Archive – Science

Switzerland at risk of major earthquake

This content was published on Sep 7, 2000 The experts, from the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, issued the warning on Thursday. They said a major earthquake – on the scale of that which struck Basel in 1356, reaching the equivalent of 6.5 on the Richter scale – could be expected to strike the country every 100 years on average. They warned…

Aid agency warns against privatisation of water

This content was published on Sep 7, 2000 Launching the campaign in Berne on Thursday, the head of Helvetas, Werner Külling, said water could not be treated as just a commodity. He said 1,4 billion people were still without access to safe drinking water, and that illnesses affecting half of Africa’s population were directly related to a shortage of clean water. Külling said…

Chimps get closer to humans on Basel stage

This content was published on Sep 7, 2000 The play was about a chimpanzee called Lisa, who grew up in an urban apartment with her minder, Sonia, and was part of a language experiment in which she was taught sign language. As Lisa grows into an adult chimp, she becomes more difficult to handle and is eventually sent to a camp in the…

Editorial on the votes

This content was published on Sep 6, 2000 The people’s initiative calling for controls on immigration has prompted heated debate. The exasperation that many people, particularly women, feel about illegal immigration and abuses of the asylum law is now expressing itself as xenophobia. But a quota system won’t solve the problem. Moreover, Switzerland, with its humanitarian tradition, stands to lose a great deal.…

Proposal to cut number of foreign residents

This content was published on Sep 6, 2000 The initiative, launched by a local Radical Party politician from Aargau, Philipp Müller, seeks to reduce the number of foreigners to the 1994 level when the initiative was launched. It was formally presented to the federal authorities in 1995 after collecting the signatures needed for a nationwide vote. It is not the first time a…

Unaxis back in the black

This content was published on Sep 5, 2000 In the first six months, the Zurich-based company posted a profit of SFr73 million ($42 million), compared to a loss of SFr18 million a year ago. Unaxis put the improvement down to its new strategy of focusing on the high-technology sector. Chairman and chief executive, Willy Kissling, said he expected growth to continue. “On the…

Statistics seen as vital tools in battle to improve lives

This content was published on Sep 4, 2000 Her appeal came at a major conference in Montreux on Monday on how statistics can help in the fight for human rights and against poverty. The gathering is being jointly organised by the International Association for Official Statistics and two Swiss government agencies. Some 700 delegates from 110 nations are meeting on the banks of…

Researchers see DNA as potential power source

This content was published on Sep 2, 2000 The aim is for the robots to be used to diagnose illnesses, read genes, or deliver drugs with pin-point precision. The researchers at IBM Research in Zurich and the University of Basel say they have discovered that DNA can be used to bend tiny silicon “fingers”, or cantilevers, with a thickness less than one-fifth of…

New campaign to eradicate illiteracy launched in Switzerland

This content was published on Sep 2, 2000 In canton Berne alone, an estimated 100,000 people are considered functionally illiterate: that is they have trouble writing or reading a simple text. Nationwide, up to 19 per cent of the adult population is affected. The figure compares to an adult illiteracy rate of about 20 per cent in western countries, according to a recent…

Swiss step out as world leaders in saving books

This content was published on Sep 1, 2000 The plant, inaugurated on Friday, will reverse the ageing process of some 3,000 tonnes of books and documents at the Federal Archive and the National Library, through a process known as “Papersave Swiss”. It involves neutralising the acidity in paper using an alkaline substance, and can be applied to any book or document manufactured using…

Archive – Science

Popular Stories

Most Discussed