ETH News

Heavier rain, longer droughts, melting glaciers: climate change has a dramatic impact on the global water cycle.

ETH Zurich researchers have succeeded in demonstrating that quantum mechanical objects that are far apart can be much more strongly correlated with each other than is possible in conventional systems. For this experiment, they used superconducting circuits for the first time.

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

Around the world, the race is on to achieve a decisive breakthrough in quantum research. ETH Zurich is spearheading its own challenge.

Life is a constant stream of decisions that pit sober reflection against powerful emotions, conscious deliberation against gut instincts. Using complex models and sophisticated experiments, ETH researchers study how we combine these different decision-making strategies.

Many regions have suffered from heatwaves in recent years. But exactly how these form is still a matter of debate. Two researchers at ETH Zurich have now found a nuanced answer.

Vira Bondar is fascinated by the fundamental questions of physics. She conducts research with ultracold neutrons and is working to make exercise sessions at ETH Zurich even more exciting.

Does life exist elsewhere in the universe? There’s a good chance it does – though it might look very different to life on Earth. Scientists may soon be able to offer a definitive answer.

ETH Professor Klaus Ensslin spent 12 years at the helm of the National Centre of Competence in Research “Quantum Science and Technology”. As the programme prepares to wind down at the end of this year, we spoke to him about scientific breakthroughs and Switzerland’s role in quantum research.

For the first time, ETH Zurich researchers have been able to make a superconducting component from graphene that is quantum coherent and sensitive to magnetic fields. This step opens up interesting prospects for fundamental research.

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

In many chemical laboratories, routine chemical syntheses are performed on a daily basis, which takes up a lot of time. ETH spin-off Synple Chem wants to simplify this with a device that is almost as easy to use as a capsule coffee machine.

ETH Zurich researchers have developed a model that explains how nerve cells in the brain connect during development. Their model reveals that the crucial factor is progressive cell division. This process leads naturally to the formation of molecular addresses that lets neurons navigate.

ETH alumnus Christoph Rennhard runs a company that develops precision machines for the global market. The keys to his success are technical expertise, customer orientation and talented staff – plus the ability of his SME to respond faster than big corporations.

How the plates of the Earth’s crust move depends largely on the behaviour of the rocks below them in the mantle. A new ETH study now shows that the grain size of these rocks is a key factor.

What the “Night of Physics” really aims to do is make physics accessible to a broad audience in a way that’s entertaining. This event will be held on 17 June. Klaus Ensslin, Professor of Physics and co-initiator of the event, explains why it’s worth coming along to the Hönggerberg campus.

For his doctorate, Johannes Weichart is developing an artificial skin that could give robots a sense of touch similar to humans. This would make them much more adept at handling objects.

Digitalisation offers a wealth of new opportunities – and criminals and hostile states are only too happy to exploit them. Protecting against such attacks requires a broad range of measures.

The rapid development of fauna 540 million years ago has permanently changed the Earth - deep into its lower mantle. A team led by ETH researcher Andrea Giuliani found traces of this development in rocks from this zone.

The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope is set to take place in the coming days. For ETH Zurich physicist Adrian Glauser, who was involved in two unspectacular but vital contributions to this ambitious project, it will bring to an end a long period of anxious anticipation.

Increasingly large amounts of data are being sent back and forth around the world. To ensure that this exchange continues to function smoothly, new solutions are needed at the interfaces between chips and optical fibres. The ETH Zurich spin-off Lumiphase relies on a new material that efficiently converts electrical signals into optical ones.

The more water is dissolved in the magma, the greater the risk that a volcano will explode. A new ETH study now shows that this simple rule is only partially true. Paradoxically, high water content significantly reduces the risk of explosion.

Switzerland may soon be facing a shortage of railway ballast. ETH geologists are heading into the wilds to track down new sources of crushed rocks.

If only it were less prone to error, quantum physics might already be giving us instant solutions to seemingly unsolvable problems. ETH researchers are therefore working to develop systems that are more robust.

ETH researchers have devised an ingenious method of using acoustics to conceal and simulate objects.

Many scientific experiments require highly precise time measurements with the help of a clearly defined frequency. Now, a new approach allows the direct comparison of frequency measurements in the lab with the atomic clock in Bern, Switzerland.

How is matter distributed within our universe? And what is the mysterious substance known as dark energy made of? HIRAX, a new large telescope array comprising hundreds of small radio telescopes, should provide some answers. Among those instrumental in developing the system are physicists from ETH Zurich.

