science wire

EPFL research in atomic scale magnetism could play a role in the development of new materials that could permit lossless electricity transmission. Might it one day be possible to transmit electricity from an offshore wind turbine to land-based users without any loss of current? Materials known as "high temperature" superconductors (even though they must be maintained at -140°C!), which can conduct electricity without any losses, were supposed to make this dream a reality.

Fukushima: EPFL hactivist empowers the public to participate in gathering radiation fallout data. While in Japan, Robin Scheilbler has been active in a Do-it-yourself computer engineering space called Hackerspace Tokyo.

Typesafe, a company created just a year ago at EPFL and headquartered in the Science Park, has raised $14 million to commercialize a new programming language called Scala.

A team of scientists has developed an algorithm that can identify the source of an epidemic or information circulating within a network, a method that could also be used to help with criminal investigations. Investigators are well aware of how difficult it is to trace an unlawful act to its source. The job was arguably easier with old, Mafia-style criminal organizations, as their hierarchical structures more or less resembled predictable family trees.

The French company Parrot, world leader in wireless peripherals for mobile phones and already in the market for consumer drones, acquired for 5 million Swiss Francs a majority share in senseFly, a start-up from the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at EPFL.

Nitto Denko Corporation, one of Japan's largest materials manufacturers, has announced today the establishment of a research and development unit in EPFL's Innovation Square in Lausanne, Switzerland.

By interacting with the radioactive waste and the materials used to contain it, underground microorganisms may affect the safety of nuclear waste repositories, for better or for worse. Underground, time appears to stand still. That is one of the reasons why deep geological formations are considered the safest place to dispose of nuclear waste.

The system developed by QGel allows for new tests of anti-cancer medication and novel experimentation in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Cancer cells and stem cells can now be cultivated in 3 dimensions to serve in various experiments to great advantage for researchers. This matrix, commercialized by the start-up QGel, which is based in the scientific park at Ecublens, offers the cells a similar environment to a living organism and is adaptable to the needs of the researcher.

The Montreux Jazz Festival and EPFL presented on June 19th the Montreux Jazz Heritage Lab, an interactive and inhabitable space that allows the user to plunge into 45 years of jazz, blues and rock concerts.

Torrential storms can wreak havoc on train tracks. An EPFL laboratory has been commissioned by the French national train network, SNCF, to reproduce the consequences of extreme weather events at a very small scale.

While it's exploring confined, dangerous or cluttered zones, the flying robot "Airburr" isn't fazed by crashes or falls.

Dye solar cells (DSSC) from EPFL enter the public market. Logitech chose this technology to power its new flagship product.

People incapable of reading and writing will have access to text messages from now on. A system using vocal synthesis, icons and management allows people to send and read text messages by those normally unable to read and write.

Christophe Ancey warns against relying blindly on the output of computational avalanche models to evaluate the safety of alpine areas. Recent events prove him right. Christophe Ancey, head of EPFL's Laboratory for Environmental Hydraulics, is an expert in modeling avalanches and other environmental flows.

Abionic, an EPFL spin-off, has just brought its first round of financing to a close and was selected yesterday by Red Herring as one of Europe's 100 most innovative companies.

Engineering the Nervous System to Improve Sensation, Cognition, and Mobility Research in biotechnology, microelectronics, and neural implants as well as advances in our understanding of the brain are changing our approaches to treating disability.

Philippe Wieser will conduct a research project that studies the value chain performances Supported by the general management of Nestlé, the project entitled " A convergent approach on sustainable va

EPFL scientists have teased out the role that a protein known as SMRT plays in regulating the production of fat cells. And in the process, they made another, unexpected discovery; this protein also plays a critical role in the division of cells that ultimately store fat. How does the body produce fat cells? EPFL scientists have uncovered the role of SMRT, a protein involved in regulating this phenomenon.

Anu Wadhwa has been awarded a grant by the SNF to study uncertainty in the venture capital investements practices in the cleantech sector.

EPFL chemists have shown how the three-dimensional shape of an antibiotic changes when it is in an aqueous environment. This could lead to a better understanding of how drugs interact with biological molecules. Like a key inserted into a lock, the molecules in drugs bind with and act upon biomolecules.

The paper Plenoptic Spherical Sampling has been accepted for presentation at 19th International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP) The paper presents a novel sampling scheme that permits an efficient representation of the 4D light field in free space.

