling impact, we would still need to save natural forests to support Earth’s biodiversity, and the billions of people who depend on them,” he says.

ETH Zurich unveils plan to construct world’s tallest 3D-printed building

external page Dubbed the ‘Tor Alva’ or ‘White Tower,’ the project is currently in progress at ETH Zurich. Architects Benjamin Dillenburger and Michael Hansmeyer from ETH Zurich’s Digital Building Technologies group spearheaded the design of the project...“The entire structure of the tower is designed using custom software that allows the precise definition of the geometry and can send the necessary data directly to the printing robots,” explained ETH Zurich’s Digital Building Technologies.

Global Crisis: Groundwater Levels Are Sinking Ever Faster Around the World

external page ...The US isn’t an isolated case. “The rest of the world is also squandering groundwater like there’s no tomorrow,” says Hansjörg Seybold, Senior Scientist in the Department of Environmental Systems Science at ETH Zurich. He is co-author of a study that has just been published in the journal Nature.

Also reported in...

external page IFL Science

Under pressure – space exploration in our time

external page In the past decade, humanity has seen the birth and expansion of a commercial space sector with new, private players, addressing technological challenges – from space launch to communication and satellite imagery of Earth (coverage of 2024 AAAS session organized by ETH Zurich).

Also reported in...external page

external page Bioengineer

external page Science Daily

external page A magical journey (blog)

external page Eurasia review

external page Space Daily

Bulls are helping solve the mysteries of male infertility

external page In the quest to unravel the complexities of male infertility, a research team led by Professor Hubert Pausch of ETH Zurich has turned to an unlikely source for insights: bulls. The research not only sheds light on the genetic underpinnings of male fertility but also paves the way for potential advancements in human fertility research and livestock breeding practices.

Also reported in...

external page The Science Times

external page Futurity

external page AZO Life Sciences

external page Medical Xpress

€34m collaboration for SwissChips research

external page ETH Zurich is coordinating the SwissChips programme, with all three founding institutions taking leading roles in their respective research areas. These efforts are designed to bolster microelectronics and IC design research, innovation, development, and businesses, ensuring Swiss academic institutions have access to cutting-edge manufacturing and design technologies.

Recycled flooring contains phased-out chemicals

external page Researchers found lead and phthalates in new products made with recycled materials...It’s likely that the legacy chemicals were not added on purpose, says lead author Helene Wiesinger, a doctoral student at the Institute of Environmental Engineering of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich.

Innovative Piston Machine Turns Waste Heat Into Power

external page Etavalve GmbH, a spin-off of Empa and ETH Zurich, which was co-founded by hydraulics specialist Wolfgang Schneider, engaged in the technology's development, will manage commercialization...The concept behind the...piston machine is to make better use of waste heat from processes in the metal or cement sector and other fields by using it more efficiently than with existing turbine-based solutions.

ESG Clean Energy Solves The Carbon Capture Puzzle for Power Generation  

external page When fossil fuel burns it makes three things heat, carbon dioxide, and water. The problem is water molecules interfere with the carbon capture process. Several scientific studies have shown how water negatively affects CO2 capture. For example, a study done by ETH Zurich Institute of Process Engineering and Stanford University stated, “In all carbon capture processes the feed steam contains water vapor, which interferes with the mechanisms involved in the adsorption of CO2.”

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external page Yahoo! Finance

external page Oil and Gas Press

ETH Zurich logistics tool saves Red Cross millions

external page To enhance the quality of medical care during humanitarian crises, the ICRC has been collaborating with ETH Professor Stephan Wagner and Bublu Thakur-​Weigold at the Chair of Logistics Management, for the past three years. Together with the ICRC’s logistics experts, the researchers have developed an inventory calculator and planning process that greatly improves the distribution of medical supplies in conflict zones...(yielding a) savings worth 3.6 million Swiss francs.

Also reported in...

external page Science Magazine

Solar Geoengineering Looks to Silicon Valley for New Wave of Funding

external page Tech billionaires are funding research into controversial methods for cooling the planet...Since Harvard began researching solar geoengineering, several other universities around the globe have launched similar programs. They include the University of Chicago, the University of Washington, Cornell University, Switzerland's ETH Zürich etc.

Also reported in...

external page E & E News (by Politico)

Magnetically operated robot can move through arteries to treat stroke patients

external page A team of roboticists at Multi-Scale Robotics Lab, ETH Zurich, working with several hospitals in Switzerland, has developed a magnetically operated robot that could potentially be used to treat people after a stroke. Their paper is published in the journal Science Robotics.

Also reported in...

external page Medical Design and Outsourcing

Flexy cratered wires could reduce infections in heart failure patients

external page A new type of electrical wire, designed for powering implanted heart pumps, could prevent infection...Seeking a more biocompatible alternative, scientists from ETH Zurich and the German Heart Centre have created special thin, flexible, coated copper wires. Because the wires are less than half a millimeter wide, several of them serve the same purpose as the single cable which is currently used.

