Two Strange Planets: Unsolved Magnetic Mystery on Uranus and Neptune
Uranus and Neptune both have a completely skewed magnetic field, perhaps due to the planets’ special inner structures. But new experiments by ETH Zurich researchers…
ETH Zurich
Swiss Scientists Generate Electricity From Wood
Researchers at Empa and ETH Zurich have made wood compressible and turned it into a micro-generator. When it is loaded, an electrical voltage is generated….
On the Quest for Other Earths in the Search for Extraterrestrial Life
An international research team with members from ETH has developed a new method for directly imaging smaller planets in the habitable zone of a neighboring…
Extinct Atom and a Clever Trick Reveals the Long-Kept Secrets of the Solar System
Using the extinct niobium-92 atom, ETH researchers have been able to date events in the early solar system with greater precision than before. The study…
Scientists Building Highly Accurate Digital Twin of Our Planet
A digital twin of our planet is to simulate the Earth system in future. It is intended to support policy-makers in taking appropriate measures to…
Researchers Say They’ve Solved the Puzzling Mystery of the Moons of Mars
Phobos and Deimos are the remains of a larger Martian moon that was disrupted between 1 and 2.7 billion years ago, say researchers from the…
COVID Detectives on the Hunt for Animal X
An Epidemiological Blueprint for Understanding the Dynamics of a Pandemic Scientific and public health experts have been raising the alarm for decades, imploring public officials…
Biochemical Random Number: Scientists Have Generated a Huge True Random Number Using DNA Synthesis
ETH scientists have generated a huge true random number using DNA synthesis. It is the first time that a number of this magnitude has been…
Uncovering Mysteries of Earth’s Primeval Atmosphere 4.5 Billion Years Ago and the Emergence of Life
A team of international scientists led by ETH researcher Paolo Sossi has gained new insights into Earth’s atmosphere of 4.5 billion years ago. Their results…
New Findings Suggest That Many Geoscientists’ Understanding of the Earth’s Interior Is Too Simplistic
Current understanding is that the chemical composition of the Earth’s mantle is relatively homogeneous. But experiments conducted by ETH researchers now show that this view…
Textbooks and Geoscientists May Be Wrong About How the Alps Were Formed
ETH researchers have used a computer model to test a new hypothesis about the formation of the Alps while simulating seismic activity in Switzerland. This…
Surprise on Mars – Unexpected Reaction to Solar Eclipses From Martian Moon Phobos
NASA’s InSight mission provides data from the surface of Mars. Its seismometer, equipped with electronics built at ETH Zurich, not only records marsquakes, but unexpectedly…
Search and Rescue: How Mathematics Can Save Lives at Sea
An international research collaboration led by ETH Zurich and MIT has developed a mathematical method that can speed up search and rescue operations at…
Planetary Researchers Surprised to Find a “Ring of Fire” on Venus
ETH researchers used computer simulations to classify the current activity of corona structures on the surface of Venus. To their surprise, they found a previously…
Intricate Beauty, Quasiperiodic Structures, and the Cascade to Criticality
Combined theoretical and experimental work unveils a novel mechanism through which criticality emerges in quasiperiodic structures — a finding that provides unique insight into the…
Quantum Programming Breakthrough: First Intuitive Language for Quantum Computers
Several technical advances have been achieved recently in the pursuit of powerful quantum computers. Now, Computer scientists from ETH Zurich have made an important breakthrough…
First Global Map of Rockfalls on the Moon Shows Billions of Years Old Landscapes Are Still Changing
A research team from ETH Zurich and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Göttingen counted over 136,000 rockfalls on the moon caused…
How Some Crops Replenish Their Own Fertilizer Through Bacteria in Their Roots – A Surprisingly Complex Interaction
Plants need nitrogen in the form of ammonium if they are to grow. In the case of a great many cultivated plants, farmers are obliged…