In the Media - September 2024

Business Tech Roundup: AI Just Made A Mockery Of CAPTCHA

external page Recent research from ETH Zurich shows that AI models can now consistently bypass CAPTCHA systems designed to block bots. CAPTCHAs – which traditionally asks users to identify objects like traffic lights or buses – are vulnerable because AI can now recognize these objects with high accuracy based on their results. This breakthrough raises concerns about web security as it could lead to increased bot-driven attacks, forcing developers to seek more advanced alternatives to CAPTCHAs for protection.

Also reported in...

external page TechRadar

external page Ars Technica

external page BitcoinEthereumNews

external page New Scientist

external page TechXplore

Volcano Watch: Understanding magma storage and migration in Kilauea’s active East Rift Zone

external page Ninfa Bennington, Federica Lanza, and Alicia Rohnacher, HVO geophysicist and colleagues from ETH Zurich, report on how seismologists from ETH Zurich and HVO deployed 115 seismic nodes (tiny, portably seismometers) across Kilauea’s ERZ (East Rift Zone), fortuitously before significant unrest began.  

Next-generation secure, defined internet with SCION architecture

external page ...although payloads can be relatively protected, the means of directing or routing traffic remain exploitable. This situation was the basis of research carried out by Swiss academic Adrian Perrig, who devised the SCION architecture at the prestigious ETH Zurich as a way of determining secure and resilient traffic routing. Without getting too deep into the technological weeds, the SCION architecture enables its users to dictate routes between privately-owned destinations and send data between them independently from the rest of the internet.

Europe's intense rainfall in September twice as likely thanks to climate change

external page Prof. Andreas Prein comments: So there is simply more water available to turn into rain during a weather event like this, says Andreas Prein, a climate scientist at ETH Zurich, who was not involved in the WWA research…“This is the one thing that we're most certain about,” Prein says. “Temperature is increasing. The atmosphere can hold more moisture because it's warmer. And then you can have more extreme rainfall.”

Also broadcast on numerous regional radio stations across the US

Construction of the White Tower in Mulegns: Technical challenges in completing the building project

external page On 30 September, the highest and most challenging storey of the White Tower is erected in Mulegns. The construction of this fourth floor is a challenge both architecturally and logistically. The filigree columns, which will support the new floor at a height of six metres, require precise planning and complex transport methods. The collaboration between ETH Zurich and regional partners emphasises the complex requirements of this project.

Kiva founders, inventors join Logistics Hall of Fame

external page ETH Zurich Professor Dr. Raffaello D'Andrea – will be inducted into the Logistics Hall of Fame at a gala reception on December 5 at the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport in Berlin.  

Also reported in...

external page The Robot Report

Araris Doubles Down With Dual-payload ADC

Interview with Philipp Spycher, ETH Alumnus and Chief Scientific Officer of ETH Spinoff, Araris Biotech. external page Swiss antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) maker Araris Biotech is approaching a multifaceted disease with a multifaceted drug...The company is developing novel ADCs with two oncolytic payloads, a unique approach for the trendy modality that captured the attention of biotech companies of all sizes and commanded enormous investment.

Also reported in...

external page Bioprocess online

external page PHYS.org

New Gene Editing Tool Shows Promise for Treating Diseases

external page Bacterial and archaeal CRISPR-Cas systems, comprising protein and RNA components, were initially developed as a natural defense mechanism against invading viruses. Over the past decade, the reconfiguration of these so-called “genetic scissors” has revolutionized the field of genetic engineering in both scientific research and medical applications. (Research led by UZH with researchers from ETH Zurich).

Also reported in...

external page ScienceDaily

eMolecules Acquires Synple Chem AG

external page eMolecules, Inc., provider of the industry-leading chemical compound search-and-fulfillment platform for early discovery chemistry research, today announced that it has acquired Synple Chem AG ("Synple"). Synple (an ETH Spinoff) specializes in automated chemical synthesis systems and solutions for small molecules drug discovery customers.

Also appeared in several regional publications.