Also reported in...

external page Interesting Engineering

external page Medical Xpress

‘Surprising’ use of valve control system targets waste heat for electricity generation

external page Commercialisation will be handled by Etavalve, a spin-off from Empa and ETH Zurich. The company was co-founded by hydraulics expert Wolfgang Schneider, who was involved in the development of the technology.

"I would caution against claims of stone being a revolutionary sustainable material" says Natalia Petkova

external page "Recent research carried out at ETH Zurich suggests that if stone is transported by truck beyond 200 kilometres, it might no longer make sense to employ it structurally in terms of carbon reduction," Petkova explained.

Robots are building a ‘Lord of the Rings’ style tower in the Swiss Alps

external page The 30-metre-high ‘white tower’ is designed by architects Benjamin Dillenburger and Michael Hansmeyer (who, back in 2013, completed the first 3D printed room) and is being built at ETH Zurich using a robotic concrete extrusion process. According to the university, this reduces materials use by half.

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external page Archilovers

Would you wear a sweater made from human hair?

external page “We are moving into a world where sustainability is becoming an important concern,” said Marc André Meyers, a material scientist at the University of California at San Diego. Meyers along with colleagues at UC San Diego and the Swiss research university ETH Zurich, studied the structure of human hair in 2017. He says hair’s strength and its tendency to spring back into its original shape could help strengthen building materials in the same way steel rebar reinforces concrete walls.

Limescale-repellent coating to improve thermal power plant efficiency

external page A hydrogel-based coating that effectively prevents the adhesion of limescale. A research team from ETH Zurich and the University of California, Berkeley, has developed a special limescale-repellent coating that has microscopically small ridges preventing the adhesion of limescale crystals.

Also reported in...

external page AZO Materials

external page New Atlas

external page Bioengineer.org

Open-Source Security Chip Released

Texternal page he first commercial chip based on the OpenTitan hardware security design has hit the market...Thanks to academic involvement (including coalition partner, ETH Zurich), OpenTitan was able to incorporate cryptography protocols that are safe against future quantum computers.

Wingman Ventures rebrands as Founderful, gains momentum for $120m Fund II for Swiss tech startups

external page For the 13th consecutive year, Switzerland has ranked first in the Global Innovation Index - topping the lists for technology, knowledge, and creative output. It also has the world's highest patent per capita ratio, and ETH Zurich produces more university spin-outs than any other university worldwide.

Also reported in...

external page Financial Times blog, SIFTED

external page TechCrunch

The top 50 universities by reputation 2023

external page Times Higher Education reveals the top universities with the best reputations, as determined by academics around the world. ETH Zurich ranks 12th in the world for reputation. 

InSight mission confirms eight meteoroid impact events on Mars

external page The NASA InSight Mars Lander mission was officially retired in December 2022, after the lander ran out of energy. The lander’s highly sensitive seismometer, along with daily monitoring performed by the French space agency Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and the Marsquake Service managed by ETH Zurich, detected 1 319 marsquakes, including quakes caused by meteoroid impacts.

How landscape evolution makes Madagascar a hotspot for plant species diversity

external page A recent study that included ETH Zurich researchers has put forward a new hypothesis for the underlying cause of Madagascar’s rich plant biodiversity, which has been regarded as an unsolved mystery of natural history. Loïc Pellissier, Professor of Ecosystem and Landscape Evolution at WSL and ETH Zurich, also played a leading role in the study. “The high biodiversity is considered to be mainly due to the shifting of tectonic plates and the resulting formation of a complex topography. However, Madagascar never fit well into this hypothesis, as tectonic activity has been minimal for the last 100 million years,” he says.

Also reported in...

external page PHYS.org

World’s longest suspension bridge connects Europe to Asia and cut journey time by 93%

external page Wouldn’t it make sense to have a bridge over the 4,000-mile long Amazon river?...Speaking to Live Science, Walter Kaufmann, chair of Structural Engineering (Concrete Structures and Bridge Design) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, said the explanation is simple: “There is no sufficiently pressing need for a bridge across the Amazon.”

How Have Women Shaped Graphene Research in the Past Year? (Women in Science)

external page I believe that modern physics research is not built by a few geniuses. It is built by many curious, hard-working individuals, who are passionate about exploring the unknown frontier and are determined to attempt to answer the hardest questions." (Chuyao Tong, ETH Zurich)

external page "The prospect of contributing to a rapidly evolving field, with clear objectives and real-world implications, is both exhilarating and fulfilling...I can not only explore the unknown but also actively shape the future of technology and science.” (Rebekka Garreis)

IARPA launches program to solve error-prone building blocks of quantum computing

external page Announced on Thursday by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, the program — dubbed Entangled Logical Qubits— will study error correction methods and fault tolerance in operations between logical qubits...The ELQ initiative has issued research contracts to four academic institutions: ETH Zürich, Harvard University, the University of Innsbruck and the University of Sydney.

