Globe 22/04: The origins of life

How did life on Earth first emerge? And how was it able to prosper and evolve? ETH researchers are involved in the quest to find answers to these fundamental questions.

Life has existed on Earth for billions of years. Stabilising mechanisms have helped our planet remain habitable to this day.

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.

Students from ETH and the Ghanaian university KNUST came up with some creative solutions for sustainable waste management at the Rethinking Waste summer school, where knowledge sharing and intercultural exchange topped the agenda.

Karin Iten knows there are limits to human knowledge – and limits to what we can accomplish. But that hasn’t stopped this ETH environmental scientist and agnostic from taking on the seemingly impossible task of bringing about a culture change in the Catholic Church.

Maria Conen advocates the conservation and reuse of existing buildings – and not just for reasons of sustainability.

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.

Nobel laureate and astrophysicist Didier Queloz and earth scientist Cara Magnabosco on the origin of life on Earth, complex life beyond our planet, and the inevitable end of every life.

Detlef Günther is stepping down from his role as Vice President for Research to devote more time to his own research work. A look back over eight successful years.