Renowned planetary researcher and Nobel laureate Didier Queloz is moving to ETH Zurich, where he will be joining with other professors to study the origins of life in a new centre.

Uranus and Neptune both have a completely skewed magnetic field, perhaps due to the planets’ special inner structures. But new experiments by ETH Zurich researchers now show that the mystery remains unsolved.

Terrestrial ecosystems help mitigate climate change by absorbing large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. A new study now confirms that changing climate conditions could reduce this effect because in warmer and wetter areas, carbon stored in the soil is released back into the atmosphere more quickly.

An international research team with members from ETH has developed a new method for directly imaging smaller planets in the habitable zone of a neighbouring star system. This opens up new possibilities in the search for extraterrestrial life.

Determining the composition of rock in the deepest layer of the Earth’s mantle is impossible to do directly. But thanks to isotope measurements of volcanic rocks, ETH researchers are now able to show that the mantle is still home to material from the planet’s earliest days.

Quantum research has long since ceased to be an exclusive domain of physics. The purpose of the new ETH Quantum Center is to ensure ETH Zurich’s various competences and activities in this area are networked even more closely and to raise their public profile.

Changing the world with the power of ideas – that’s what Martin Bosshardt finds so fascinating about being an engineer. And no matter which industry he works in, he always draws on what he learnt at ETH.

The COVID-19 pandemic is putting Swiss crisis management to the test. ETH Professor Andreas Wenger and his team from the Center for Security Studies have investigated in detail how well Switzerland coped with the first phase of the crisis.

Precisely when will the long-lost US aircraft “Dakota” re-emerge from the Gauli Glacier? Radioactive traces from the Cold War now indicate that this will happen soon.

The mobility initiative launched in 2018 is gaining momentum. Konstantinos Boulouchos, the driving force behind the project, explains how far things have come since then and in which direction the initiative is set to develop.

Current understanding is that the chemical composition of the Earth’s mantle is relatively homogeneous. But experiments conducted by ETH researchers now show that this view is too simplistic. Their results solve a key problem facing the geosciences – and raise some new questions.

Germaine J. F. Seewer is the first woman to hold the rank of Major General in the Swiss Armed Forces. Her new role as Commander of the Armed Forces College has forged even closer ties to her alma mater.

The warm, dry summer of 2018 has left clear traces in various ecosystems. ETH Zurich researchers have found that if the climate continues to warm up, higher altitudes can also expect negative consequences in the future.

A PIN code is usually required at the checkout when paying large sums by credit card. ETH researchers have now discovered a flaw in the security system of some credit cards.

ETH researchers have investigated how the population has been complying with the prescribed measures to combat the coronavirus. Angela Bearth, one of the authors of the study, explains what conclusions can be drawn from the data so far and what areas deserve particular attention in the near future.

Many countries are turning to digital aids to help manage the COVID-19 pandemic. ETH researchers are now pointing out the ethical challenges, that need to be taken into account and the issues that need careful consideration when planning, developing and implementing such tools.

Celeste Carruth originally planned to be a musician. Now she is a physicist at ETH working to develop a new technique for controlling ions. As a member of the WEF’s Young Scientist community, she wants to help non-scientists better understand quantum physics.

The use of dirty coal as a heat source makes life tough in the Mongolian winter. ETH geophysicists are helping to develop geothermal energy as a clean alternative.

In 2019, the ETH Foundation received some 120 million Swiss francs from private individuals, foundations and companies. Donations and bequests promote new stimulus for future teaching and for launching pioneering research projects.

Quantum mechanics is a well-established theory, but at a macroscopic level it leads to intractable contradictions. Now ETH physicists are proposing to resolve the problem with the aid of neural networks.

Security in the digital world is nowhere near as tight as we tend to think, which is why ETH researchers are looking to develop a fundamentally new security architecture for data exchange that people can trust. A donation from the Werner Siemens Foundation is helping to finance the project.

ETH researchers have developed a compact infrared spectrometer. It’s small enough to fit on a computer chip but can still open up interesting possibilities – in space and in everyday life.

The largest glacier in the Alps is visibly suffering the effects of global warming. ETH researchers have now calculated how much of the Aletsch Glacier will still be visible by the end of the century. In the worst-case scenario, a couple patches of ice will be all that’s left.

Artificial intelligence will continue to have an ever greater impact on our lives in the years to come. We show in our quiz what AI can already do right now on the occasion of the national Digital Day.

Maksym Kovalenko is being recognised for his research on bright nanoparticles with this year’s Rössler Prize, which carries an endowment of 200,000 Swiss francs in research funding.

