They lead light and electricity, are smell-reducing and biocompatible – the functional fibers, much sought after in medicine, industry, fashion and sport. Until they are, however, ready for commercial application, some more research and development are still needed. Therefore, specialists from the textile industry meet every two years at Empa, in order to discuss and exchange current research advances and network with each other. This year the theme of the Empa Textile Conference was: “Development of functional fibers for the well-being of people”.

In co-operation with industry, Empa investigates polymers, which improve the flow characteristics of concrete. Molecules with a size of only a few nanometers can improve the quality of exposed concrete and open up new architectural construction possibilities.

A milestone for the «Clean Engine Vehicle» (CEV) developed by Empa and the ETH Zurich! The gas-fuelled automobile received the Innovation Prize for environmentally friendly mobility awarded by the German gas industry. The award, which was presented on October 17th in Berlin, is accompanied by prize money of €12,000 and honors innovative new ideas involving natural gas as a source of energy.

Empa’s yearly PhD Symposium, a part of the PhD Students’ Program, has almost become a tradition. This year as well, the October 19, 2006 Symposium offered a varied program consisting of lectures and discussions in five areas of research emphasis at Empa, poster sessions, and a guest lecture by Swiss Nobel prize winner, emeritus Professor Richard R. Ernst, whose presence will no doubt make this year’s presentation a memorable one. At the conclusion of the Symposium day, the authors of the best posters and lectures received prizes, and Empa’s Research Award was awarded for the fourth time. A doctoral student at Empa reports the following.

The Empa Research Prize, first presented in 2003, was awarded on October 19th for the fourth time on the occasion of the PhD Symposium which this year as usual was organized by students completing their doctoral projects. Empa’s Research Committee evaluated a number of Master’s theses, doctoral dissertations and scientific publications before selecting the outstanding works of two young researchers, Ruben Maeder and Enrico Koerner for the award.

When the provision of a scientific or technical service becomes profitable, then researchers metamorphose into entrepreneurs and often establish a spin-off company. This is the path followed by Paul Raschle, for many years Empa’s resident microbiological expert and consultant in the field of civil engineering and cultural assets. Since the beginning of this month his newly founded company «Dr. Paul Raschle – Microbiological Expertise» has been offering expert advice to, for example, civil engineering professionals in dealing with unwanted organic infestation or damage due to fungal infection and other microorganisms.

On October 19, the starting pistol to a special kind of „Tour de Suisse“ will sound Empa’s traveling exhibition „Empa on the road“ will visit this year five technically oriented Universities of Applied Sciences. The exhibition aims to network Research, Academics, Economy and Politics and through it intensify the collaboration among Swiss High Tech Industry, and in particular small and medium enterprises, and other institutions of the Swiss educational, research and innovation scene. It aims also to increase and strengthen the transfer of new technology from applied research – the „ trade mark“ of Empa – to more marketable innovations.

The Swiss building sector spends too little on research and development – this was the message at a conference held at the Empa Academy in Dübendorf on 20 September. In the quest for solutions, over 70 representatives from business, various universities, research institutes and federal authorities teamed up to launch the new Swiss Construction Technology Platform (SCTP).

Six Nordic Combined athletes from the Swiss national squad have spent the past few days as guinea pigs in a climate chamber at the Empa in St. Gall, sweating in the name of science. Their efforts will assist researchers to learn more about thermophysiology, the aim being to develop better functional textiles. These new materials will help athletes, both at hobby and top level, to achieve their best performances as they «sweat blood».

In the course of the festivities in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the High Altitude Research Station Jungfraujoch the Commission for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics of the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SC | NAT), has awarded this year’s Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Award to Empa staff member Stefan Reimann and to Yasmine Calisesi of the International Space Institute (ISSI) at Berne.

Our daily lives are influenced by tiny nanoparticles. These small units are present in such common products as artificial hip joints, metal cake containers, ties, bicycles or holograms, to name a few. At the recent Nano Publi Fair in St. Gallen, EMPA together with 13 Nanotechnology firms and organizations exhibited and expounded to students and the public at large the opportunities and risks of nanotechnology.

For centuries, the perfect tone of a Stradivari violin, such as the one played by Anne Sophie Mutters at the recent Lucerne festival, fascinated many music lovers. At the last Empa science forum in late August 2006, two scientists and a violin maker took the audience on the lookout for the secret of Antonio Stradivari.

Just pull on a T-shirt to measure and record your heart activity, instead of your doctor having to wire you up to a machine – one of those simple but brilliant ideas…. The jury at the CTI Medtech-Awards in Bern yesterday thought so too and honored the project with this year’s prize, worth CHF 10,000. Empa’s work in developing the T-shirt with integrated electrodes, in collaboration with various industrial partners, was selected from over forty other entries for the prize. The system enables the electrocardiogram (ECG) signals to be recorded wirelessly so it can be used for the long term monitoring of heart patients.