Europe Should Tap Switzerland to Unlock LLM Innovation in the Continent

external page ...Switzerland consistently ranks as the top innovator on the EU’s innovation scoreboard, performing around 140 percent above the EU average. Hosting a transnational, open-source LLM moonshot project in Switzerland, anchored by its world-class institutions like ETH Zurich and EPFL, would give Europe the best chance to figure out innovative ways to improve LLMs for European languages and lead in their development.

America’s Ambitious Climate Plan Is Faltering

external page “The pace of our response is obviously totally insufficient,” said Sonia Seneviratne, a climate scientist at Swiss university ETH Zurich. On this trajectory, “it will become increasingly impossible to face the changing climate we are going to experience,” she said.

Focus on frontier research with the ERC

external page President Maria Leptin's keynote speech at the conference 'Focus on Frontier Research with the ERC' organised by the Polish Academy of Sciences in cooperation with the ERC in Warsaw, Poland..."...if we look at the annual budget for just the ETH Zurich it is over 2 billion euros. So ETH Zurich by itself has an annual budget which exceeds the entire R&D expenditure of ten of the widening countries. Of course, ETH Zurich does not only carry out research but this gives some idea of the resources needed to run a world class public research university.

Climate Ring Conference Presented by Swissnex on the Occasion of Climate Week NYC 2024...

external page Climate Ring is an initiative of Swissnex in Boston and New York organized in partnership with Performance Space NY, Climeworks (an ETH Spinoff), ETH Zurich, Greater Zurich Area, ZHdK - Zurich University of the Arts, HEAD - Geneva...Innosuisse - Swiss Innovation Agency...SI - Swiss Institute, Storefront for Art and Architecture...GGBa - Invest Western Switzerland, Switzerland Innovation, travel Switzerland, SBB CFF FFS, Swiss Business Hub USA, the Consulate General of Switzerland in New York, and Presence Switzerland.

Also appeared in several regional publications in the US

The Independent Climate 100 List 2024

At number 95. Christoph Gebald, ETH Spinoff Climeworks, comes in on the list just ahead of Elon Musk...external page Gebald, from Germany, started Climeworks in Switzerland with Jan Wurzbacher in 2009 while the pair were doing their PhDs at ETH Zurich...In May of this year, Climeworks officially opened its Mammoth plant in Iceland, which has been in the works for two years. When it is fully up and running it is expected to remove up to 36,000 tonnes of carbon a year from the atmosphere. That’s 10 times more than the nearest competitor, of which there are several hundred, but it is still well short of the one billion tonnes that Gebald has set as a goal to help meet the world’s net zero goals.

Tourists are rushing to see glaciers before they disappear. The trips are turning deadly.

external page An unusually hot spring and summer had led to massive melting high up on the glacier. That caused a large, hidden crevasse to fill with water, increasing pressure on the ice until it collapsed, said Matthias Huss, a glaciologist at ETH Zürich, a Swiss university. An event like this had never happened on the glacier before, Huss told CNN. The situation is changing rapidly in the mountains, he said. “Glaciers that were always considered stable suddenly become dangerous.”  

Also reported in...

external page Aol.

...and numerous U.S. regional radio broadcasts

Drug Screen Suggests Antidepressant Could Be Repurposed to Fight Glioblastoma

external page Now, researchers have uncovered in cell cultures and mice that an antidepressant called vortioxetine—that is capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier—may help combat glioblastomas...The research is published in Nature Medicine in an article titled, “High-throughput identification of repurposable neuroactive drugs with potent anti-glioblastoma activity,” and led by ETH Zurich professor Berend Snijder, PhD...Snijder’s postdoc and lead author of the study, Sohyon Lee, PhD, found the drug using pharmacoscopy, a special screening platform that the researchers have developed at ETH Zurich. In this study, the ETH Zurich researchers worked closely with colleagues from various hospitals, in particular with the group under neurologists Michael Weller, MD, and Tobias Weiss, MD, at the University Hospital Zurich (USZ).

Also reported in...

external page BioTechniques

external page Global Health Newswire

external page eCancer

external page Earth

external page Futurity

external page Medical Xpress

external page Neuroscience News

external page News Medical and Life Sciences

external page Oncology News

external page Oxford Mail

external page SciTechDaily

external page Sky News

external page The Standard

external page The Sun

external page Scientific Inquirer

...and numerous regional publications and broadcasts in the U.S. and U.K.

