In the Media - March 2025

Study Finds Cells May Compute Faster Than Today’s Quantum Computers

external page "These new performance comparisons will be of interest to the large community of researchers in open quantum systems and quantum technology,” said Professor Nicolò Defenu of the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich in Switzerland, a quantum researcher who was not associated with the work. “It’s really intriguing to see a vital and growing connection between quantum technology and living systems.”

The Return Of Dr Strangelove—Will Geopolitics Bring Back Game Theory?

external page Johnny von Neumann, a brilliant Hungarian-American polymath, who passed through some of the world’s most prestigious schools (ETH Zurich, Gottingen and the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton) and was a significant contributor to the US atomic weapons program...One of von Neumann’s accomplishments was the founding of game theory – the modelling of strategic decision making.  

Artificial Intelligence Makes the Grade

external page Gerd Kortemeyer, an expert in the use of AI in education at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, agrees that the study “offers further proof that large-language models can be used to assist human graders with giving points and feedback to solutions of open-ended physics problems.” In the longer term, the aim would be to exploit the efficiencies enabled by AI-assisted grading to introduce different types of questions or tasks that could improve learning outcomes for physics students. “Work like this has great promise to provide meaningful assessment at scale,” Kortemeyer says.

Quantum Sensor Hits Nanosecond Resolution

external page Making certain that tiny, nanoscale transistors are performing correctly, understanding the properties of nanomaterials, or testing nanoscale medical devices all require the ability to measure magnetic fields quickly and precisely...Researchers have now unlocked the secret to doing so with a tabletop quantum sensor that can capture magnetic fields with nanosecond resolution. Konstantin Herb, a physicist at ETH Zurich, presented the demonstration at the American Physical Society’s Global Physics Summit last week, in Anaheim, Calif.

Torsten Hoefler Wins ACM Prize in Computing for Contributions to HPC and AI

external page ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, today named Torsten Hoefler, a professor at ETH Zurich, the recipient of the ACM Prize in Computing for fundamental contributions to high-performance computing and the ongoing AI revolution.

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external page Science Magazine

And numerous regional radio and television broadcasts

I knew older men were grumpier. Now, science proves it

external page A new survey, just published by Swiss university ETH Zurich, suggests that men generally get more grumpy and irrational as they get older because they feel more vulnerable as they draw nearer to the closing of the crematorium curtains. This is because we have an increase in “disgust sensitivity”...

How soda lakes may have sparked life on Earth

external page A new study, led by Craig Walton from ETH Zurich, offers a novel explanation. His work points to large, landlocked “soda lakes” as potential reservoirs that could have maintained sufficiently high concentrations of phosphorus to support prebiotic chemistry and eventually nurture early life. 

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external page Tech and Science Post

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How Researchers Found a Greener Way to Make Fuel for Nuclear Fusion—By Accident

external page It’s kept a secret how much lithium 6 is left there, but it’s surely not enough to supply future fusion reactors,” says Sarbajit Banerjee, a professor of chemistry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. Banerjee and his team think they have found a new and environmentally safer way to extract lithium 6 from brine—and they came across it completely by accident.”

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external page Energy Daily

external page Lab Roots

Glaciers are not just blocks of ice — plans to save them mustn’t overlook their hidden life

external page As glaciers begin to disappear, technological fixes to slow or halt ice melt are emerging. But regulations are urgently required before these fixes are used widely...Wrapping glaciers in reflective geotextiles (polypropylene, for example) can reduce ice melt by 50–70% per year9. Such synthetic blankets are already being used commercially — for instance, to save the artificial ice grotto of the Rhône Glacier in Switzerland. Although enveloping the ice in a blanket-like material does slow melting, it also blocks sunlight and nutrients. - Article in Nature co-authored by Matthias Huss, ETH Zurich

New study links key genes to bovine TB susceptibility

external page A study has identified key genetic factors that may explain why some cattle are more susceptible to bovine tuberculosis (bTB), a disease that poses a significant threat to both animal and human health...The study, led by researchers from University College Dublin (UCD), the University of Edinburgh, and ETH Zurich, used advanced computational techniques to pinpoint 115 genes linked to bTB susceptibility. The research marks the first scientific study to directly connect genetic variation with an animal’s ability to fight off the disease.

