Archive – Science

Swiss transport card could threaten data privacy

This content was published on Feb 17, 2016 The SwissPassExternal link is a red plastic card that carries a microchip containing a travel pass of some kind, such as a half-price subscription or a national pass allowing the holder to travel on most public transport in the country for a set fee. The card is scanned by ticket inspectors on buses and trains,…

Researchers invent ‘Swiss army knife’ polymer

This content was published on Feb 15, 2016 Materials like medical devices and implants are coated with special polymers to ensure that they are free from contaminants like bacteria. However, over time, such coatings lose their efficacy as the bonds that bind them to the material are weak. More resistant coating are very expensive and sometimes use toxic solvents. The new polymer invented…

Researchers bid dormant Philae farewell

This content was published on Feb 13, 2016 Run-down batteries and harsh conditions meant that Philae, the first spacecraft to successfully land on a comet, has come to the end of its historic mission.

Gravitational waves: Einstein was right

This content was published on Feb 12, 2016 “Einstein was right”, was the headline in not only the Basler Zeitung but also Blick and Corriere del Ticino. The sentiment was shared by the Tages-Anzeiger in Zurich: “Definite proof for Einstein’s waves”. “What the researchers have measured is infinitely small, but it shows that the great physicist had got his sums right,” Blick noted. …

Banana skins can help identify stages of melanoma

This content was published on Feb 8, 2016 When bananas age they become covered in black spots caused by the enzyme tyrosinase. It is a natural browning process common among certain organisms, including food. This same enzyme also plays a role in the type of skin cancer known as melanoma. This cancer’s tell-tale spots are the result of a malfunction in the regulation…

Opinion

Can you be risk-averse and innovative?

This content was published on Feb 5, 2016 Start Up IndiaExternal link fascinates me for the promise it holds and difficulties it profiles. Packed in this ambition are risk and innovation, technology and design and hopefully baby steps for the root and branch changes our education system so badly needs. Hold that thought for a bit. We have all seen those potato peeling…

Deft robot fingers give new hope for prosthetics

This content was published on Feb 1, 2016 Swiss researchers have developed a novel robotic system for gripping and lifting objects that mimics the delicate action of human hand muscles to an unprecedented degree.

Week-old conjoined twins separated in Bern

This content was published on Jan 31, 2016 In what is thought to be a world first, a set of conjoined twins have been separated at Bern’s Inselspital only eight days after their birth.

No breakthrough in Davos on Horizon 2020

This content was published on Jan 23, 2016 Since the February 2014 vote to re-introduce quotas for EU citizens to live and work in Switzerland, the Swiss presence in the science research programme Horizon 2020 has been under threat. Switzerland managed to just about hang on to its place in the programme, but it has until the end of the year before this…

Smart robots divide opinion in Davos

This content was published on Jan 22, 2016 Artificially intelligent robots are already being blamed for future destruction of jobs, the middle class and the planet.

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