Predictions for the 2024 chemistry prize highlight growing importance of AI and computational methods

Clarivate Analytics, Web of Science provider, has published its annual list of citation laureates – researchers whose work is among the top 0.01% of the most frequently cited publications, each having 2000 or more citations. The list includes 22 exceptional scientists and economists spanning six countries whose work has been considered deserving of a Nobel prize, according to analysis conducted by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). Of these, six individuals have been selected as candidates for the chemistry prize...(including): Physicists Roberto Car, from Princeton University, US and Michele Parrinello from ETH Zürich, Switzerland, were recognised for their ‘revolutionary’ Car–Parrinello molecular dynamics – a computational technique that enables more efficient simulations of molecular dynamics. This helps researchers better understand chemical reactions and material behaviour at the atomic level.  See: external page https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/predictions-for-the-2024-chemistry-prize-highlight-growing-importance-of-ai-and-computational-methods/4020172.article

Video Friday

external page I appreciate Disney Research’s insistence on always eventually asking, “okay, but can we get this to work on a real robot in the real world?"

The outcome of our processing is the Robot MotionDiffusion Model (RobotMDM), a text-conditioned kinematic diffusion model that interfaces with a reinforcement learning-based tracking controller. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this method on a challenging humanoid robot, confirming its practical utility and robustness in dynamic environments.

Ukraine should invest in solar and wind to rebuild war-torn energy system, ETH researchers say

external page Researchers at ETH Zurich have been working with researchers from Ukraine and Germany to investigate how to rebuild Ukraine’s destroyed energy infrastructure based on renewable energy. They have determined that solar and wind energy would quickly deliver a distributed power supply system and prevent corruption.

Also reported in...

external page Eurasia Review

external page Energy Central

Flooding has devastated several parts of the world in a short period of time

Professor Sonia Seneviratne comments on extreme climate events (starts at minute 1:17)...external page Floods have taken lives and buried towns in eastern Europe, Nigeria and Shanghai this week. Scientists say intense precipitation is becoming more possible with human-driven climate change. 

Did a Chinese University Hacking Competition Target a Real Victim?

external page Dakota Cary, a strategic advisory consultant at security firm Sentinel One, and Eugenio Benincasa, senior cyber defense researcher at the Center for Security Studies at ETH Zurich university in Switzerland, discovered the unusual contest and its requirements while researching China’s hacking competitions. The two have written a report for the Atlantic Council and plan to present their findings on Thursday at the Labscon security conference in Arizona...They acknowledge that there is no hard evidence that the competition was used to attack a real-world target and that the evidence they do have is circumstantial. But they said they are 85 percent confident that this is what occurred because no alternative explanations make sense.

Tannins to make cows on pasture more climate-friendly

external page Researchers at ETH Zurich part of an interenational team of scientists led by Aarhus University working towards a circular approach to farming systems.

Ocean microbes eat a different diet that affects climate change

external page “I was thrilled to see how much there is to learn about the functioning of the ocean by combining two technologies — high-end chemical analysis and microscale imaging — that have historically never been used together,” noted co-author Roman Stocker, professor at ETH Zurich...“I believe that work at the interface between these exciting technologies will continue to yield important insights into how microbes shape our oceans, now and into the future,” he continued.

Also reported in...

external page Technology Networks

external page ECO Magazine

Study Finds Widespread Human Exposure to Packaging Chemicals

external page In a new study, published in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, scientists describe the widespread human exposure to food contact chemicals...Prof. Dr. Martin Scheringer, co-author from ETH Zürich, stressed the urgency of addressing this issue: “There are surprisingly many hazardous chemicals used in food contact materials, and they do not just stay there, but quite some of them reach, to some extent, the human body. This is concerning, and there clearly is a need for safer and simpler food contact materials.”

ETH Zurich pioneer new method to combat PFAS chemicals

external page PFAS chemicals, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are widely used in products ranging from firefighting foam and non-stick cookware to water-repellent textiles and pesticides...To combat this issue, researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a new method for degrading a particularly harmful subgroup of PFAS known as perfluorooctane sulfonates (PFOS)...This innovative approach could pave the way for safer, more effective ways to tackle PFAS pollution.

