August 2015

At Scientifica 2015, everything revolves around the theme of light. This weekend’s event will feature 300 researchers from ETH and the University of Zurich presenting their work and explaining how they use light to observe and understand the world.

Design Thinking is an innovation method that puts people centre stage when developing new ideas. For the first time, ETH Zurich is offering master’s students in any field a course on this approach to innovation.

Windparks lösen häufig energische Diskussionen aus. Kritische Punkte sind dabei die Veränderung des Landschaftsbilds sowie die Geräusche der Windturbinen. VisAsim, unsere visuell-akustische Simulation von Windparks, hat grosses Potenzial, beim Planen von Windenergieanlagen die Meinungsbildung zu unterstützen.

Ten years ago, ETH Zurich began collaborating with TU Delft and RWTH Aachen on a trinational Joint Master Programme in Applied Geophysics. We asked Professor of Geophysics Hansruedi Maurer what ETH Zurich has learned from the pioneering project.

The Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering (D-BSSE) at ETH Zurich in Basel and the University of Basel are looking to expand their collaboration. The cantons of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft are investing a total of CHF 10 million with a view to strengthening their collaboration in the field of personalised medicine and implementing new infrastructure measures.

“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” John Muir’s observation encapsulates the inherent interconnectedness that lies at the heart of environmental issues. It is this that makes environmental problems not only complex, but also wicked—in seeking to address one issue we create new conflicts.

Three computer science students at ETH Zurich want to bring to market a bicycle made of bamboo at a price of no more than 500 Swiss francs. The first batch of bikes is now in production.

Sicher kennen Sie noch den Borkenkäfer. Vor einigen Jahren befiel er nach starken Stürmen und dem Hitzesommer 2003 grossflächig Fichtenbestände und verursachte enorme forstwirtschaftliche Schäden. Aber ist er auch heutzutage noch gefährlich? Und wie wird sich der Klimawandel auf ihn auswirken?

Since the 18th century, the international success of natural science research has played a significant role in shaping the international image of Switzerland. Bernhard Schär and Lea Pfäffli, two historians at ETH Zurich, have investigated its history.

A team of researchers at ETH Zurich and the University of Bern has succeeded in determining the structure of a lipid flippase at high resolution, which has provided insight into how this membrane protein transports lipids by flipping.