We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to all the ‘leftover chefs’ for their creative recipes! Before going off on our Christmas break until 7 January, we’ll leave you with a selection of recipes that were sent in. We wish all our readers a great festive season and a happy New Year.

As 2013 comes to an end, one is inclined to say that it went by in a flash. The ETH News editorial team reminisces about the most tense, exciting, difficult and not least satisfying moments of the past year. With this recollection, the editorial team says goodbye to take a short holiday break between 23 December to 5 January and wishes all of its readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Using new technology, an international research team has created a protein signature for lung cancer caused by asbestos fibres that shows how this illness might be detected early in future.

2014 is the International Year of Family Farming, so it is a good time to take stock of what the future holds for small farms across the world, particularly when farmers’ children are leaving farms in search of more enticing opportunities in cities.

Get a fir tree from the forest, drag it to the lab, decorate it festively and deliver gifts: this is how the Autonomous Systems Lab’s robots celebrate Christmas.

With digital architecture, biomedical foundations, molecular engineering and mathematical physics as research subjects, ETH Zurich has successfully positioned itself as a leader in the National Centres of Competence in Research.

Matthias Kohler, Professor of Architecture and Digital Fabrication, takes over the leadership of a National Centre of Competence in Research. He talks to ETH News about why it is so important that novel design and fabrication processes evolve and that such a research approach does not remain purely theoretical.

ETH Zurich is acting as the overall leader or co-leader in four new National Centres of Competence in Research (NCCR). ETH Vice President Roland Siegwart explains what NCCRs mean for ETH Zurich.

The federal government is investing in energy research and establishing seven competence centres for this purpose. Two of these are based at ETH Zurich: one on the subject of mobility and the other on the supply of electricity.

More than 450 employees followed the Executive Board’s invitation to the 2013 Chrismas party at the Zentrum. Ulrike Lohmann was awarded the Golden Tricycle as an exemplary leader.