Climate scientists troubled by damage from floods ravaging central Europe

Sonia Seneviratne, a climate scientist at ETH Zürich, said...“On average, the intensity of heavy precipitation events increases by 7% for each degree of global warming,” she said. “We now have 1.2C of global warming, which means that on average heavy precipitation events are 8% more intense.”...Erich Fischer, a climate scientist at ETH Zürich, said scientists at the conference used to discuss the physics of how climate change increases rainfall intensity over lunch on the banks of the New Danube. “It is ironic to now see these banks, where we were sitting in the sun and discussing the science of extreme precipitation, now being flooded.”

See: external page https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/16/climate-scientists-troubled-by-damage-from-floods-ravaging-central-europe

CSCS Debuts Alps Supercomputer, Enhancing Switzerland’s Research Infrastructure

external page ETH Zurich officially inaugurated the new Alps supercomputer at the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) in Lugano. Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin and well-known personalities from the worlds of science and politics attended the celebrations in Lugano...The new research infrastructure is based on a Cray Supercomputer EX from Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) and has 10,752 of the world’s coveted NVIDIA Grace Hopper superchips. This makes Alps one of the fastest computers in the world.

Also reported in...

external page EE News Europe

external page Science Business

external page Data Center Dynamics

external page Gulf News

...and numerous international publications.

What if robots had artificial muscles?

external page Researchers at ETH Zurich's Soft Robotics Lab and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems have unveiled a robotic leg powered by artificial muscles that can navigate diverse terrains with ease and efficiency.

Reuters clip picked up in numerous regional television broadcasts across the U.S.

Swiss researchers develop robotic additive manufacturing method that uses earth-based materials—and not cement

external page Researchers at (Gramazio Kohler) ETH Zurich, a Swiss university, have created a robotic printing process that extrudes and drops material one bit at a time at up to 10 meters per second.

Also reported in...

external page Engineering.com

external page Futurity

external page Parametric Architecture

external page TCT Magazine

8 Technological Advancements Transforming Architecture Today

external page A joint collaboration of Gramazio Kohler Research, ETH Zürich and ERNE AG Holzbau is leading the way in robotic construction with their Spatial Timber Assemblies project, where robots autonomously build intricate wooden structures. The use of robots not only reduces the need for manual labor but also allows for more precise and creative architectural solutions​.

Cognitive Abilities and Adaptive Leadership: How the Emba X Program Empowers Leaders with Cognitive Flexibility and Better Decision Making, Leveraging Technology

external page In this interview with EBR, Daniella Laureiro-Martinez of the Department of Management, Technology, and Economics at ETH Zürich, discusses the emba X program, ETH Zurich’s and the University of St. Gallen’s Executive MBA program, and its efforts to equip today’s leaders with the skills to navigate complex challenges and inspire meaningful impact.  

Max Planck Society Recognizes AI Innovations in Mathematics, Microscopy, and HPC

external page Artificial intelligence and computer science are driving developments in many areas of society – including in scientific research. This has prompted the Max Planck Society and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to honor outstanding achievements in the use of algorithms in mathematics, microscopy and climate research in 2024...Max Planck Humboldt Medals go to...Torsten Hoefler, Professor at ETH Zurich, for the introduction of AI in high-performance computing, for example in climate research.  

Students are building the next generation of space exploration technology

external page That includes students CNN met for this season’s Tech for Good, like those at ETH Zurich in Switzerland who are developing a three-legged hopping robot for exploring microgravity environments, and an algorithm-controlled parachute for returning reusable rockets to Earth, which could save fuel.  

Microbe dietary preferences found to influence effectiveness of carbon sequestration in deep ocean

external page "I was thrilled to see how much there is to learn about the functioning of the ocean by combining two technologies—high-end chemical analysis and microscale imaging–that have historically never been used together," said co-author Roman Stocker, professor at the Institute of Environment Engineering, Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, ETH Zurich, Switzerland.

