The risks to the environment are (still) low

16-May-2019

Sea birds dying in agony with a belly full of plastic garbage; plastic accumulations as big as islands: Virtually everyone has seen pictures like these today. But there are also plastic particles that are barely visible to the eye - microplastics. The danger posed by these tiny particles has ...

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08-May-2019

Sand, coffee grounds and rice behave very differently than water or oil, but under certain conditions they will suddenly exhibit astonishing similarities. Scientists have found a way to better understand the behaviour of granular materials. Sand, rice and coffee are all examples of granular ...

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07-May-2019

ETH researchers have cooled a nanoparticle to a record low temperature, thanks to a sophisticated experimental set-up that uses scattered laser light for cooling. Until now, no one has ever cooled a nanoparticle to such low temperatures in a photon cage: Dominik Windey and René Reimann – a ...

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02-May-2019

The use of potassium bromide in the production of graphene on a copper surface can lead to better results. When potassium bromide molecules arrange themselves between graphene and copper, it results in electronic decoupling. This alters the electrical properties of the graphene produced, bringing ...

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30-Apr-2019

Clariant announced first quarter 2019 sales of CHF1.715billion compared to CHF1.722billion in the first quarter of 2018. This corresponds to a good 2% organic growth in local currency, driven by higher pricing in all Business Areas versus a high comparison base. On a regional basis, the ...

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29-Apr-2019

For the first time, physicists at the University of Basel have succeeded in measuring the magnetic properties of atomically thin van der Waals materials on the nanoscale. They used diamond quantum sensors to determine the strength of the magnetization of individual atomic layers of the material ...

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26-Apr-2019

The XENON1T detector is mainly used to detect dark matter particles deep underground. But a research team led by Zurich physicists, among others, has now managed to observe an extremely rare process using the detector – the decay of the Xenon-124 atom, which has an enormously long half-life of ...

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24-Apr-2019

Physicists at the University of Zurich have developed an amazingly simple device that allows heat to flow temporarily from a cold to a warm object without an external power supply. Intriguingly, the process initially appears to contradict the fundamental laws of physics. If you put a teapot of ...

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ABB names Peter Voser as interim CEO

18-Apr-2019

The Board of Directors of ABB and its CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer (55) have mutually agreed for him to step down from his role, which he has held since 2013. The Chairman of the Board, Peter Voser (61), will become interim CEO in addition to his current role, with immediate effect. An official search ...

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12-Apr-2019

Can water reach minus 263 degrees Celsius without turning into ice? Yes it can, say researchers from ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich, if it is confined in nanometre-scale lipid channels. Making ice cubes is a simple process: you take a plastic ice-cube tray like you’d find in most ...

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