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 […]
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 […]
Web inventor Timothy Berners-Lee wins prestigious Swiss Award
The brains behind the creation of the world wide web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee has been awarded prestigious Gottleib Duttweiler award. According to the institute, the award recognises people who have made “outstanding contributions to the well-being of the wider community”. Previous winners include: Václav Havel, president of the former Czechoslovakia; and Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales. […]
Swiss precision in space
As the world celebrates the remarkable landing of the robotic Philae lander on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko ten years after it was launched from earth, scientists are looking forward to analysing the first panoramic and 3D shots of the comet’s landscape taken from ground level. The pictures will be taken by seven cameras developed in Neuchâtel by […]
The Human Brain Project: a very expensive headache
On Reflection is an occasional column contributed by a reader. The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily shared or supported in any way by Le News. By now, most of us have heard of the Human Brain Project, whose aim is to simulate the complete human brain using supercomputers. The […]
Geneva wins prestigious energy award
For the second time running, Geneva has won the Gold European Energy Award (EEA) for its visionary energy policies. Considered the most prestigious distinction of its kind for European cities and issued every four years, the award recognizes Geneva’s performance with a top rating of 82% of renewable energy initiatives compared to 77% in 2010, […]
CERN agrees open access to research with American Physical Society
The American Physical Society (APS), and CERN have agreed that all CERN-authored articles published in the APS journal collection are to be Open Access. CERN Director General Rolf Heuer called the agreement “A very important step towards global Open Access for a global discipline”. Thanks to agreement, articles will be available free of charge for […]
Travel from your couch with a drone
You can now travel around Switzerland – and neighbouring France and Italy – via a recently established site, TravelByDrone.com, that allows you to visit a town, prepare a hike, or plan a boat trip or skiing holiday, by first viewing the area from the air. The site currently comprises over 3,500 quality drone videos by […]
Geneva University submarine exploration
Geneva University and its partners have completed a two-week expedition – Terra Submersa – to explore Greece’s underwater past and the prehistoric landscapes in the Gulf of Nauplio. Operating from the MS Tûranor Planet Solar, the world’s largest solar catamaran, archeologists mapped the sea floor and uncovered Paleolithic and Neolithic remains dating back 36,000 years.
Swiss search engine jumps for moon
Swisscows.com – Switzerland’s answer to Google – is beginning to give the California search engine a run for its money. Since launched by Hulbee AG in June, it has attracted 400,000 users. Responding to Google’s market hold, Swisscows presents itself as the first intelligent “answer engine” based on semantic information recognition coupled with intuitive search […]
