ETH News

Polarisation seems to have increased in recent years, whether between right and left, urban and rural, or the supporters and opponents of vaccination. We talked to two experts about the cracks in society – and the glue that binds us together.

With its ability to write text and generate images, artificial intelligence is making inroads into many areas of life. Perceived as threatening, enriching or just plain gimmicky, AI also raises a fundamental question: what is it that makes us human?

The Thomas Mann Archive in the ETH Main Building provides insights into the author’s lifelong interests, works and personal effects. A ceremony to celebrate the reopening of the famous archive will be held this evening.

We posed this question to ETH Zurich researchers. In return, we got five intriguing answers from the perspectives of biomedicine, computer science, biology, robotics and philosophy.

When donating to charities, asking about their administration costs is problematic says Shruti Patel. We need to ask better questions if we want our donations to help.

More than a hundred unpublished drawings by the German writer Franz Kafka are now presented for the first time in a volume edited by Andreas Kilcher, professor at ETH Zurich.

Technologies that interfere with our brains have great potential. But their ethical implications are such that they may require an expansion of human rights frameworks, argues Marcello Ienca.

In his doctoral thesis, Dario Meili explores discrimination. Although there are instances of discrimination in our society, the certificate requirement is not one of them, he says.

In recent years, there have been several incidents of hacked databases, and the hackers published the stolen data on the internet. Are scientists allowed to use such data for their research? ETH Zurich bioethicists Marcello Ienca and Professor Effy Vayena have addressed this question in a paper published in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence. ETH News spoke with Ienca.

Out-of-school programmes designed to develop children’s science and technology skills are booming. Some may be helpful, but others are even harmful, argues Elsbeth Stern.

We register disruptions as a deviation from our expectations. We often experience this as a moment of uncertainty or as frustrated expectations. Does this mean that disruptions are always a bad thing? The philosophical essay explores these questions.

Electricity providers have a simple way of encouraging households and companies to procure power from sustainable sources. This can help lower CO₂ emissions.

ETH has once again been highly successful in the awarding of this year’s ERC Starting Grants for young researchers, with the European Research Council (ERC) approving a total of CHF 21.4 million in funding for 12 ETH project submissions.

When making decisions, we’re often influenced by our social environment. This can be used in a targeted way to encourage people to adopt a healthier, cleaner lifestyle, writes Suchita Srinivasan.

The Argentinian Tomás Bartoletti wants to tell history from a global perspective. Since the summer of 2019 he has been doing so at ETH Zurich, where he has been researching the story of the Swiss naturalist Johann Jakob von Tschudi and his travels around Latin America. He hopes to discover new insights into Switzerland’s postcolonial past and the history of Latin America.

It’s 2020 and Christoph Kueffer is now into his fifth year of (almost) not flying. Whereas not flying hasn’t been difficult, talking about social change still is, he asserts.

Gerd Folkers was the first head of Critical Thinking ETH (CTETH) and left an indelible mark on the initiative. After retiring from his professorship last year, he has now handed over leadership of CTETH to the next generation. As one of ETH’s most multifaceted intellectuals, Folkers could always be counted on to hold up a mirror to the scientific community.

Are there limits to what computers are actually able to compute, and do quantum computers really solve more problems than conventional computers? Computer scientist Scott Aaronson will discuss these kinds of fundamental questions during the Paul Bernays Lectures 2019.

Time is a fundamental dimension of human existence and comes in many forms. Using a comparative approach, philosopher and physicist Norman Sieroka looks at what distinguishes them, using time travel and music.

Harvard mathematician Barry Mazur will talk about the unity and scope of mathematics on 11 September in his Paul Bernays Lectures at ETH Zurich. Variety enriches mathematics. This is why it is intriguing to enquire about a unification that combines different mathematical theories and methods.  

Safeguarding both humanitarian traditions and the interests of the domestic pharmaceutical industry creates tension in the Swiss health-related foreign policy, says Ursula Jasper.

Although we have known the causes of our environmental problems and possible solutions for decades, not much has changed. Christoph Küffer asks why.

Many school pupils fail at physics because they misunderstand the fundamental concepts. A new teaching method can change this – ETH researchers have now proven its effect. It particularly helps intelligent girls to learn more effectively.

