Archive – Science

Bad weather hampers Swiss balloon festival

This content was published on Jan 22, 2000 Gusty winds and freezing conditions put a dampener on the hot air balloon festival at Chateau D’Oex on Saturday with over half of the 70 balloons failing to lift off. Even the Swiss round-the-world balloonist, Bertrand Piccard, was grounded. His teammate, Brian Jones, a British pilot who circumnavigated the globe with Piccard, had more luck…

New theories on the origins of crop circles

This content was published on Jan 19, 2000 Crop circles have mystified and fascinated us for centuries. The sudden appearance of geometric patterns in farmers’ fields has many convinced that extraterrestrial powers are at work. Swiss researcher, Werner Anderhub, has been studying crop circles for more than a decade. He points out that crop circles need not be circles at all. They take…

New GM rice to combat blindness

This content was published on Jan 19, 2000 Researchers in Switzerland and Germany have developed a strain of genetically-modified rice, which they say could mean an end to a leading cause of blindness and death among children. Researchers at the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich and the University of Freiburg in Breisgau, Germany, have developed rice plants which stimulate the body…

Parliament to consider funds for Hurricane Lothar clean up operation

This content was published on Jan 18, 2000 The government will be asking parliament to approve funds to pay for the devastating damage caused to forests by hurricane Lothar in December. The storm felled 15 million trees in the Swiss midland plain, which would normally amount to two and a half years of annual timber production. The federal environment agency, BUWAL, has just…

Zermatt wraps up creativity symposium

This content was published on Jan 17, 2000 Some 300 business leaders have spent four days in the Swiss resort of Zermatt learning about the art of motivation. Now in its tenth year, Zermatt’s international symposium on creativity brings together leading figures from the world of business with personalities from the world of the arts and philosophy. The idea behind it, says its…

Committee to unveil measures in aftermath of Hurricane Lothar

This content was published on Jan 17, 2000 A crisis committee set up by the federal government two weeks ago is due to announce measures today to deal with the damage to Swiss forests caused by Hurricane Lothar. The committee is made up of forestry experts and industry officials, as well as environment specialists and cantonal representatives. The storm which hit Switzerland on…

Storm devastation brings environmental risks

This content was published on Jan 17, 2000 In the second in series of audio reports, Theo Leggett looks at the environmental impact of Hurricane Lothar, which swept through Switzerland in the last week of December, killing at least 14 people and destroying vast areas of forest, which had taken years to cultivate. In the weeks since the storm, much of the damage…

Therapy in cyberspace

This content was published on Jan 15, 2000 McWellness is a Basel-based company which offers medical advice over the telephone, fax and Internet, to busy people who don’t have time to waste in doctors’ waiting rooms. McWellness’s doctors can also arrange consultations with physicians throughout the world at a moment’s notice. Central to the McWellness ethos is that current medical services do not…

Merkt awarded annual Latsis Prize

This content was published on Jan 14, 2000 The annual Latsis Prize, awarded in recognition of outstanding research by scientists under 40, has been awarded to Frédéric Merkt for his work in the field of physical chemistry. The 33 year-old professor at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich takes home prize money worth SFr100,000. Merkt’s research has focussed on understanding how molecules…

Swiss cities best places to live

This content was published on Jan 13, 2000 The Swiss capital, Berne, and the country’s financial centre, Zurich, are two of the cities with the best standard of living in the world, according to a new study. The survey, published on Thursday by the London-based human resources consultants, William K. Mercer, put the two Swiss cities at the top of the list, together…

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Bad weather hampers Swiss balloon festival

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New theories on the origins of crop circles

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New GM rice to combat blindness

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Parliament to consider funds for Hurricane Lothar clean up operation

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Zermatt wraps up creativity symposium

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Committee to unveil measures in aftermath of Hurricane Lothar

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Storm devastation brings environmental risks

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Therapy in cyberspace

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Merkt awarded annual Latsis Prize

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Swiss cities best places to live

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