Research

Aquatic invertebrates are used as bioindicators to evaluate the quality of Swiss watercourses. However, climate change is also leading to changes in the species composition of these organisms. Eawag has now investigated the impacts of increasing temperatures on water body evaluations on behalf of the FOEN. The findings: the indicators are expected to remain relevant at least for the coming decades.

Results from a preclinical study in mice, led by EPFL, and a collaborative clinical study in patients show that the type 2 immune response – associated with parasitic infection and thought to play a negative role in cancer immunity – is positively correlated with long-term cancer remission.

Research areas at ETH Zurich span barriers in a wide variety of fields, including cell biology, drug delivery and spatial planning. Below, we look at examples from six different disciplines.

For many people, architectural norms create barriers to accessibility. How might we re-imagine our built environment to make it more inclusive?

Researchers at ETH Zurich have been working with researchers from Ukraine and Germany to investigate how to rebuild Ukraine’s destroyed energy infrastructure based on renewable energy. They have determined that solar and wind energy would quickly deliver a distributed power supply system and prevent corruption.

Researchers have found that AI large language models, like GPT-4, are better at predicting what comes next than what came before in a sentence. This “Arrow of Time” effect could reshape our understanding of the structure of natural language, and the way these models understand it.

EPFL scientist Sascha Nick has outlined a completely new scenario for what housing and neighborhoods might look like in Switzerland in the coming decades. His recommendations would put the country on track to meet its net-zero target while supporting the well-being of residents and communities. 

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a new way to break down a dangerous subgroup of PFAS known as PFOS. With the help of nanoparticles and ultrasound, piezocatalysis could offer an effective alternative to existing processes in the future.