Philosophy of science in medical research: pharmacy students are learning how theory, methods and experiments affect scientific results and how to assess the significance of the results.

What do the smallest particles locked up in protons have to tell us about how the universe began and how it will end? This week, physics Nobel laureate David Gross will present three public lectures at ETH Zurich on the theme “A Century of Quantum Physics – from Nuclear Physics to String Theory and Beyond”.

Travel and happiness have a complicated relationship – even the Stoics were aware of this. An interview with philosopher Michael Hampe on the opportunities and risks that come with travelling.

The "Last Swiss Holocaust Survivors" exhibition, which opens today at the ETH Zurich Archives of Contemporary History, tells the stories of how fourteen eyewitnesses survived the Holocaust and then went on with their lives.The exhibition has been extended until 15 June 2017.

Sometimes it’s the questions, rather than the answers, that show how the world is changing. For example, questions about the moral consequences of machines and computers becoming more intelligent. A group of ETH students have tackled this issue.

Modern data science techniques can also be useful in conflict research. However, in an essay published in the journal Science, Lars-Erik Cederman, Professor of International Conflict Research at ETH Zurich, suggests that certain expectations regarding the predictability of armed conflict are unrealistic. ETH News caught up with him for a chat.

What began as a student initiative has today become one of Switzerland's most distinguished archives. Time for a quick retrospective and a glimpse into the digital 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.

Unsolvable problems, the nature of the infinite and the question of whether and how mathematics can be definitively substantiated – these issues are the focus of the Bernays Lectures 2016. The speaker for this year’s honorary lectures at ETH Zurich is W. Hugh Woodin, Professor of Philosophy and Mathematics at Harvard University.

‘Science in Perspective’ is the name of a new study programme at ETH Zurich that will teach students of natural sciences and engineering the overarching normative, historical and cultural perspectives of their subject.

How can public opinion be influenced in favour of climate protection? ETH political scientist Thomas Bernauer explored the question in a recent study. His sobering answer is that there is no magic formula.

Founded in 2015, the new Turing Centre at ETH Zurich brings together researchers and students of science, engineering and humanities. In an interview with ETH News, Managing Director Giovanni Sommaruga and his New Zealand co-directors Diane Proudfoot and Jack Copeland explain why the Centre inspires blue skies research and what it all has to do with ‘child machines’.

Mit Ländern reich an Rohstoffen verhält es sich ähnlich wie mit Lottomillionären: Die einen verlieren sich hoffnungslos und enden auf dem Sozialamt, die anderen starten durch und schaffen sich die Basis für eine erfolgreiche Zukunft. Nur: Warum blühen die einen auf, während andere darben?

Secondary school physics teachers with little teaching experience handed out significantly poorer grades to girls than boys for the exact same performance. This was the conclusion drawn by an ETH learning specialist from a study she conducted in Switzerland, Germany and Austria.

French Nobel laureate Serge Haroche will give the Paul Bernays Lectures next week at ETH Zurich. In his research he deals with the transition from quantum physics to classical physics.

One of the big questions intelligence researchers grapple with is just how differences in intelligence are reflected in the human brain. Researchers at ETH Zurich have succeeded in studying further details relating to suspected functional differences in the brains of intelligent people.

Monte Verità, or the "Mountain of Truth", was recently the setting for an international gathering of historians, aimed at finding new patterns of interpretation for the period between 1980 and 2010. David Gugerli, a Professor of History of Technology at ETH and conference co-organiser, discusses the bold conference format and key findings from the meeting.

Recently, paired events – a lecture by geographer Kathryn Yusoff and a colorful evening “slam” – took place, organized by the fledgling interdisciplinary group, Environmental Humanities Switzerland. Both explored the potential and limits of the “Anthropocene” thesis: the idea that we’ve entered a new geologic epoch wherein humans are actively altering Earth systems.

When a person in a group violates a norm, he or she is often punished by the others. In a game theory experiment, ETH sociologist Andreas Diekmann shows that this defector is most likely to be punished if those injured by the violation have differing levels of strength. Among equals, in contrast, the defector tends to get away with it.

Adolf Muschg, emeritus professor of ETH Zurich, received the Swiss Grand Prix Literatur award for his complete literary works on Thursday. Federal Councillor Alain Berset honoured the writer at the ceremony of the Swiss literary awards.