Whether on your bank's website or your telephone provider's help line, interactions between humans and chatbots have become part of our daily lives. But do we trust them? And what factors influence our trust? Researchers at the University of Basel recently examined these questions.

How can we ensure that as many Swiss households as possible adopt not only solar panels, but also their own battery to store solar energy, a heat pump, and an electric car? Researchers at the Universities of Basel and Geneva have looked into just this question.

Opinions differ on the issue of the coin: some find small change annoying, others collect coins. Rahel C. Ackermann deals with coins in her research. In this interview, the archaeologist and numismatist explains why they are worth a closer look, and how closely coins and customs are intertwined.

A research team from the University of Basel has succeeded in synthesizing simple, environmentally sensitive cells complete with artificial organelles. For the first time, the researchers have also been able to emulate natural cell-cell communication using these protocells - based on the model of photoreceptors in the eye. This opens up new possibilities for basic research and applications in medicine.

The right to vote is an important part of a democracy. But not everyone makes use of it. A researcher at the University of Basel has investigated the possible causes of this.

Over time, the English language has acquired quite a few Yiddish words, such as bagel. Some are now no longer even recognizable as such. Linguist Julia Landmann from the University of Basel has collected these terms and classified them according to their social history.

Drug tolerant bacteria pose a major challenge, because they can survive antibiotic therapies and cause recurrent infections. Researchers at the University of Basel have discovered how a dangerous human pathogen causing pneumonia uses a kind of molecular "sleeping pill" to enter a dormant state and by that persist antibiotic treatment. The findings suggest that this survival strategy may play an important role during chronic infections.

It's once again time for one of the most famous stories in the Bible. But what is actually being told - and how? We're joined by theology professor Moisés Mayordomo to take a look at the story of the birth of Jesus and how biblical narratives work.

Start-up Cimeio Therapeutics intends to pave the way for gentler and more efficient treatments for diseases such as blood cancer. The company, a spin-off of the University of Basel, has just concluded an important collaboration agreement: Cimeio is joining forces with the pharmaceutical firm Kyowa Kirin. Kyowa Kirin will be financing the collaboration with Cimeio with up to CHF 263 million.

Fampridine is currently used to improve walking ability in multiple sclerosis. A new study shows that it could also help individuals with reduced working memory, as seen in mental health conditions like schizophrenia or depression.

Glioblastoma is the most common kind of malignant brain tumor in adults. So far, no treatment has been able to make this aggressive tumor permanently disappear. The tumor cells are too varied, and the microenvironment is too tumor-friendly. Researchers at the University of Basel and University Hospital Basel have now developed an immunotherapy that not only attacks the tumor-it also turns its microenvironment against it.

Women earn more if they mostly went to school with other girls as children, report researchers at the University of Basel and Durham University. Their findings are based on data from 750,000 schoolchildren.

Researchers from Switzerland and Kenya have investigated how climate change, urbanization and malaria control measures affect the risk of malaria in Kenya. The results show that despite a general decline, the risk of malaria has increased significantly in some regions.

Tiny diatoms in the ocean are masters at capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the environment. They fix up to 20 percent of the Earth's CO2. A research team at the University of Basel has now discovered a protein shell in these algae that is necessary for efficient CO2 fixation. This groundbreaking discovery can provide ideas for bioengineering approaches to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere.