Archive – Science

Young female smokers more likely to try to quit

This content was published on Jan 8, 2002 The extensive data on more than 1,600 women was collected and analysed by researchers at Geneva University Hospital. The results could be helpful in campaigns to help people stop smoking. “There seems to be a difference in how younger women – that’s to say 35-55-year- olds – approach smoking and attempt to quit smoking,” Michael…

Swiss engineer steers India’s first electric car on the road

This content was published on Jan 7, 2002 “It’s a city car but it’s very well suited to Indian roads,” said Tillerten-born Paul Schweizer, a consultant for the Reva Electric Car Company in the southern city of Bangalore. “The big advantage is that it is very small and easy to drive and very easy to manoeuvre through traffic,” he told swissinfo. The Reva,…

Skier survives four-day Jungfrau ordeal

This content was published on Jan 3, 2002 The experienced skier kept alive by digging a hole in the snow inside the crevasse where he fell. Above, icy gusts swept by at up to 230km per hour, while temperatures sank to -25 degrees centigrade. Disaster strikes The 35-year old set off with his younger brother on December 27 for a skiing tour of…

Alarm centre receives record number of notifications

This content was published on Jan 3, 2002 Overall, 535 emergency notices were registered with the NEOC, a third more than the previous high in 2000. The centre’s work involved dispensing information rather than taking specific preventive measures following notification. The largest number of notifications, 187, concerned alerts involving nuclear facilities in Switzerland and abroad. Anthrax scares also accounted for 77 notifications, while…

Euro “easy” for blind and visually impaired

This content was published on Dec 31, 2001 The Swiss Federation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (SFBV) said the needs of its members were taken into account when the new currency was drawn up. On the notes, figures representing the value are large and prominent enough to be identified by touch alone. The coins can be distinguished thanks to different indentations, size…

Switzerland’s glaciers slowly melt away

This content was published on Dec 30, 2001 Published as part of an annual study of the condition of Swiss glacial regions, the figures indicate that 62 of the country’s 73 glaciers melted significantly during the past 12 months. Andreas Bauder, a Swiss glaciologist from the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, told the Swiss paper, “Neue Zürcher Zeitung”, that the worst affected…

An Englishman abroad finds a new home in Zurich

This content was published on Dec 28, 2001 But the process is a two-way street and many foreign executives are living and working in Switzerland. One of them is British audiologist, Paul Checkley. Checkley, 39, specialises in audiology, the science of hearing. For the past two years, he has worked for the hearing aid systems specialist Phonak. Based in Stäfa, on the north…

Dowsers offer divine solution to water shortage

This content was published on Dec 28, 2001 In a pilot project with the Indian organisation, Janvikas, Hans-Anton Rieder and Roland Frutig are working in 42 villages in the states of Rajastan and Gujarat. Using either double-handed rods on ball bearings or one-handed rods, the pair have identified potential drilling areas in all the villages. More than half the sites are already yielding…

Year of disasters eclipses furore over Swiss wartime past

This content was published on Dec 27, 2001 The Bergier Commission has finished five years of research – it will cease to exist at the end of 2001 – and has presented the Swiss cabinet with its 25 studies detailing aspects of Switzerland’s role during the Holocaust era. The Independent Commission of Experts (ICE), as it is formally known, was set up in…

The hills are alive with the sound of big cats

This content was published on Dec 26, 2001 In spring this year, under the auspices of the state-funded Luno project (Lynx Relocation North Eastern Switzerland), six of the large carnivores were moved for their own protection from the northwestern to the northeastern Alps. The group is now thriving and there have been no reports of any attacks on livestock in the area. A…

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