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external page The Microbiologist

James Webb Space Telescope could find signs of life on alien 'hycean' ocean worlds

external page If such worlds exist, they could be among the most common life-bearing planets in the galaxy...a team of researchers at the University of California, Riverside and ETH Zurich in Switzerland have gone a step further. They propose that another family of compounds called methyl halides, generated by microbial ocean life on Earth, could produce a biosignature — that is, a chemical signature of biological life — in the atmosphere of a hycean world that's more easily detectable than the signature of oxygen is on an Earth-like planet.

Browser Use, the tool making it easier for AI ‘agents’ to navigate websites, raises $17M

external page We may not have an agreed-upon definition of AI “agent” yet, but a multitude of startups want to create “agentic” tools to automate various tasks online. One such firm, Browser Use, has attracted a ton of interest from developers and investors thanks to its solution that makes websites more “readable” for AI agents...Browser Use told TechCrunch that it has raised a sizable $17 million seed funding round led by Felicis’ Astasia Myers with participation from Paul Graham, A Capital, and Nexus Venture Partners. The company’s funding hasn’t previously been reported.

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external page Bitcoin World

Asgard archaea provide clues to the origin of complex life forms

external page Who were our earliest ancestors? The answer could lie in a special group of single-celled organisms discovered by microbiologists from universities in Switzerland, Austria, and France. The group of organisms represent the missing link between bacteria, archaea, and complex organisms - such as plants and animals...The researchers identified, described, and classified the organisms as a separate archaeal sub-group they named, "Asgard archaea." The name, taken from Norse mythology, refers to the location of their initial discovery close to Loki’s Castle – a black smoker (active hydrothermal vents) located on the mid-Atlantic ridge between Norway and Svalbard.

Also reported in...

external page News Minimalist

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external page AZO Life Sciences

external page Earth

Urban tree layout influences human health and mortality rates

external page Through the work of a team from the Future Cities Lab, a program run in Singapore by ETH Zurich and the National University of Singapore (NUS), researchers uncovered surprising connections between the way cities manage their trees and the general health status of residents.

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external page News Minimalist

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15 female founders to watch in AI

external page In a space typically dominated by men, these are the women making waves in AI...Paulina Grnarova — DeepJudge - After nearly three years as a researcher at Google and five years teaching at Swiss university ETH Zurich, Paulina Grnarova cofounded DeepJudge in 2021 with Yannic Kilcher and Kevin Roth. The startup provides AI-powered tools for lawyers, which it says help them find and retrieve information more efficiently. Last year it raised a $10.7m seed round led by US investor Coatue.

Europe is short of gunpowder and TNT when it needs them most

external page Long-term markets and financing will be crucial if the supply chain issues are to be solved, experts said. “The industry has been receiving significant orders in the past two years, but it is unclear whether this momentum will last,” said Amos Dossi, head of defence policy research at ETH Zurich’s Centre for Security Studies.

Also reported in...

external page RBC Ukraine

Aurigin.ai: The Venture Leader Technology detecting deepfakes in audio and video

external page ETH Alumnus and Co-Founder of Aurigin.ai, Luzi Sennhauser talks about the security startup helps individuals and businesses to regain trust in digital media and communication. Luzi and the other nine Swiss National Technology Team members will fly to Silicon Valley in April.

Researchers Discover Alternative to Nuclear Fusion Fuel Amid US Toxicity Ban

external page Exciting new developments from researchers at ETH Zürich and Texas A&M University introduce a revolutionary mercury-free technique, generating hope for sustainable nuclear energy.

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external page Gizmodo

external page Interesting Engineering

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NVIDIA Aerial Expands With New Tools for Building AI-Native Wireless Networks

external page The telecom industry is increasingly embracing AI to deliver seamless connections — even in conditions of poor signal strength — while maximizing sustainability and spectral efficiency, the amount of information that can be transmitted per unit of bandwidth...Industry leaders and more than 150 higher education and research institutions including ETH Zurich are harnessing the NVIDIA Aerial Research portfolio to develop, train, simulate and deploy groundbreaking AI-native wireless innovations.