Also reported in...

external page ScienceDaily

Top Theory on Moon's Formation Might Have No Evidence After All

external page According to a new analysis led by planetary scientist Paolo Sossi of the Experimental Planetology group at ETH Zürich in Switzerland, we have absolutely no unambiguous evidence that such a giant impact ever took place..."Rocks from the Earth's mantle and the Moon are indistinguishable on the basis of every isotopic ratio that tracks the provenance of material in the Solar System," Sossi told ScienceAlert.

Also reported in...

external page Yahoo! News

Soitec-Led Project Targets High-Frequency Semiconductors

external page Move2THz, a European research and industry consortium led by Soitec, has commenced work to develop a future generation of high-frequency semiconductors based on indium phosphide (InP). The 27-member consortium (that includes ETH Zurich researchers) plans to lay the groundwork for a European supply and manufacturing ecosystem for InP semiconductors.

Why Switzerland Is the World's Best Country – Again

external page Joël Mesot, president of the public university ETH Zurich, credits the country’s “amazing education system”, its startup ecosystem, and Switzerland’s history and direct democracy for its global standing.

Ending a 90-Year-Old Challenge: Superfast Algorithm Rewrites Network Flow Rules

external page Researchers have created a revolutionary network flow algorithm that enables ultra-fast computations for dynamic networks, transforming how problems in theoretical computer science are approached and solved...Rasmus Kyng and his team have developed a superfast algorithm that looks set to transform an entire field of research. The groundbreaking work by Kyng’s team involves what is known as a network flow algorithm, which tackles the question of how to achieve the maximum flow in a network while simultaneously minimising transport costs.

Also reported in...

external page SkyNews

Electro-hydraulic muscles help these robot legs stand straight on uneven terrain

external page Researchers at ETH Zürich are very good at keeping robots standing upright...New research from the school, published in collaboration with the Stuttgart-based Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, takes a unique approach to the problem of traversing uneven terrain...Artificial muscles showcased by the schools are powered by a hybrid electro-hydraulic system.

Also reported in...

external page SIFTED (Financial Times)

external page Popular Science

external page AI Insider

external page AZO Robotics

external page Robotics and Automation News

external page Canadian Affairs via AFP

external page EE News

external page Financial News

external page i3 Investor

external page InseptiveMind

external page Interesting Engineering

external page PHYS.org

external page Yahoo! News

external page The Robot Report

external page ScienceDaily

external page SkyNews

external page Electronics Weekly

external page Tech and Science Post

external page Tech Explorist

external page Tech Explore

external page Yahoo! Tech

external page IEEE Spectrum

Unlocking climate solutions at scale through blended finance

external page A paper produced by GAEA in collaboration with ETH Zurich and the Rockefeller Foundation - Labelled Bonds for the Net-Zero Transition in South-East Asia: The Way Forward outlines how exchange-traded securities, such as corporate and government bonds, are key to scaling such debt finance as well as allowing access to an international investor base, particularly when linked to sustainable development.

Plasmonic Modulators Enable High-Speed Free-Space Optical Links

external page Laurenz Kulmer of the Leuthold group at ETH Zurich and researchers at Optics utilized plasmonic modulators, which employ unique light waves called surface plasmon polaritons to control and manipulate optical signals, to achieve data rates of up to 424 Gbit/s over a 53-km turbulent free-space optical link. This new study lays the foundation for high-speed optical communication links that transmit data across open spaces or through the air.

Clean Green Machines

ETH Zurich spinoff, Tethys Robotics featured in BBC Click's technology show that aired on the BBC World News network worldwide over the weekend of 7 - 8 September. BBC Click's Spencer Kelly presented an autonomous underwater robot in action in Switzerland. Replay is available in the UK via the external page BBC iPlayer, and on UPC / Sunrise or Swisscom BBC channels in Switzerland.

Researchers make sound waves travel in one direction only, with implications for electromagnetic wave technology

external page Researchers at ETH Zurich have managed to make sound waves travel only in one direction. In the future, this method could also be used in technical applications with electromagnetic waves...A team of researchers at ETH Zurich led by Nicolas Noiray, professor for Combustion, Acoustics and Flow Physics, in collaboration with Romain Fleury at EPFL, has now developed a method for preventing sound waves from traveling backward without deteriorating their propagation in the forward direction.

