Archive – Science

Switzerland notches up wettest March on record

This content was published on Apr 2, 2001 Some parts of the country saw rainy conditions during all 31 days of March. In low-lying areas, 4.5 times as much rain fell as can usually be expected during that period. Cantons Jura and Valais saw the most rain, according to a weather report issued by the Swiss meteorological office, MétéoSuisse. In the lowlands north…

Switzerland and Europe look toward increasing scientific ties

This content was published on Mar 30, 2001 The EU’s research commissioner, Philippe Busquin, said in Bern on Friday he hoped Switzerland would take an active role in a four-year European scientific research programme, scheduled to run from 2002 to 2006. During talks with the Swiss home affairs minister, Ruth Dreifuss, Busquin said the Swiss scientific community “was one of the best in…

Fresh calls for gene technology moratorium

This content was published on Mar 30, 2001 They say proposals by the Senate to impose tight controls on growers of GM plants do not go far enough. Organisations including Pro Natura and the Swiss branch of the World Wide Fund for Nature want a clearly defined, legal moratorium. During their discussion on legislation governing gene technology, members of the Senate said their…

Switzerland joins criticism of United States over Kyoto climbdown

This content was published on Mar 30, 2001 During bilateral talks in Geneva with the French president, Jacques Chirac, Leuenberger said he was “very disappointed with the decision taken by the United States” and guaranteed that Switzerland would honour the agreement signed in Japan in 1997. “The climate protocol is connected with the issue of human rights,” Leuenberger said after this meeting. “If…

Real cannibals are picky eaters

This content was published on Mar 28, 2001 Mondher Kilani said rules govern both ritual cannibalism, practised by societies, and individual cases like Issei Sagawa from Japan, who admitted murdering a French friend in a Paris apartment in 1981 and devouring parts of her body. “Even in isolated examples, it’s noticeable that cannibals often have a relationship with the victim,” Kilani told swissinfo.…

Le Carré speaks out against the global pharmaceutical industry

This content was published on Mar 28, 2001 The book, set in Africa, is about a fictional pharmaceutical company seeking to promote a “wonder cure” for tuberculosis. Le Carré told swissinfo that as part of his research he conducted off-the-record interviews with people working in Basel for the Swiss pharmaceutical industry. Le Carré said he would never reveal the names of his contacts,…

Weighty issues die with Mir

This content was published on Mar 23, 2001 For the last seven years, a team at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich has collaborated with the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA to measure the impact of weightlessness on human bones and muscles. Since 1995, their Bone Stiffness Measuring Device – a collaborative venture between ESA and the Russians – has monitored…

In conversation with a primate’s relative

This content was published on Mar 23, 2001 Despite a long running controversy over the rights of animals among the Swiss, Penny Patterson says Switzerland has a far more progressive attitude towards animals than her native country, the United States. “The Swiss are very advanced in their thinking along these lines. Their constitution has already referenced the dignity of the animal for many…

More working Swiss are falling below the poverty line

This content was published on Mar 23, 2001 Today, Switzerland’s “working poor” account for 7.5 per cent of the population – some 250,000 households – compared with 5.3 per cent a decade ago. Those worst affected, according to a new study by the Federal Statistical Office and canton Zurich, are large families, single parents, workers with only primary education and the self-employed. In…

Mathematics is all in the brain

This content was published on Mar 22, 2001 Rafael Nunez, a psychologist at Fribourg University, and his co-author, George Lakoff, a linguist at the university of California, Berkeley, have shot to prominence with their book, “Where Mathematics Comes From”. The work challenges the notion that mathematics is the inaccessible language of the universe and contends that all mathematical ideas are elaborate metaphors drawn…

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