Trust in AI is about more than technical performance—ethical principles and human values are equally important

external page For Alexander Ilic, Executive Director of the ETH AI Center, trustworthiness enters the equation whenever technology and society meet. He believes that the profound transformations driven by AI are far from complete: "The next phase is about unlocking the potential of private data in different industries and developing highly personalized AI companions that enhance the way we tackle complex tasks..."At the same time, we need to reflect on the implications of these new capabilities for users and consider how to foster trust in AI, ensuring that concerns about its risks don't overshadow its benefits."

CYBATHLON: Interview With Co-Head Roland Sigrist About The Assistance Technologies Event

external page “The first CYBATHLON in 2016 was a milestone. The unique combination of technology, inclusion, and competition fascinated the teams, the public, and the audience. The BBC click moderator and many others called it a ‘once in a lifetime’ experience. Then, CYBATHLON 2020, where we created a remote, global competition within weeks, was another milestone. We created new technologies for broadcasting and producing such an event. This innovation allowed us to give the teams again a platform to present the latest assistive technologies they have been working on for months and years. Finally, CYBATHLON 2024, the biggest CYBATHLON ever, allowed the teams to travel to Zurich or stay at their home institution to be part of the competition. This was the next level of inclusive events on a global scale.”

Improving access to artificial intelligence in football

external page Technology is improving soccer—from helping referees make more accurate decisions to developing better on-field tactics. ETH Zurich and FIFA are exploring how AI can make these advancements more accessible to competitions worldwide.

Most quakes on Mars happen during the summer – and we don’t know why

external page NASA’s InSight lander recorded surprisingly large quakes that indicate Mars is more seismically active than we first thought. Mysteriously, they only happen during Martian summers...Simon Stähler at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and his colleagues have found a cluster of thousands of curious marsquakes detected by InSight that are unlike anything we have spotted on Earth. These quakes are rocking the planet at similar intensities each time and only happen during Martian summer months. “None of this is normal,” Stähler told the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas on 10 March. “It’s not what you expect.”

Taiho outlays $1.14bn to acquire ADC specialist Araris

external page Taiho Pharmaceutical has agreed to acquire Swiss-based antibody-drug-conjugate (ADC) specialist Araris Biotech (an ETH + PSI Spinoff) for up to $1.14bn, representing another big-dollar deal for the promising cancer treatment modality.

Also reported in...

external page Yahoo! Finance

What's Happening in Space Policy

external page The American Astronautical Society (AAS) is holding its 2025 Goddard Space Science Symposium near Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) outside D.C. from Wednesday to Friday (this week). It has a great line-up of speakers from government, industry and academia. They include...Thomas Zurbuchen, ETH Zurich Space (and former head of science at NASA HQ); and many, many more.

Also reported in...

external page Space Policy Online

World’s fastest modulator hits record 1.4 terahertz, shattering data speed limits

external page The ultrafast component transmits large volumes of data into the fibre-optic network at terahertz speeds...Jürg Leuthold, PhD, professor of photonics and communications at ETH Zurich and lead author of the study, explains that the device is a tiny nanostructure made up of various materials, including gold, which makes use of the interaction between light and free electrons within the gold.

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external page Optica - Optics & Photonics News

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external page EE News Europe

external page AZO Optics

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external page IEEE Spectrum

Skeletal editing targets double bonds

external page Bill Morandi nd his team at ETH Zürich in Switzerland were inspired by the ozonolysis mechanism that forms carbonyl products from alkenes, via the formation and subsequent opening of a cyclic intermediate.1 The researchers have now created a nitrogen analogue of this classic reaction, which instead generates nitrile or amidine products from a variety of alkene substrates. ‘Our breakthrough came when we discovered a report by the Gassman group from 1969, which explored ring-opening reactions of aziridine derivatives using water that lead to ozonolysis like products,’ says Yannick Brägger, who worked on the project. ‘This gave us the idea that we might be able to directly create nitrogen-containing products from alkenes via aziridines.’

Light-Activated Carbon Nanotube Sensor for Oxygen Detection

external page Researchers at ETH have developed a low-cost carbon nanotube sensor capable of accurately, efficiently, and selectively measuring trace amounts of oxygen in gas mixtures when exposed to light. This sensor has potential applications in environmental monitoring, industry, and medicine.