Also reported in...

external page PHYS.org

external page Lifeboat Foundation

external page Yahoo! News

external page EE News Europe

external page PHYS.org

external page ScienceX

external page Tech and Science Post

Ecotourism offers new hopes for Bhutanese youth — and local environments

Research by Dhan B. Gurung of the Royal University of Bhutan and external page Klaus Seeland, a political scientist and sociologist with ETH Zurich, has shown that visitors drawn to Bhutan’s natural beauty tend to stay longer than those interested in its culture. Ecotourism activities, they argue, could attract younger tourists while benefiting rural communities and supporting Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness goals.

New NUS Bezos Centre to focus on combining novel foods to make hybrids  

external page While cell-based meat, plant-based food and fermented protein may be struggling to remain viable, food scientists here increasingly believe that mixing the three novel foods together could be a boost to the alternative protein sector...The (Jeff) Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein has its own office...Research at the centre will be led by 23 scientists from institutes including NUS, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Institute of Technology, and ETH Zurich.  

Also reported in...

external page Yahoo! Finance

...et al

What Teachers Get Wrong About ‘Productive Failure'—and How to Get It Right

external page “In the past, much of how we designed for learning and growth was without failure altogether. Then people started saying, ‘Well, failure can be useful, so when it happens, try to learn from it,’” said Manu Kapur, a professor of learning sciences and higher education at ETH Zurich, a public research university in Switzerland...

More water worlds than we thought might support life

external page The possibility that there is liquid water on an exoplanet’s surface usually flags it as “potentially habitable,” but the reality is that too much water might prevent life from taking hold...“On Earth, the ocean is in contact with some rock. If we have too much water, it creates high-pressure ice underneath the ocean, which separates it from the planet’s rocky interior,” said Caroline Dorn, a geophysicist at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, who led new research in exoplanet interiors.

Also reported in...

external page EarthSky

external page Universe Today

external page The Sun (UK)

external page The TechStreet Now

external page Space Weekly

A Mission-Driven Company: Hylomorph’s Pursuit of Medical Excellence

external page The inception of Hylomorph can be traced back to a bustling lab at ETH Zurich, where Simone Bottan, a biomedical engineer from Italy, crossed paths with his future co-founders, Aldo Ferrari and Francesco Robotti. United by a shared passion for patient-centric technology and a drive to make a tangible difference in healthcare, the trio began collaborating on a side project during their academic doctoral studies. Little did they know that this collaboration would lay the foundation for a company that would address one of the most pressing challenges in medical implants.

Researchers Benchmark Nvidia’s GH200 Supercomputing Chips

external page Researchers (from ETH Zurich and Nvidia) got their hands on a partition of the GH200 chips in the Alps supercomputer, which is being upgraded, and measured AI benchmarks on the CUDA 12.3 software stack. The Alps supercomputer is at the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre. Alps is one of the first supercomputers with access to the GH200, and an optimized subsystem called “preAlps” is ranked number five on the Green500 list...“We argue that despite the sophisticated memory system of the Quad GH200 node, looking at the system in terms of individual interconnected Superchips is crucial to achieving good performance,” the researchers concluded.

New Advances in DEL Technology Facilitate Synthesis of Large, Complex Molecules

external page The small number of novel active compounds that can be discovered using current methods represents a bottleneck in the development of new molecular treatments. DNA-encoded chemical libraries (DEL), a technique created in the 2000s at ETH Zurich and Harvard, may offer a cure...Researchers can now autonomously manufacture and test billions of distinct chemicals in a matter of weeks according to a new technique that was published in the esteemed journal Science.

Also reported in...

external page Drug Discovery  

external page News Medical Life Sciences

external page PHYS.org

external page Tech Explorist

external page SciTechDaily

external page Science Magazine

external page Clinical Laboratory

Flexible tentacle electrodes precisely record brain activity

external page According to Mehmet Fatih Yanik, Professor of Neurotechnology at ETH Zurich,...and his team have now developed a new type of electrode that enables more detailed and more precise recordings of brain activity over an extended period of time...Thanks to a process developed by the ETH Zurich researchers, these bundles can be inserted into the brain very slowly, which is why they do not cause any detectable damage to brain tissue.

