When the back hurts

"We are mechanical engineers and we want to know how the joints in the spine work," explained Ameet Aiyangar, who is studying the human locomotor system at Empa using an innovative method. He does...

Innovative impetus for skin research

"I have been at ETH Zurich for eighteen years and I have enjoyed being here since day one," explains Sabine Werner. "However, SKINTEGRITY has given my research a further, strong boost." The ETH...

Digitisation in the sewers

Crossing the street in Fehraltorf, you would never know that there is a constant stream of data being recorded and transmitted up underfoot. The water level in the drainage canals, which run under...

Brilliant X-ray light for leading edge research

Radar waves have a very long wavelength. One of the physicists, Oliver Bunk, explained that "this enables them to track the arrival of a ship or aircraft. You need X-ray light with a very short...

Reaching new targets more quickly

Gunnar Rätsch, a professor at ETH Zurich, combines data science with biomedicine. Together with his team, he is developing an early warning system for patients on ITUs, for instance. It is designed...

Lasers and Lidar in the snow

Weather permitting, a group of researchers drive to the Dischma valley in Davos early in the morning, from April to June, often on a quad-bike. The evening before, together with the responsible...

A machine unique in the world

“We have instruments that are unique in the world”, says Elvezio Morenzoni, director of the laboratory where the muons are used to investigate the microscopic properties of materials. Muons are...

New Digital Building Culture

With its moveable arm the white robot looks rather like the machines used in the automotive industry to assemble car bodies. But the arm is not twirling any car doors across the room, it is piling up...

The brain is being decrypted

The images broadcast on Swiss television’s prime time Tagesschau news programme on 24 April 2012 showcased spectacular science. A robot appeared to move without human control, wandering into an...

ETH Zurich: Competence centre for world nutrition

In 2050, around 9bn people will inhabit the Earth. Therefore, worldwide agricultural production will probably have to double by 2050.ETH Zurich would like to establish a basis for sustainable...