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external page PHYS.org

Scientists 3D-Print the Future of Particle Detection

external page A new technique in detector fabrication could change high-energy physics forever...By using additive manufacturing, researchers have developed a novel way to construct plastic scintillator detectors, drastically cutting costs and build time. Their first prototype, the SuperCube, has proven capable of tracking cosmic particles, marking a milestone for 3D-printed particle physics technology.

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Pupils shed light on the brain during sleep

external page For the first time, researchers have been able to observe how the pupils react during sleep over a period of several hours...Our eyes are typically closed when we sleep. However, there is a flurry of activity taking place beneath our closed eyelids: a team of researchers, led by principal investigators Caroline Lustenberger, Sarah Meissner, and Nicole Wenderoth from the Neural Control of Movement Lab at ETH Zurich, have observed that the size of the pupil fluctuates constantly during sleep.

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external page Opthalmology breaking news

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Pioneering plant microbiome research: Julia Vorholt receives 2025 Novonesis Biotechnology Prize from the Novo Nordisk Foundation

external page Professor Julia Vorholt's work has changed how we think about plant health. Her innovative research on plant microbiomes holds the potential to transform agriculture. For her achievements, the microbiologist is receiving the Novonesis Biotechnology Prize.

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external page PR Newswire 

As well as numerous regional publications in the UK and USA.

GoNEXUS project: Advancing the WEFE governance to better manage our resources

external page Launched in June 2021, the European Horizon 2020 project GoNEXUS will come to an end this May, with significant progress being made in establishing a governance system based on the Water-Energy- Food-Ecosystem Nexus (WEFE Nexus) approach...GoNEXUS partner ETH Zurich conducted high-fidelity modelling of the Zambezi water catchment, accounting for changes in the balance of inflows and outflows due to a climate change and the policies on reservoir operation and irrigation allocation provided by the POLIMI system optimisation model.

‘Global weirding’: climate whiplash hitting world’s biggest cities, study reveals

external page The overall results of the new study are consistent with the most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which found there were both regions with increases in heavy rains and others with increases in drought, as well as some regions with increases in both, said Prof Sonia Seneviratne, at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, coordinating lead author of the IPCC chapter on weather and climate extreme events….“A few tenths of a degree warmer and the life we know becomes increasingly at risk due to climate extremes such as heatwaves, droughts, and heavy rainfall,” she said.

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external page Aol. 

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Browser Use, one of the tools powering Manus, is also going viral

external page Gregor Zunic launched AI start up, “Browser Use” (now trending on GitHub) from the ETH Zurich Student Project House...Browser Use, which aims to make websites more accessible for agentic applications that perform tasks on a user’s behalf, has experienced explosive growth in the past week. Daily downloads more than quintupled from around 5,000 on March 3 to 28,000 on March 10, co-creator Gregor Zunic told TechCrunch.

Nunu.ai raises $6M for AI agents dubbed ‘unembodied minds’ for game testing

external page Nunu.ai has raised $6 million and unveiled Unembodied Minds, or AI agents designed for game testing and to control any given body and perform a task in any environment...The company was co-founded in 2017 by former ETH Zurich students, Kyrill Hux, Jan Schnyder, and Nicolas Muntwyler from a project they worked while studying at ETH Zurich.

Scientists finally figured out why it’s so common to regain weight - here's what you can do about it

external page Researchers (from ETH Zurich) obtained fat biopsies from people at a healthy weight and from people with obesity before and after two years of weight loss for the study, which was published in the journal Nature in November 2024. Then, they performed an RNA analysis on the samples. Then, they performed an RNA analysis on the samples. The cells from the people with obesity had similar changes at the start and end of the study, even after they were no longer considered obese.

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QS World University Rankings by Subject 2025

external page In a total of 16 disciplines, the university ranks among the 10 best in the world. These are the latest results of the QS World University Rankings according to subject.  

Controversial ‘Quantum Advantage’ Claim Made by Computing Firm D-Wave

external page “It’s an excellent piece of research, and a great scientific breakthrough as well,” says Juan Carrasquilla, a computational physicist at ETH Zurich and a co-author of the D-Wave paper. (A separate team also posted a challenge to some of D-Wave’s claims just this week.) Still, the D-Wave stood well in front of the ‘spoofing’ from conventional computers, he says.

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external page Quantum Insider

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DeepJudge Introduces AI Workflows, Connecting Gen AI To Enterprise Search of Law Firms’ Internal Data 

external page (ETH Spinoff) DeepJudge, developer of an AI-powered search platform for internal law firm data, has launched AI Workflows, a new feature of its product that allows law firms to deploy AI agents and applications across their internal firm data. The feature provides built-in AI workflows and also allows firms to create custom AI applications via a low-code/no-code interface...Founded by ex-Google researchers with PhDs in AI from ETH Zurich, the company was already known for its powerful enterprise search engine, which can ingest and index unstructured documents from a firm’s DMS, Microsoft ecosystem, client portals, and more, and make it all accessible through a single search.

The Einstein of LLMs

external page “History is filled with geniuses struggling during their studies,” Wolf writes. “Edison was called ‘addled’ by his teacher. Barbara McClintock got criticized for ‘weird thinking’ before winning a Nobel Prize. Einstein failed his first attempt at the ETH Zurich entrance exam. And the list goes on.” 

Inside Cybathlon 2024 - the Olympics for assistive technology | BBC News

external page BBC World News network re-airs its episode on Cybathlon 2024 to an estimated audience of 450 million worldwide viewers over the weekend of 8 - 9 March 2025.

New Proofs Expand the Limits of What Cannot Be Known

external page ...In less than two months after (Peter) Koymans and (Carlo) Pagano posted their paper online, an independent team of four mathematicians announced a new proof of the same result. Instead of looking for a special elliptic curve, they had relied on a different kind of equation to do the same job.

"Sister" Monument Of Stonehenge Is Centuries Older Than Previously Thought

external page Stonehenge may be the most famous example of the “huge stones arranged in a circle” genre, but it’s a reputation that arguably isn’t deserved. After all, it’s far from the largest henge in Europe, or even the British Isles – and as a new analysis and redating of an ancient circle in Dorset, England, has now reinforced, it’s not the oldest one either...Collaborating with laboratories at ETH Zürich and the University of Groningen, Greaney and colleagues obtained 17 new and far more precise estimates for the monument’s age – and what they found was surprising. “The revised chronology places it in an earlier period than we expected,” (Susan) Greaney said.

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IWD 2025: TFN spotlights on 12 women reshaping the future of tech in Europe

external page As we approach International Women’s Day in 2025, the female entrepreneurship and funding landscape has evolved significantly, presenting opportunities and challenges in the UK and Europe...Fajer Mushtaq is a pioneering environmental technology entrepreneur...She then pursued a Master’s in Micro- and Nanosystems at ETH Zurich, researching ferromagnetic shape-memory alloys...Her doctoral research at ETH’s Multi-Scale Robotics Lab (begun in 2014) focused on smart nanomaterials for environmental remediation. This work resulted in significant advancements for treating toxic micropollutants and heavy metals in wastewater, leading to multiple publications and a patent...In 2020, she co-founded Oxyle AG, an ETH Zurich spin-off...as CEO, she has led the company to recognition for its nanotechnology approach to PFAS elimination, raising several millions in CHF through grants and competitions, establishing Oxyle as a leader in environmental technology.

Crystal lattice at a distance: Moiré material method makes it easier to study interactions between electrons

external page A team of researchers led by Ataç Imamoğlu at the Institute for Quantum Electronics at ETH Zurich have now developed a method by which a moiré material is used to create a spatially periodic electric field at a distance in a nearby semiconductor such that only the motion of the electrons in the semiconductor material is influenced.

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ETH Zurich and Polariton Technologies Achieve Record- Breaking Electro-Optic Bandwidth with Plasmonic Modulators

external page Polariton Technologies AG, an ETH Zurich spin-off, together with ETH Zurich have set a new benchmark in the field of electro-optic (EO) modulators with their latest innovation...“Ultra-Wideband MHz to THz Plasmonic Electro-Optic Modulator” – this study by Yannik Horst et al. showcases state-of-the-art plasmonic modulators that achieve an EO bandwidth extending into the terahertz (THz) range...The team at ETH Zurich, led by Juerg Leuthold, has successfully demonstrated the frequency response up to 1.1 THz, with a 3-dB bandwidth of 997 GHz and a 6-dB bandwidth above 1 THz.  