Also reported in...

external page Medical Product Outsourcing Magazine

external page Biopharma Trend

external page Health Medicine Network

external page EE News

external page ScienceDaily

external page Futurity

external page Quartz

A Pig Just Had Surgery By A Team Operating 9,000 Kilometers Away

external page A pig in Hong Kong recently underwent an endoscopy with a twist – the person operating the endoscope was sitting in a lab 9,300 kilometers (5,779 miles) away in Zurich, Switzerland. The collaborative project between researchers at ETH Zurich and The Chinese University of Hong Kong saw researchers peering into the stomach of the anesthetized animal from half a world away, all thanks to a superfast internet connection and some clever robotic technology.  

Also reported in...

external page Healthcare IT News

external page New Atlas

Research 2024: Output to Grow at an AAGR of 1.6% During 2025-2028, Supported by Government Investments in Energy and Rail Infrastructure Projects

external page As part of spending cuts, the government has announced cut of CHF500 million ($580.5 million) from education and research funding planned for the period of 2025 to 2028...and reduction of CHF100 million ($116.1 million) in research and development funding to educational universities like Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) and ETH Zurich.

Swiss-Mile raises $22M for wheeled quadruped

external page ETH Zurich Spinoff, Swiss-Mile has raised $22 million in seed funding for its wheeled quadruped. The wheels on Swiss-Mile’s quadruped differentiates it from more traditional quadrupeds like Boston Dynamics‘ Spot or Unitree‘s Go2. Swiss-Mile said its quadrupeds can walk, drive, and stand upright on two legs and manipulate packages with wheeled end effectors.  

Also reported in...

external page Tech Trends Post

Scrona AG and Electroninks Announce Collaboration in Materials and Process Development for Advanced Semiconductor Packaging

external page ETH Spinoff, Scrona AG, a leading digital microfabrication startup known for deploying the world's first MEMS based electrohydrodynamic (EHD) multi-nozzle printheads, has announced a collaboration with Electroninks, the leader in metal organic decomposition (MOD) inks for additive manufacturing and advanced semiconductor packaging. The companies will partner on process development, optimizing the use of Electroninks' materials within Scrona's MEMS based EHD printhead technology, to drive new use cases in the semiconductor industry.

‘There’s a lot to be built still’: the architect Mariam Issoufou on excavating the past to build Africa’s future

external page One of the continent’s most-sought after designers draws inspiration from the traditional mud-brick building to create modern, sustainable structures...She (Mariam Issoufou) is now working on a museum in Senegal and a presidential centre in Liberia, along with projects in Sharjah and Brazil. This is on top of her role as a professor at ETH Zürich, juggling offices between there, Niger and the US.

Also reported in...

external page Aol.

external page Yahoo! Canada

Chemical Plastics Recycling is Ready To Go

external page As the approach of chemical recycling develops, the initial focus is on breaking down these long polymer chains into shorter-chain molecules that can be used as liquid fuels, say, or lubricants. This gives plastic waste a second life as petrol, jet fuel or engine oil. Scientists at ETH Zurich have now laid down important foundations for developing this process. These enable the global scientific community to engage in more targeted and effective recycling development work...Researchers in the group led by Javier Pérez-Ramírez, Professor of Catalysis Engineering, investigated how to break down polyethylene and polypropylene with hydrogen.

Also reported in...

external page Yahoo! News

Al Naslaa rock: Saudi Arabia’s enigmatic sandstone block that’s split perfectly down the middle

external page Researchers suggest that for thousands of years after the rock split, wind and water went to work on the two halves...Another theory is that the gap formed due to a joint, which is when a rock breaks apart naturally but without being directly displaced. Joints can result from regional tectonics — including processes that compress Earth’s crust to form mountain chains — or from the rock cooling, according to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ). Joints often break rocks along straight lines, but as with the previous theory, erosion may have helped smooth the fissure out.

Also reported in...

external page Yahoo! News