In recent decades, NMR spectroscopy has made it possible to capture the spatial structure of chemical and biochemical molecules. Now researchers at ETH have found a way to apply this measurement principle to individual atoms.

Microcontaminants place a considerable burden on our water courses, but removing them from wastewater requires considerable technical resources. Now, ETH researchers have developed an approach that allows the efficient removal of these problematic substances.

Sand, coffee grounds and rice behave very differently than water or oil, but under certain conditions they will suddenly exhibit astonishing similarities. Scientists have found a way to better understand the behaviour of granular materials.

ETH researchers have cooled a nanoparticle to a record low temperature, thanks to a sophisticated experimental set-up that uses scattered laser light for cooling.

Electronic devices can spark kids’ creativity, says Stéphane Magnenat from the Game Technology Center. But doing so requires apps that bridge the real and virtual worlds.  

Producing realistic animated film figures is a highly complex technical endeavour. ETH researchers have now shown how drones can be used to greatly reduce the effort required in the process.

Sebastian Krinner is the first winner of the Lopez-Loreta Prize at ETH Zurich. The physicist has a clear goal: he wants to build a quantum computer that is not only powerful, but also works without errors.

Programming workshops with over 600 school pupils, inspiring lectures and lab tours on the topic of digitalisation in medicine, and two attractive exhibits as part of the exhibition in Zurich’s main station – these were ETH’s highlights from the second Digital Day.

The theory of quantum mechanics is well supported by experiments. Now, however, a thought experiment by ETH physicists yields unexpected contradictions. These findings raise some fundamental questions – and they’re polarising experts.

Cryo-electron microscopy is one of the pioneering examination methods in biomedical research. Thanks to generous donations from four partners, ETH is now able to develop further in this area. The donations enable the acquisition of another device and the development of a new professorship.

ETH physicist Ursula Keller has received the European Inventor Award in Paris for her research into ultrafast lasers. It is Europe’s highest accolade for inventors from around the world.

ETH physicists have developed a quantum cascade laser that can be used to visualise weak infrared signals from space. It is now being put to use on a flight of the world’s largest airborne observatory.

Nowadays, it is accepted among physicists that Albert Einstein was wrong in his scepticism of quantum mechanics. This was also confirmed by the Big Bell Test involving over 100,000 people around the world in November 2016.

Information processing requires a lot of energy. Energy-saving computer systems could make computing more efficient, but the efficiency of these systems can’t be increased indefinitely, as ETH physicists show.

Plants can convert sunlight into chemical energy with a high degree of efficiency. How this is achieved is still not entirely clear. ETH physicists have now constructed a quantum physical model that aims to answer this question.

ETH physicists have developed a silicon wafer that behaves like a topological insulator when stimulated using ultrasound. They have thereby succeeded in turning an abstract theoretical concept into a macroscopic product.

Lothar Thiele is the Executive Board’s new representative for digital transformation. In this interview, he explains why ETH needs a digital transformation representative and why digitalisation deserves so much attention.

As part of today’s Digitaltag event, 180 children are visiting ETH Zurich to attend a programming workshop organised by the Centre for Computer Science Education. ETH professor Juraj Hromkovic explains why good computer science education is so important for young people and what is currently going wrong in schools.

Digitalisation is rapidly transforming our society. Switzerland’s first Digitaltag event on 21 November 2017 will showcase what this change means for our country and our economy. ETH Zurich will also be there to shed some light on selected aspects of the digital transformation.

ETH Zurich and IBM Research opened the Binning and Rohrer Nanotechnology Center some six years ago. This week, participants in a symposium will take stock of the achievements so far.

On this year’s Materials Day, the Department of Materials will award the Materials Research Prize to a talented young researcher for the first time. The prize winner is Bozhi Tian, Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago.

Digitalisation simplifies many aspects of our everyday life, but it also creates new risks. Srdjan Capkun, Professor for Information Security, explains how to find the right balance between convenience and security.

Digitalisation is leading to profound changes in more and more areas of life. For ETH President Lino Guzzella, it is clear that these changes present a huge opportunity for Switzerland, as the country offers the ideal conditions in which to build a competitive digital industry.

As Professor of Particle Physics, Felicitas Pauss played a key role in the discovery of the Higgs boson. Tomorrow, she will be honoured with the Richard Ernst Medal.

Data collection and analysis is becoming increasingly important in today’s world. This is particularly true for the economic and societal development of poorer nations. That’s why mathematical education in these countries is in urgent need of improvement, as was shown at Wednesday’s Science and Development Forum.