Emanuele Strano, a doctoral candidate at LASIG, authored a study published in Nature's Scientific Reports to examine how a group of Italian villages evolved into suburbs outside Milan today. Such a study may eventually help urban planners optimize future developments. The magazine " Scientific American " devoted a popularization article to this study.

Ferroelectric Nanowires : an Investigation in Synthesis, Characterization, Functionality, and Modeling of Finite Size Effects.

RedOx Stability of Anode Supported Solid Oxide Fuel Cells. Thèse EPFL, no 4893 (2011). Dir. Jan Van herle, Aïcha Hessler-Wyser.

A Well-Defined Ni Pincer Catalyst for Cross Coupling of Non-Activated Alkyl Halides and Direct C-H Alkylation.

Virulence Regulator EspR of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Is a Nucleoid-Associated Protein. The principal virulence determinant of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the ESX-1 protein secretion system, is positively controlled at the transcriptional level by EspR. Using EspR-specific antibodies in ChIP-Seq experiments (chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by ultra-high throughput DNA sequencing) the group of Stewart Cole (Global Health Institute) show that EspR binds to at least 165 loci on the Mtb genome.

Insights into Intrastrand Cross-Link Lesions of DNA from QM/MM Molecular Dynamics Simulations. DNA damages induced by oxidative intrastrand cross-links have been the subject of intense research during the past decade.

Cell-type-specific β2 adrenergic receptor clusters identified using photo-activated localization microscopy are not lipid raft related, but depend on actin cytoskeleton integrity.

A series of successes for EPFL start-ups. By the end of a successful round of financing, two new businesses founded in the Science Park of the School, Kandou and Aleva, had raised, respectively, 10 and 4 million francs.

Evidence for a Peierls phase-transition in a three-dimensional multiple charge-density waves solid. Recent research on low dimensional solids lead to the discovery of the frist two-dimensional material, graphene. While a mono-dimensional chain of atoms was never produced, it can be found as a substructure in several materials.

Researchers at the EPFL have discovered rules that relate the genes that a neuron switches on and off, to the shape of that neuron, its electrical properties and its location in the brain. The discovery, using state-of-the-art informatics tools, increases the likelihood that it will be possible to predict much of the fundamental structure and function of the brain without having to measure every aspect of it.

Nanopore Detection of Single Molecule RNAP-DNA Transcription Complex. In the past decade, a number of single-molecule methods have been developed with the aim of investigating single protein and nucleic acid interactions.

When goods are produced, water is used in the process. Even though this water is "virtual," tracking its import and export gives a crucial indication of the evolution of world water resources. An international team of hydrologists has studied the global trade of virtual water, and is publishing an article this week in the journal PNAS outlining a number of striking conclusions.

More precision and less cost for endoscopic surgeries: the tool developed by DistalMotion, a spin-off of the EPFL, will allow surgeons to reproduce their exact movements.

The first prototype of a new, ultra-compact motor that will allow small satellites to journey beyond Earth's orbit is just making its way out of the EPFL laboratories where it was built.

To alter natural waterways is to take a serious risk of endangering species living on the entire length of a river. In a joint project, scientists from EPFL, EAWAG and Princeton University have modeled the flow of organisms living along river networks. Their research will be published this week in the journal PNAS.

IDIAP announced the start this month of the Biometrics Evaluation and Testing (BEAT) project funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) with the EPFL as a full partner, through the Security and Cryptography Laboratory (LASEC) of Vaudenay.

Journal of Biogeography acceptance - The mid-Holocene vegetation of the Mediterranean region and southern Europe, and comparison with the present day. Authors: Pamela M. Collins, Basil A. S. Davis and Jed O. Kaplan Collins , Davis , and Kaplan map differences in Mediterranean and southern European vegetation beween 6,000 years ago and the present.

In the context of a landscape genetics research project dedicated to the study of adaptation of an Alpine plant species to its environment, a team of LASIG's scientists were last Friday on the top of les Rochers-de-Naye.

A novel concept for optical spectroscopy. The group of Theo Lasser (Laboratoire d'optique biomédicale LOB) present a novel concept for optical spectroscopy called nonlinear correlation spectroscopy (NLCS). NLCS analyses coherent field fluctuations of the second and third harmonic light generated by diffusing nanoparticles.

Bicyclic Peptide Inhibitor Reveals Large Interface with a Protease Target.

A new method to automatically generate computer software components that are guaranteed to behave correctly. Researchers at EPFL discovered a new method to automatically generate computer software components that are guaranteed to behave correctly. Among the benefits of this line of research is making software development easier and making our computing infrastructure less vulnerable to crashes and hangs.