«Most discoveries are made by chance. Our aim is to make intentional, controlled changes to a material’s properties, but still leave enough freedom for things to happen by chance.» This is how Anke Weidenkaff, head of Empa’s Solid State Chemistry and Analyses  Laboratory since May 1st, describes her method of developing new functional materials for energy conversion and environmental technology.

On Friday, 23 June, Empa hosted the first ever NanoConvention. Around 200 guests with an interest in nanotechnology took up the invitation to discuss the «Key technologies of the 21st century» and their impact on science, the economy, health, the environment and society, at the Kursaal in Berne.

Until recently tin-lead solders were extensively used for connectivity purposes in the electronic industry. However, since on July 1, 2006, a new European Community law forbidding the use of lead in electronic equipment became effective, Empa researchers have been busy helping the industry to find substitute alloys and convert production techniques to new lead-free solders.

Empa's Dr. Crockett is the first President of the «Swiss Tribology» Association, founded in Geneva on June 12, 2006. This professional association supports the exchange of information and technology in the field of Tribology, which concerns itself with the study and research of friction phenomena, lubrication and the wear and tear of reciprocatively moving bodies. Founding members are Empa, ETH Zurich, University of Basel, University of Applied Sciences of Western Switzerland, the Robert Mathys Foundation, Blaser Swisslube and the Association of Swiss Lubricant Industries.

Unusual finds sometimes call for unusual methods. A case in point is the Empa’s computer tomograph, a device usually used to image mechanical parts, which has recently been used to scan the petrified skull of an ancient rhinoceros. Paleontologists at the Natural History Museum in St. Gall have been using the data acquired this way to reconstruct the head and jaws of the prehistoric pachyderm.

Our world is becoming a better place thanks to nanotechnology. That at least is the promise of marketing directors in the nanotechnology industry. Still, there are possible risks posed by these small particles to humans and the environment, and these risks have not as yet been fully evaluated and studied. Empa researchers want to help. In a research project titled „Nano Risks“, an Empa team developed intercellular tests which can quickly and in a relatively simple manner measure the toxicity or „poison level“ in biological cells. Preliminary results show that not all nanoparticles are the same in their effect and impact.

The Hanover Industrial Fair is being held this year from 24th to 28th April. Once again the ETH-Council together with the Empa, the PSI, the ETH Zurich and the EPF Lausanne are represented, with this year’s theme being «Imaging Technologies from Switzerland». The Empa is concentrating on industrial computer tomography including the microtomography of samples under load.

“Models are absolutely essential to accelerate the introduction of fuel cell technology to the marketplace,” according to Dr. Alphons Hintermann, the initiator of the Fuel Cell Research Symposium. With this statement Hintermann, outgoing Program Leader in the Swiss Federal Office for Energy (FOE), went right to the heart of the matter. The symposium, a two day event held at the Empa in Duebendorf, was an occasion for the 70-odd participating experts on fuel cells to discuss the future of these devices. In a series of thirty lectures they described their technical and scientific work in the field of fuel cell research and development and presented their latest results, as well as new instruments for creating models and testing them experimentally.

Extreme bad weather, severe flooding and other catastrophic natural events have occurred more and more frequently over the past few years – with increasingly destructive power. Are these events the harbingers of changing climate? How do environmental changes affect our flora? Do we need to modify our patterns of energy usage with the changing climate? There are many different aspects to climate change, as the speakers at the 28th Empa Science Apéro emphatically demonstrated.

Uppsala University, Sweden, has named Dr. Paul Bruehwiler, a physicist at the Empa in St. Gall as Adjunct Professor in Advanced Spectroscopy for Materials Characterization.

The Academic Council of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture of the University of Zagreb has appointed Dr. Lukas Rohr as Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, specializing in production engineering.

On the 9th and 10th of February the «1st Scientific Meeting of International PhD School Switzerland – Poland» took place in Duebendorf and Thun. This was a kind of «kick-off meeting» for the six young scientists – four ladies and two men – from Poland and Switzerland. They will be working towards their doctorates in the field of «High Performance Materials for Environmentally Oriented, Sustainable Applications». On the Polish side they will be supervised by professors drawn from the Technical Universities, while in Switzerland they will be under the wing of Empa scientists.

Some crystals such as quartz are found naturally in two mirror-image forms. Empa scientists have been able to “observe” molecules during crystal growth using the scanning tunnel microscope, and have thereby discovered why, under particular conditions, only one form of crystal grows. A report on this work will be published next week in the renowned scientific journal “Nature”.

Certain chemicals are suspected of upsetting the hormonal equilibrium of man and beast, and some of these are used as the UV-filter in body creams. Two of these sun-blocking chemical compounds have been discovered in brown trout caught in seven Swiss rivers by Empa researchers working together with the Agroscope FAW in Waedenswil. The concentrations found in the trout were about ten times higher than those found in whitefish and roach caught in Swiss lakes.

Fine particles represent one of the most significant environmental problems. Last Friday experts gathered at the Empa to discuss the current fine particle situation, new information about the creation of fine particulate matter and its effects on health and climate.