science wire

Chris Tucci ed at the University of Melbourne How to make radical product development happen within the firm?

An article by Emmanuel Rey of the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST) is published in the last issue of the Spanish journal "Revista de Edificación" (RE). This contribution deals with the topic of sustainable urban housing with, as a basis, the experiences encountered notably during the development of the Ecoparc district in Neuchâtel (Switzerland).

Gene regulatory networks play a vital role in organismal development and function by controlling gene expression. With the availability of complete genome sequences, several novel experimental and computational approaches have recently been developed which promise to significantly enhance our ability to comprehensively characterize these regulatory networks by enabling the identification of respectively their genomic or regulatory state components, or the interactions between these two in unprecedented detail.

Inhibitory Plasticity Balances Excitation and Inhibition in Sensory Pathways and Memory Networks. Cortical neurons receive balanced excitatory and inhibitory synaptic currents.

A team of researchers has improved the muscle structure and stamina of mice and nematodes by reducing the function of a natural inhibitor, suggesting treatments for age-related or genetically caused muscle degeneration are within reach. If they weren't held back by the effect of a natural inhibitor, our muscles would be stronger, more powerful and better formed than they are in reality.

Ripples and Layers in Ultrathin MoS2 Membranes. Single-layer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is a newly emerging two-dimensional semiconductor with a potentially wide range of applications in the fields of nanoelectronics and energy harvesting.

In sites scattered across the Earth, the extraction and processing of uranium for nuclear fuel and weapons has left aquifers contaminated. Immobilizing the contaminant through the action of bacteria has been considered a potential solution to limit its transport away from the contamination site. A recent article by Professor Rizlan Bernier-Latmani and collaborators, published last week in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, points to new unknowns and paints a more complex picture.

Increased expression of sirtuin proteins has been shown to enhance lifespan in several organisms.

Marc Gruber's recent paper entitled "Escaping the Prior Knowledge Corridor: What shapes the Number and Variety of Market Opportunities identified before Market Entry of Technology Start-ups?" (with. I.C. MacMillan, J. Thompson) has been accepted for publication in Organization Science.

The co-edited volume "Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research 2010" (Zacharakis, A. et al. Babson College, Babson Park, MA, 2010, has been published.

Grégoire Courtine has been appointed as Associate Professor of Life Sciences at the School of Life Sciences (SV) .

Up to ten autonomous flying robots flock like birds in a real-sky experiment. A flock of birds suddenly taking off and flying in formation, acting like one entity, is a stunning and complex communication effort.

After scanning the thought patterns of its driver, the car of tomorrow will be able to predict its next move.

No less than 25000 people travel between the University of Lausanne and EPFL in the week, making the two campuses the canton's second largest city in the daytime.

The scientists working at EPFL didn't wait for Netvibes to get famous on connecting through a collaborative Web 2.0 platform.

Pyrazinamide—Old TB Drug Finds New Target More than 60 years after the discovery of pyrazinamide (PZA), a drug that is a mainstay of combination therapy for tuberculosis (TB), researchers have finally uncovered a mechanism of action that is convincing and novel. Stewart Cole (UPCOL - Chair of Microbial Pathogenesis ) comment (Science Perspective) on resent finding by Shi et al.

EPFL's Laboratory of Composite and Polymer Technology is participating in HIVOCOMP, an EU program to develop innovative materials for the automotive industry.

Do better with less. That is the challenge the researchers from EPFL have set for themselves. Their specialty: manufacturing solar cells that are one thousand times thinner than conventional cells.

The Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research is dedicating its 2011 Symposium to the famous Hallmarks of Cancer.

EPFL is taking part in the 2011 World Engineers' Convention which take place from September 4 to 9. Education, transportation and mobility, and energy storage are among the topics to be addressed.

One of the biggest financing rounds for furthering the work of a young researcher has just been completed at EPFL.

EPFL has designed an architectural project intended to welcome the audience and performers at the St Prex Classics festival.

A recent report shows that cyber attackers infiltrated the UN and U.S. government agencies.

Luca Ortelli is the new director of the Institute of Architecture and the City in EPFL's School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC).

A research platform partially funded by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy has been established at EPFL.

The standard established by the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels (RSB) at EPFL has recently been recognized as proof of compliance with the EU biofuel's mandate.

On Friday, July 8, 2011, the ETH board announced the nominations and internal promotions of eight professors, including a professor who has been appointed to the Bertarelli Foundation chair in EPFL's Center for Neuroprosthetics.

A study commissioned by PostBus Switzerland Ltd. and carried out in three EPFL laboratories identifies the needs and expectations of the Swiss public regarding "combined" mobility, which curre

A group of EPFL students is returning from Beijing with the third place prize from the international iCAN micro- and nanotechnology contest.

Today, at the HAVEit Final Event, 17 partners from the European automotive industry and scientific community, including EPFL, are set to demonstrate the highly automated future of driving.

Imagine you're in a museum, and you can point your smartphone camera to a painting or an object in an exhibit and instantly get additional information about what you're looking at.

A European research program is studying the feasibility of a new kind of individual transport that avoids traffic jams by taking to the skies.

A doctoral student from EPFL's Laboratory of Robotics Systems has developed a concept for modular industrial robots, based on the technology of parallel robots, whose precision is expressed in nanometers.

The arrival of the MIR submersibles on the shores of Lake Geneva kicks off the Elemo scientific campaign.

Launched today, the ecocloud consortium brings several EPFL laboratories together to tackle the skyrocketing electricity demands of Internet data processing centers.