ETH Zurich

Researchers at ETH Zurich have succeeded in turning specially prepared graphene flakes either into insulators or into superconductors by applying an electric voltage. This technique even works locally, meaning that in the same graphene flake regions with completely different physical properties can be realized side by side.

Between 2000 and 2004 glaciers lost 227 gigatons of ice a year; between 2015 and 2019 they lost 298 gigatons a year.

Novel nanoparticles developed by researchers at ETH Zurich and Empa detect multi-resistant bacteria hiding in body cells and kill them. The scientists' goal is to develop an antibacterial agent that is effective where conventional antibiotics remain ineffective.

In the frame of a new agricultural research program, Nestlé and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich) will explore interdisciplinary solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change while increasing nutritional quality and yield in dairy and crop farming. Nestlé is investing CHF 2.8 million in this comprehensive research program. The program, coordinated by the World Food System Center at ETH Zurich, consists of two major research areas: agricultural crops an...

LatticeFlow, an AI startup that was spun out of ETH Zurich in 2020, today announced that it has raised a $2.8 million seed funding round led by Swiss deep-tech fund btov and Global Founders Capital, which previously backed the likes of Revolut, Slack and Zalando. The general idea behind LatticeFlow is to build tools that [...]

The world is getting warmer and warmer--and many organisms native to lower latitudes or elevations are moving higher.

Magnets often harbor hidden beauty. Take a simple fridge magnet: Somewhat counterintuitively, it is 'sticky' on one side but not the other. The secret lies in the way the magnetisation is arranged in a well-defined pattern within the material. More intricate magnetization textures are at the heart of many modern technologies, such as hard disk drives. Now, an international team of scientists at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, ETH Zurich, the University of Cambridge, the Donetsk Institute for Physics and Engineering and the Institute for Numerical Mathematics RAS in Moscow report the discovery of unexpected magnetic structures inside a tiny pillar made of the magnetic material gadolinium cobalt. As they write in a paper published today in the journal Nature Physics, the researchers observed sub-micrometer loop-shaped configurations, which they identified as magnetic vortex rings. Far beyond their aesthetic appeal, these textures might point the way to further complex three-dimensional structures arising in the bulk of magnets, and could one day form the basis for novel technological applications.

They burst out of toilet bubbles, swim across drinking water, spread through coughs. Tiny infectious microbes--from the virus that causes COVID-19 to waterborne bacteria--kill millions of people around the world each year. Now engineers are studying how zinc oxide surfaces and natural hydrodynamic churning have the power to kill pathogens first.

Scientists discover a new behaviour among bumblebees that tricks plants into flowering early.

Hungry bumblebees can make plants flower up to a month earlier than usual by cutting holes in their leaves, which may help them adapt to climate change

Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives.

Move over, Willy Wonka: Researchers at Swiss university ETH Zurich are making chocolate shimmer. A group of scientists found a way to render incandescent confections without artificial colorants. The stunning effect (as seen ...

Clay minerals suspended in seawater binds sedimentary organic carbon to their mineral surfaces. But the quantity of carbon that is bound and the source of that carbon very much depends on the clay mineral in question. A research team from ETH Zurich and Tongji University have shown this by studying sediments in the South China Sea.

Researchers looked at how many trees could be planted on every available parcel of land on Earth, where they could go, and what impact could be on our survival.