The latest survey by the ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½ on psychological stress in the second Covid-19 wave has revealed that levels have increased significantly in comparison with the spring of this year. The proportion of people with severe depressive symptoms stood at 9% during lockdown in April, but this figure had risen to 18% in November. Young people are particularly affected, and those who have suffered financially during the pandemic. French-speaking Switzerland has been affected more strongly than the rest of the country.
Doctoral candidate Grazia Raciti researches the dynamics of phonons as part of the Eucor program QUSTEC. Her lab experiments rely on mirrors, lasers and lots of finesse. When she isn't tinkering with gadgets, she helps undergraduates with their experiments.
The European Research Council (ERC) awards three researchers from the ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½ with one of the coveted ERC Consolidator Grants. The projects in the fields of biomedicine, molecular biology and chemistry will each receive funding of around 2 million Euros.
Humans have taken spiders into space more than once to study the importance of gravity to their web-building. What originally began as a somewhat unsuccessful PR experiment for high school students has yielded the surprising insight that light plays a larger role in arachnid orientation than previously thought.
Researchers from the ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½ have developed a sensitive testing system that allows the rapid and reliable detection of resistance in bacteria. The system is based on tiny, functionalized cantilevers that bend due to binding of sample material. In the analyses, the system was able to detect resistance in a sample quantity equivalent to 1–10 bacteria.
Researchers at the ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½ have discovered a molecular mechanism that plays a central role in intact long-term memory. This mechanism is also involved in physiological memory loss in old age.
The Covid-19 pandemic has meant that a number of special anniversaries couldn’t be properly celebrated in 2020. The ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½ was also forced to cancel the ceremony to mark its 560th Dies Academicus. Nevertheless, the university is honoring a number of its scientists and researchers for their outstanding achievements.
For the first time, a study demonstrated that loud night-time noise from airplanes can trigger a cardiovascular death within two hours. Researchers from the ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½, the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) and partners compared mortality data with acute night-time noise exposure around Zurich airport between 2000 and 2015. The results of the study have been published in the European Heart Journal.
The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) has awarded seven new assistant professorships to the ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½. Among others, the projects supported in connection with the Eccellenza program come from the fields of theoretical physics, immunopathology and psychology, and will each receive an average of about one and a half million Swiss francs.
