science wire

Wood is robust and versatile. But even the best material has its limits. Empa researchers are thus looking to transform wood into a high-tech material and broaden the range of applications for this natural resource. The trick: they give wood additional, unexpected properties. Over the millennia, our ancestors have improved the properties of wood by developing varnishes, paints or other methods.

Enzymes from fungi, bacteria and plants render wood resistant to decomposing and pathogenic microorganisms.

Wood has one particular property that tends to cause problems: it swells when it gets wet. As this occurs according to strict rules, however, a team of Empa researchers is looking to produce wooden building components that move automatically.

Water causes wood to rot and weather, which looks unsightly and gradually destroys the material. Empa researchers have now developed a strategy to combat this.

For centuries, wood has been a popular light, solid building material. Moreover, it is a renewable and easily recyclable raw material - with one drawback: wood burns. But this doesn't necessarily have to be that way, as researchers from Empa demonstrate. Ecological construction is all the rage. Aspects such as the sustainability and energy efficiency of buildings are crucial.

Bamboo is a feat of nature. After all, this member of the grass family contains fibers that are as strong as steel.

About 18 months ago, Davide Bleiner took over the helm at Empa's Laboratory for Advanced Analytical Technologies.

There will be a new face at the helm of the Empa "Technology and Society" laboratory, with Patrick Wäger heading up the department from May 2016.

Mistakes can happen when estimating emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. Researchers from Empa, the University of Berne and ETH Zurich funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation have developed a method to independently validate national statistics. The signatory countries of the Kyoto Protocol and the new Paris Agreement have committed to reduce global warming.

Varnishes protect works of art and wooden instruments from environmental damage. However, until recently, little research had been carried out into the effects of varnish on the sound of violins. Empa researchers have now investigated this relationship and have published their initial findings. Leonardo da Vinci's oil painting "Mona Lisa" looks rather gloomy with its dark green and brown colours.

In more than three years of work european scientists finally made future lighting technology ready to market. They developed flexible lighting foils that can be produced roll-to-roll - much like newspapers are printed. These devices pave the path towards cheaper solar cells and LED lighting panels. The project named TREASORES was led by Empa scientist Frank Nüesch and combined knowhow from nine companies and six research institutes in five european countries.

Thanks to a close collaboration between the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa), SR Technics and the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA), Switzerland is setting

Noise is disturbing and can be harmful to health. Empa researchers have now succeeded in simulating road noise by means of «auralisation». The aim is to make noise audible along traffic routes that are merely in the planning stage - and thus include countermeasures at the same time. Auralisation is understood as making audible those sound events that will only occur in the future.

Crystals of biominerals like the ones in bone or teeth oftentimes occur only either in a leftor right-handed form, which relate to each other like an object and its mirror image. How this "chirality" is conferred to these otherwise achiral crystals is poorly understood. Now an international team of researchers led by Empa scientists has shown for the first time how chiral biomolecules imprint their handedness on crystal surfaces at a molecular level, as they report in "Nature Chemistry".

Fuel cells generate electrical energy through a chemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen. To obtain clean energy, the splitting of water into its components of hydrogen and oxygen is critical. Researchers at Empa and the University of Basel study how sunlight can be used for this purpose. The scientific journal Chemical published their latest results.

Generous research funding is allocated to Empa from the EU's budget.

Bolivia's cities suffer from severe air pollution. A Swiss project entitled Aire Limpio is helping to improve their air quality.

Just how safe, sustainable and economical are hydrogen-powered vehicles? This was the question that around 300 experts and members of the interested public addressed during a conference held at Empa.

At the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos a key topic is focusing on the "Digital Transformation of Industries". The fourth industrial revolution is imminent. It goes by the name "Industry 4.0" and is expected to fundamentally change, among other things, the production methods and business models currently used in industrialized countries.

The media company «Thomson Reuters» has included Empa researcher Bernd Nowack in its list of «Highly Cited Researchers» of 2015. Nowack is one of 132 researchers worldwide who have been honoured in this way in the field of «Environment/Ecology». The Thomson Reuters list includes a total of 79 active researchers from Switzerland.

NEST is getting some meat on the bone: On January 12, 2016, construction work got underway on the office unit Meet2Create.

The major fire in Steckborn on December 21, 2015, was probably started by a lithium polymer battery in a model car, as the Thurgau cantonal police department recently announced.

Bernd Nowack was recently admitted by Thomson Reuters, a provider of scientific online data-bases, to the circle of the world's most influential scientists in the field of environmental scienc-es. The Empa researcher investigates the environmental aspects of nanoparticles. A visit to St. Gallen.