When matter is cooled to near absolute zero, intriguing phenomena emerge. These include supersolidity, where crystalline structure and frictionless flow occur together. ETH researchers have succeeded in realising this strange state experimentally for the first time.

Quantum systems consisting of many particles are a major challenge for physicists, since their behaviour can be determined only with immense computational power. ETH physicists have now discovered an elegant way to simplify the problem.

Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the World Wide Web, has had a substantial impact on our lives. While his invention was a resounding success and the Internet has developed unexpectedly fast, he is anything but satisfied with today's situation.

Conventional livestock farming alone cannot meet the world population’s growing demand for protein. Alexander Mathys, Professor of Sustainable Food Processing, is seeking out the most sustainable alternatives.

Quantum mechanics can be entertaining: anyone with a few minutes to spare for a video game on 30 November can do their bit to help solve a fundamental question of physics that was once argued over by Albert Einstein and Nils Bohr. ETH Professor Andreas Wallraff explains what the Big Bell Test is all about.

Riding the Polybahn from Central up to ETH Zurich with Professor Volkmar Falk, head of the project Zurich Heart: he tells us in a new Polybahn Pitch why Zurich offers an unique opportunity to build the artificial heart of the future.

Elsbeth Stern, Professor for Research on Learning and Instruction, explains in a Polybahn Pitch why physics is a difficult school subject and why it may be worth familiarising children with its basic concepts at an early age.

Riding the Polybahn from Central up to ETH Zurich with Elgar Fleisch: the Professor of Information Management at ETH Zurich tells us in a new Polybahn Pitch how the Internet of Things allows the development of better therapies for chronically ill people. 

High-performance batteries, luminous semiconductors, sensitive detectors: chemist Maksym Kovalenko is working to develop materials that
are both more powerful and more economical than those we use today. 

Riding the Polybahn from Central up to ETH Zurich with Gerd Folkers: the former director of the Collegium Helveticum tells us in a new Polybahn Pitch why, as head of the Critical Thinking Initiative, he is questioning existing structures in the academic world.

ETH’s new 2015 annual report is here. Appearing for the first time in an expanded format, it offers a comprehensive overview of the events, achievements and developments that have shaped the past year at ETH.

Riding the Polybahn from Central up to the ETH Zurich main building with Robert Riener: the Professor for Sensory-Motor Systems at ETH Zurich tells us in a new Polybahn Pitch, why ETH Zurich is organising the Cybathlon, a competition for people with disabilities.

Digital technologies are changing our everyday lives, and research at ETH Zurich is playing a major role in this transformation. Realistic film animation, houses built by robots and implants manufactured using 3D printers: the new issue of Globe showcases the vast range of possible applications.

For the last two years, ETH Zurich has been working closely with the University and the University Hospital in the field of medicine under the umbrella of Hochschulmedizin Zürich. The idea: to exploit the enormous potential that the three institutions have at their fingertips and catapult Zurich onto the world stage as a hotbed of medicine. The latest issue of Globe, the magazine of ETH Zurich and ETH Alumni, reveals exactly what this means.

At first glance, the internet seems to work reliably. A closer inspection, however, reveals some serious flaws, including large-scale breakdowns and un­welcome data redirections. Computer science professor Adrian Perrig now proposes a new internal architecture to remedy these discrepancies.

Today, thanks to earthquakes, we know fairly accurately how the solid earth is constructed. Geophysicist Andreas Fichtner is now taking things a step further: he gains new insights into our planet’s interior from seemingly useless data.

Researchers are no strangers to failure. They can’t expect to find the right path straight away. And many already discover that a second crack of the whip is sometimes necessary during their degrees. The latest issue of Globe, the magazine of ETH Zurich and ETH Zurich Alumni, examines this ubiquitous topic, which nobody likes to talk about but is an inherent part of science.

When a federal law was passed a century ago, monitoring earthquakes became a government responsibility and has been performed by the Swiss Seismological Service (SED) ever since. Over the years, the SED has established a dense, efficient monitoring network.

Today, it’s difficult for students to find reasonably priced accommodation in Zurich. So the Housing Office of University and ETH Zurich is delighted when private living space is opened up to students. The example of ETH alumnus Roland Hänni shows that this can be rewarding for the landlord, too. He and his wife have taken not one, but two students into their home.

Cleverly controlled devices are taking on more and more tasks in medicine. They help the disabled to walk, support the rehabilitation of stroke patients and may someday even perform minor operations. Soon they may help us to get a better night’s sleep.