Archive – Science

Baby rhino makes history in Basel

This content was published on Oct 9, 2013 Although in the wild, rhinos are often present at the birth of their brothers and sisters, European zoos usually remove them during labour to prevent them injuring or even killing their new sibling. But experts at Basel zoo noticed how 31-year-old Ellora, who had already had seven calves, wasn’t pushing three-year-old Henna away, so they…

Alpine swift shows extreme flight endurance

This content was published on Oct 8, 2013 In 2012, scientists at the Swiss Ornithological Institute in Sempbach, canton Lucerne, affixed tiny geolocators to three Alpine swifts and tracked them during their yearly migration to Africa. Upon the birds’ return to Switzerland in the spring, the researchers were able to remove the tracking devices and analyse the data they carried. The results were…

Higgs and Englert win Nobel Prize for Physics

This content was published on Oct 8, 2013 The two scientists had been favourites to share the prize – worth eight million Swedish krona (CHF1.13 million) – after their theoretical work was finally vindicated last year by experiments at the CERN research centre’s gigantic particle collider outside Geneva. Englert, 80, and his colleague Robert Brout, who died in 2011, were first to publish,…

Human brain project kicks off in Lausanne

This content was published on Oct 7, 2013 “Today we are beginning a journey to unify our understanding of the brain. It’s a very exciting journey and a very difficult journey that will require hundreds if not thousands of scientists over the next ten years. It will provide us with the foundation to understanding mental health, brain disease and ultimately who we are as…

Researchers take oxygen tests to new extremes

This content was published on Oct 4, 2013 Pedalling on an exercise bike at 7,000 metres as well as taking more than 7,000 blood samples are just a few of the challenges the Swiss-Exped team face on the four-week expedition in October. “Labelling the blood samples properly, not mixing them up and keeping them at a constant temperature of -20 Celsius isn’t going…

Origins of flowering plants may be much older

This content was published on Oct 2, 2013 It had been assumed that the first flowering plant-like pollen had originated in the Early Cretaceous period, around 140 million years ago. Now scientists believe they have found plant-like pollen from the Early Triassic period (252-247 million years ago) – or even earlier. The findings, based on drilling cores from Switzerland, have been published in…

In the bowels of the monster

This content was published on Oct 1, 2013 The LHC is the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator. First started up on September 10, 2008, it consists of a 27-kilometre ring of superconducting magnets with a number of accelerating structures to boost the energy of the particles along the way. Inside the accelerator, two high-energy particle beams travel at close to the…

Russia officially joins CERN at last

This content was published on Oct 1, 2013 The year was 1959. In a black and white photo, John Adams, head of the team working on the proton synchrotron, CERN’s first major particle accelerator, holds up a bottle of vodka, a gift from colleagues at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research at Dubna, north of Moscow. The vodka came with instructions for the…

Next-gen particle accelerator ‘not built’ at CERN

This content was published on Oct 1, 2013 The international electron-positron collider project, known as the International Linear Collider (ILC), already exists on paper. The blueprint was officially handed over to the International Committee for Future Accelerators (ICFA) on June 12. Three consecutive ceremonies were organised at Tokyo University, CERN and the US Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Chicago, Illinois. The blueprint’s technical…

Space firms team up for zero-gravity research

This content was published on Sep 30, 2013 The canton Jura-based SpacePharma is seeking to become a world-leading research institution in the study of weightlessness and its impact on the body. Its satellites will serve as laboratory environments, offering companies and researchers the opportunity to conduct experiments in zero gravity. “We are talking about a completely new industry,” Martin Aebi, the firm’s general…

Archive – Science

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Archive – Science

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Baby rhino makes history in Basel

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Alpine swift shows extreme flight endurance

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Higgs and Englert win Nobel Prize for Physics

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Human brain project kicks off in Lausanne

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Researchers take oxygen tests to new extremes

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Origins of flowering plants may be much older

More

In the bowels of the monster

More

Russia officially joins CERN at last

More

Next-gen particle accelerator ‘not built’ at CERN

More

Space firms team up for zero-gravity research

Popular Stories

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