“In times of crisis, science must give clear, comprehensible advice” Politics ETH Board The ETH Board has had a new president, Michael Hengartner, since 1 February 2020. In this interview, he looks back on his first few months in this post and his first major act: the launch of a scientific task force to combat the coronavirus pandemic, which formed the basis for the Swiss National COVID-19 Science Task Force. Coronavirus Michael Hengartner Further Reading How Switzerland has responded to the coronavirus crisis WSL Swiss federal government officially launches the SwissCovid app EPFL "breathe" ventilator from ETH wins federal funding ETH Zurich The lightest shielding material in the world Empa Climate change: spring starting too early for roe deer WSL Start your Day with the brightest Minds. Maryna Viazovska, explorer of mathematical dimensions Research EPFL Summer Series: Science as a vocation. Maryna Viazovska, who holds the Chair of Number Theory at EPFL, has resolved the problem of sphere packing in 8 and 24 dimensions. Mathematics How the body fights off urinary tract infections Research ETH Zurich Some people are better protected than others against urinary tract infections. This may be because their bodies produce more of a protein called uromodulin. An interdisciplinary research team has now found out how this helper protein brings relief when nature calls and how this knowledge might benefit the treatment and prevention of these painful inflammations. Biology Health Sciences A secure, decentralized search engine for journalists TechTransfer EPFL An EPFL laboratory has developed DataShare Network, a decentralized search engine paired with a secure messaging system that allows investigative journalists to exchange information securely and anonymously. A scientific article on this subject will be presented during the Usenix Security Symposium which will be held online from August 12 to 14. Cybersecurity Computer Science The ETH Domain strives to strengthen the competitiveness of Switzerland in the long term and contribute to the development of society through excellence in research, teaching and knowledge and technology transfer. To the sun and beyond Research PSI PSI takes part in space research projects. This not only expands knowledge about our astronomical home, but also reinforces Switzerland's reputation as a reliable developer of sophisticated space equipment.
