Making opaque materials totally transparent

Published:02.07.18 — EPFL researchers have found a way to make materials that are normally opaque to sound waves completely transparent. Their system involves placing acoustic relays at strategic locations so that sound waves can propagate at a constant amplitude – regardless of what may lie in their path. This method could eventually be used to make it possible to hide objects like submarines.

EPFL uses blockchain technology to secure e-voting systems

Published:29.06.18 — An e-voting system based on blockchain technology has just been tested at EPFL. The system serves as a digital guarantee, ensuring that competing sides have faith in the voting process. This open-source technology will soon be available on the Center for Digital Trust’s software platform.

Center for Artificial Muscles inaugurated this morning in Neuchâtel

Published:27.06.18 — The Center for Artificial Muscles was inaugurated this morning at Microcity in the presence of Jean-Nathanaël Karakash, the Neuchâtel State Councilor for the Economy and Social Action, and Martin Vetterli, the President of EPFL. The Center will allow EPFL – working first with the Bern University Hospital (Inselspital) and then with the Zurich University Hospital – to develop a less invasive cardiac assistance system for treating heart failure.

Striking the right balance between wind energy and biodiversity

Published:25.06.18 — EPFL researchers have developed a simulator that can calculate the performance of wind farms over 30 years while also factoring in the need to preserve local biodiversity. Tested at a site in the Carpathian Mountains in Romania, the simulator could be applied to the Swiss Jura region, which has a similar landscape.

Tracking cancer-cell development with “drinkable” electronic sensors

Published:22.06.18 — Thanks to an unorthodox approach being proposed by EPFL researchers, patients may soon be able to track their illness simply by drinking a solution containing millions of tiny electronic sensors disguised as bacteria.

Tall trees are crucial for the survival of the Amazon rainforest

Published:21.06.18 — An EPFL study has shown that Amazonian trees measuring more than 30 meters are more resistant to precipitation variations than other, shorter trees. This information is key to more accurately predicting how the rainforest, which is an important component of the carbon cycle, will react to climate change.

The cells that control the formation of fat

Published:20.06.18 — A study led by researchers in Switzerland has revealed a new cell type that resides in the body’s fat depots where it can actively suppress fat cell formation. This discovery was made using single-cell transcriptomics and opens entirely new avenues to combat obesity and related diseases such as diabetes.