The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) published a study late last week which ranked countries on innovation. The top five in the 2015 ranking are Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United States. Switzerland has now held top place for five years in a row. The study, undertaken by WIPO, the INSEAD […]
First solar-powered world flight imminent
Solar impulse, the 100% sun-powered Swiss aircraft, is nearing the starting blocks of its around the world flight. After recently completing three training flights in Abu Dhabi, the start point, the team is ready and predicts take-off on 7 March 2015. Back in 2014 the Solar Impulse team, after demonstrating that they could fly their […]
Solar Impulse 2: going to sleep at the wheel
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 […]
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 […]
Fusion: Creating a star
LAUSANNE Switzerland is punching above its weight in its participation in a project to build the world’s largest fusion reactor. The project, known as ITER (formerly International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), is designed to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion power – it should be able to produce ten times the amount of energy […]