Archive – Science

Report halves number of illegal residents

This content was published on Apr 26, 2005 The Bern-based Gfs Institute says that only around 90,000 people do not have a residence permit, half the lowest previous estimates. The study – funded by the Federal Migration Office – found that there was no correlation between illegal residency and the number of asylum seekers whose applications had been turned down by the authorities.…

Monkey business resolved in Gibraltar

This content was published on Apr 26, 2005 Genetic analysis has shown the Barbary macaques are not an indigenous species but descend from Moroccan and Algerian monkeys that were brought to Europe. For years scientists speculated that the Gibraltar monkeys were an isolated colony, the last representatives of their kind on the continent. But the Swiss study, published this week in the online…

Swiss envoy calls for improved development aid

This content was published on Apr 25, 2005 Peter Maurer also urged industrialised nations on Monday to assume their financial responsibility, in a speech before the UN General Assembly. “The international community does not need to set any new objectives for development; it must implement those that were set at the Millennium Summit and at the Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development,” he…

Robots jockey for position in camel races

This content was published on Apr 25, 2005 K-team was commissioned to build the robots by the state of Qatar, which earlier this year prohibited children under 16 from being used as jockeys. Team member Alexandre Colot was recently in the capital Doha to assess the performance of a robot called Kamel. He said the trials had been very successful and that the…

Institute celebrates 150 years of science

This content was published on Apr 21, 2005 Swiss President Samuel Schmid, who attended the launch, took the opportunity to remind the nation’s scientists of their ethical responsibility and warned them to remain “humble”. Speaking in Zurich on Thursday, Schmid called the institute “perhaps the most pioneering project of 19th century Switzerland.” He also thanked the university’s professors and students for their high…

Online tsunami test finds large echo

This content was published on Apr 21, 2005 The test, developed by Zurich University and completed by 3,740 people, has found that six out of ten of them ought to seek help. About 15,000 people have visited the special site that contains the questionnaire. The anonymous test has 44 questions and is designed to detect if people are suffering from psychological problems and…

Swiss begin to bang the anti-noise drum

This content was published on Apr 20, 2005 Campaigners say quality of life should be protected by placing stricter limits on noise pollution – estimated to affect one million people in Switzerland. Complaints about noise have been getting louder in parts of Zurich since October 2003. That was when early morning and night flights into the city’s airport started using a southern approach…

Einstein’s worlds collide

This content was published on Apr 19, 2005 While he is best remembered for his mad hair and his famous E=mc² equation on relativity, it was his work on the so-called Photoelectric Effect that would convince the Nobel committee to award him the 1921 Physics prize. The Photoelectric Effect The Photoelectric Effect occurs when light shines on a metal surface. Depending on the…

Einstein sets limit on light speed

This content was published on Apr 19, 2005 While E=mc² has become synonymous with Einstein’s name, it was just part of his wider research into the relativity of space and time. Special relativity At the beginning of the 20th century, scientists knew that light was an electromagnetic wave, which travelled at 300,000 kms a second. Because light was a wave, they assumed it…

Einstein’s home was window on the universe

This content was published on Apr 19, 2005 It was exactly 100 years ago in this modest apartment in the city’s old town that Einstein churned out some of his most significant physics papers. The unassuming building is just one of many along Bern’s Kramgasse and has an entrance that looks onto some of the city’s famous arcades. Visitors have to climb two…

Archive – Science

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Archive – Science

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Report halves number of illegal residents

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Monkey business resolved in Gibraltar

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Swiss envoy calls for improved development aid

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Robots jockey for position in camel races

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Institute celebrates 150 years of science

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Online tsunami test finds large echo

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Swiss begin to bang the anti-noise drum

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Einstein’s worlds collide

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Einstein sets limit on light speed

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Einstein’s home was window on the universe

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