Mondaic: The Venture Leader Technology providing advanced simulation software

external page Meet Christian Boehm, Co-Founder of (ETH Spinoff) Mondaic...It all started at ETH Zurich where my co-founders and I shared an office. We were studying seismic waves emitted by earthquakes for our joint research and then realized that the same physics applies across the scales: From millimeter precision in ultrasound to seismic waves on Mars.

Switzerland Makes AI Innovation Debut at HumanX Las Vegas 

external page World-Class Research Ecosystem: Home to leading AI research institutions including ETH Zurich, EPFL Lausanne, IDSIA Lugano, and IDIAP Martigny, Switzerland attracts global tech leaders like Google, IBM, and HPE to establish research operations.

Also reported in multiple regional television broadcasts in the U.S. and...

external page The AI Journal

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Sleeping With Eyes Open: How Pupil Size Reveals Brain Activity

external page Our eyes are typically closed when we sleep. However, there is a flurry of activity taking place beneath our closed eyelids: a team of researchers, led by principal investigators Caroline Lustenberger, Sarah Meissner and Nicole Wenderoth from the Neural Control of Movement Lab at ETH Zurich, have observed that the size of the pupil fluctuates constantly during sleep.

Also reported in...

external page Earth

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external page Sky News

AI Unravels Gravitational Waves from Neutron Star Mergers in Just One Second

external page Maximilian Dax, the first author of the study detailing DINGO-BNS and a Ph.D. student affiliated with the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, ETH Zurich, and the ELLIS Institute Tübingen, emphasizes the need for speed in these analyses. The ability to quickly characterize merging neutron stars opens a window for broader astronomical observations.

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It’s Not Just Us: AI Models Struggle With Overthinking

external page Overthinking in reasoning models is linked to increased computational costs...A recent preprint paper from a large team, which includes authors from the University of California, Berkeley; ETH Zurich; Carnegie Mellon University; and the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, found that LLMs with reasoning are prone to overthinking.

Sony's aibo dog could soon walk quietly and perform elaborate dance routines

external page Aibo, the cute-looking robot puppy developed by Sony, was designed to be a household companion. The robot can already emulate many of the movements and behaviors of real dogs, such as walking on four legs, responding when it is called by its name, reacting to toys, performing tricks and responding to cuddles...Researchers at ETH Zurich and Sony Group Corporation recently developed new reinforcement learning (RL)-based models that could further expand the aibo robot's capabilities. These models, outlined in two different papers pre-published on arXiv, are specifically meant to allow the robot to walk quietly and perform expressive dance routines, respectively.

New Method for Near-Complete PMMA Plastic Breakdown

external page According to a study published in Science, polymer scientists at ETH Zurich discovered an unexpected method for nearly completely breaking down PMMA plastic, also known as Plexiglas, into its monomer building blocks. The process is not affected by the presence of additives.

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external page Bioplastics News

external page Clean the Sky

external page Forbes (scroll down for mention)

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external page Technology Networks

Why anti-immigration parties are seeing success

Texternal page he success of right-wing, anti-immigration parties in Europe is often attributed to the fact that their policies are centered around the negative effects of immigration. According to this explanation, people mainly vote for these parties because they are worried that increasing levels of immigration will result in them losing their jobs, paying higher taxes or rents, or seeing their cultural identity threatened...A new study by researchers from ETH Zurich and Bocconi University in Milan, which was recently published in the journal American Political Science Review, tested out this theory in all Swiss municipalities and cities located less than 30 minutes' drive from the national border.

Featured Session: Learning from Productive Failure

external page South by Southwest (SXSW) features ETH Zurich Professor, Manu Kapur who talks about...If learning from failure is intuitively compelling, why do we wait for it to happen? Why don’t we intentionally design for it, and harness it for deep learning? In my talk, I will describe what Productive Failure is, how, when and why intentionally designing for failure in a safe way can lead to deep learning, and its implications for how we can design powerful learning environments for developing conceptual understanding, creativity, and transfer.  external page Watch video.

Aerogel insulation

external page “In the nanostructure of the aerogel, the pore dimensions are at sizes that result in air molecules colliding with the pore walls more often than they do with each another, explains Daniel Sanz-Pont, founder of Aeroskin Tech (an ETH Spinoff). “This is called the Knudsen effect,” he says, and, in the context of building insulation, effectively reduces the heat flow from a building’s interior to the outside.