A few years back, two pilots, Bertrand Piccard, the famed Swiss balloonist and André Borschberg, a businessman and former Swiss Air Force pilot, presented the world with the first ultra long distance solar aircraft: Solar Impulse 1. Following the record breaking 26-hour non-stop trip of Solar Impulse 1 in 2010, the Swiss pair and […]
From School to University : a giant leap?
The IB, A-Level, Maturité and Bac are all stepping stones to university but how adequate are they in preparing students for what is to come? Does one serve that purpose better than others? These different diplomas offer different styles of studies but are equally valid in terms of academic level. The Maturité trains students to […]
Madonna visits Switzerland
The American musician Madonna graces the slopes of Gstaad, the 3000 metre glacier in the canton of Vaud and shares her photos via twitter. Lacklustre snow conditions don’t seem to have dampened her enthusiasm. Switzerland inspires even those who have it all it seems.
The negative effect of negative Swiss interest rates
On 18 December 2014 the Swiss National Bank (SNB) introduced negative interest rates of -0.25% on sight deposit account balances over a certain amount – sight deposit accounts are those where funds can be withdrawn immediately without restriction. It also shifted its target range for 3 month LIBOR to a range of -0.25 to -0.75%. The […]
Desperately seeking Susy – understanding supersymmetry
The human eye sees very little. Our eyes can see only 0.0035% of the electromagnetic spectrum, ranging from high frequency gamma rays to low frequency radio waves. To really understand the natural world and cosmos we need technology that takes us beyond our natural sensory limits. We also need to make clever guesses about how […]
From Silent Night to Explosive Night: A blaze of violence in Zurich
It is Christmas time! Time for Christmas carols, Christmas cookies and beautiful street decorations. However, Christmas time in Zürich this year seems to be a little different: On 13 December about 200 often masked rioters armed with crude weapons including iron bars plundered and vandalised the centre of Switzerland’s biggest city, causing significant damage to […]
Clock ticking backwards for Swiss nuclear energy?
Switzerland wants out of its nuclear energy programme as soon as the life expectancy of its reactors is reached. With evident agreement between the political center and left wing, the first nuclear installation to be shut down in 2031 will be the oldest one, Beznau I (commissioned 1969). By 2034, the Swiss will have gradually […]
Palestine Geneva summit: Once again to the breach
GENEVA Over the past several years, Geneva has been re-asserting itself as a neutral mediation centre, either formal or informal, for conflicts such as Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine and the Iranian nuclear issue. Back in 2003, it also hosted an Israeli-Palestinian peace effort known as the Geneva Initiative, which outlined possible venues for genuine reconciliation. The […]
Climate change in Switzerland; plus newspapers for young people.
Following this week’s compromise Lima Climate Change agreement, which basically keeps the global initiative on track with governments promising to bring forward their commitments until next year’s pivotal Paris conference, the question now is whether this will finally mean real action. It’s taken a long time for politicians and select business interests to acknowledge that […]
Only the young can master a new language: myth or truth?
Popular wisdom has long held it that the younger you are the easier it is to learn a foreign language. Whether expat or immigrant, parents of small children have long noticed, often to their own chagrin, how quickly their offspring become bilingual. It’s a phenomenon the Swiss have long exploited in order to preserve the […]