Why olivine and diamonds are best friends and how that could simplify the search for precious gemstones

external page Researchers at ETH Zurich developed a new method for identifying whether or not a given kimberlite field has diamonds...The analysis of olivine complements previous measurements and helps to form a more complete picture. "The great thing about this new method is not only that it's simpler, but also that it finally allows us understand why the previous methods worked," Giuliani says. He adds, "De Beers is already using this new method."

Also reported in...

external page Tech and Science Post

How to Make Bright Quantum Dots Even Brighter

external page 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 and quantum technologies.

3D-printed White tower surfaces using soft concrete

external page The construction of the four-floor White Tower in the remote village of Mulegns in the Swiss Alps began on February 1st, 2024, with the introduction of 3D-printed columns of the Tor Alva architecture. The first 8 columns of the lower floor are being printed by a robot that extrudes soft concrete into multilayered print paths at ETH in Zurich, resulting in a series of joint-based, twisting hollow columns for the White Tower.

See why annual planetary boundary health checks will better inform leaders' decision-making

external page New partnership initiated in Davos includes the Crowther Lab at ETH Zürich, the Earth Commission, the European Space Agency, MIT Media Lab, Open Planet, PIK Potsdam and Planet Labs, in collaboration with the Earth Observation and Earth Decides communities harnesses a robust and tested methodology, the latest geospatial technology and world-class analytics and scientific modelling capabilities.

New MRI technique allows for more precise imaging of myelin sheath

external page “The greater the change in magnetic field strength generated by the three scanner coils, the faster information about the position of hydrogen atoms can be recorded,” said Emily Baadsvik, a researcher at ETH Zurich and the study’s first author.

Also reported in...

external page Medical Xpress

external page Tech Explorist

external page Technology.org

external page Futurity

AI Unravels Ancient Roman Scroll Charred By Volcano

external page AI co-developed by Julian Schilliger, a Swiss robotics student at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (now an ETH alumnus) helps decipher the text of a 2,000-year-old scroll burned at Pompeii.

Also reported in...

external page Forbes

external page TIME

external page INDEPENDENT

external page CNN

external page Business Insider

As well as in numerous regional publications, television and radio broadcasts.

Food-based aerogel recovers gold from e-waste

external page Raffaele Mezzenga, a materials scientist and physicist at ETH Zurich, and colleagues started with whey protein, a byproduct of the cheesemaking industry, and made a low-density aerogel...The researchers (including Mohammad Peydayesh, a chemical engineer at ETH Zurich) tested the gel’s ability to adsorb gold from a solution...“It was really exciting to find this nugget in the ashes,” Peydayesh recalls. The nugget was about 91% gold, which corresponds to about 21 to 22 carats.

Also reported in...

external page NewScientist

UBS reports 4Q/FY23 results and confirms financial targets…

external page UBS is partnering with the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator Foundation (GESDA), CERN, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, and Swiss higher-education institutions ETH Zurich and EPFL to create the Open Quantum Institute (OQI), which was officially launched in October 2023.
 

Tribute: Kurt W. Forster (1935–2024)

external page The architectural world pays homage to the late Kurt Forster. For several years Zurich native Kurt Forster headed up the history and theory of architecture program at ETH Zurich.

Scientists successfully simulate protein complex that initiates fertilization

external page 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 fertilization at once, which could help to accelerate development of more targeted infertility treatments.

Also reported in...

external page PHYS.org

external page Bioengineer.org

Sound-Powered Sensors Stand to Save Millions of Batteries

external page 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.

Strange New Kind of Magnetism Found Lurking In Material Just Six Atoms Thick

external page In an experiment led by researchers from ETH Zürich in Switzerland, atomically thin grids of two different synthetic materials were superimposed like pages in the world's thinnest book to create a repeating effect known as a moiré pattern..."Such moiré materials have attracted great interest in recent years, as they can be used to investigate quantum effects of strongly interacting electrons very well," explains study senior author and physicist Ataç Imamoğlu.

Facebook is still thriving 20 years later. Here’s how

external page ...A 2013 study by researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich found a key factor leading to the (Friendster) site’s downfall was its newer members not having strong connections to others, weakening the social fabric and the resilience of the platform, which relied on active engagement among users…The researchers also blamed Friendster’s design and configuration for its decline.

Midday Sun at the Touch of a Button

external page 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.

Also reported in...

external page Technology.org

Better fake muscles give robot fish real kick

external page Researchers (at ETH Zurich) have developed artificial muscles for robot motion.

Also reported in...

external page Technology.org

No Longer Can We Think Of Groundwater As An Endless Resource

external page Experts say the climate crisis driven by human activity is boosting the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, such as heat waves, droughts, and wildfires. “That’s why we can’t put the problem on the back burner,” says Hansjörg Seybold, Senior Scientist in the Department of Environmental Systems Science at ETH Zurich. “The world must take urgent action.”