Dec 22, 2016 | Keeping tabs on aging process
Switzerland’s overhead power lines are showing signs of old age and can be damaged by power surges. But how long will they actually last? Empa researchers have developed a tool to keep tabs on the aging process. This...
Dec 15, 2016 | Empa know-how for the «Magic Tent»
As of December 12th the All-in-One sleep system developed by «Polarmond», a start-up company, is ready to hit the shelves. Thanks to its special humidity management feature and sophisticated temperature regulation,...
Dec 13, 2016 | Scarves and watches made with Empa technology
The gold thread developed at Empa is having extensive repercussions. Hot on the heels of a dessous collection being refined with the new technology, scarves and luxury watches are now also available. A long journey for...
Dec 8, 2016 | «Swiss Resources Forum» at Empa
Over 100 participants gathered on December 1, 2016 at the Empa AKADEMIE in Dübendorf to discuss the need for a resource revolution in Switzerland.
Dec 8, 2016 | Production time reduced
Aerogel is the perfect material for many insulation purposes. It is heat-resistant up to 600 degrees, ultralight, non-toxic – and provides excellent thermal insulation. Only its complicated and expensive production...
Dec 7, 2016 | New treatment methods for blood poisoning
Magnets instead of antibiotics could provide a possible new treatment method for blood infection. This involves the blood of patients being mixed with magnetic iron particles, which bind the bacteria to them after which...
Dec 2, 2016 | Innovations involving research and private sector cooperation
In the summer of 2017, the Switzerland Innovation Park Zurich will open its doors at Dübendorf airfield – and thus very close to Empa. The park provides a new platform for research, development and innovation, and aims...
Dec 2, 2016 | «Debiopharm-Inartis 2016 Challenge» won by EPFL-Empa Team
Working together with a research team from the EPF Lausanne, Empa scientists Giuseppino Fortunato, Anne Géraldine Guex and René Rossi have been awarded the «Debiopharm-Inartis Challenge» 2016 prize for their «Hello Mask»...
Nov 25, 2016 | Swiss Technology Award 2016
Congratulation! Yesterday "Mesh Mould", a partner project of NEST, won the Swiss Technology Award 2016 in the category "Inventors" at the 11th Swiss Innovation Forum in Basel. The award ceremony was attended by around...
Nov 23, 2016 | 5,000+ visitors since opening of NEST
NEST, the modular research and innovation building by Empa and Eawag, is teeming with life. Since it opened its doors in May 2016, over 5,000 visitors have flocked to see the building. The first users have set up their...
Nov 17, 2016 | Empa team solves engineering dilemma
Macroscopic crystal structures can absorb unwanted vibrations or filter noise – without any electronics or electricity whatsoever. They can be lighter and more solid than previous conventional insulating material and can...
Nov 16, 2016 | Empa PhD Symposium 2016
Am Montag, 14. November, fand der diesjährige Empa-DoktorandInnentag statt. Dieses alljährliche Symposium bietet jungen Forscherinnen und Forschern eine Bühne und die Gelegenheit, Rückmeldungen von erfahrenen Forschern...
Nov 11, 2016 | Empa-Spin-off im Start-up-Programm der ESA
An der ETH Zürich startete vor wenigen Wochen das Schweizer Business Incubation Center der Europäischen Raumfahrtbehörde ESA. Im «ESA BIC Switzerland» werden gezielt Jungunternehmen mit Bezug zu Raumfahrttechnologien...
Nov 1, 2016 | Kanton Zürich
Die Finanzdirektion des Kantons Zürich passt die steuerlichen Bestimmungen für Start-ups an und sorgt dafür, dass junge Unternehmen und ihre Investoren auch in steuerlicher Hinsicht gute Bedingungen vorfinden. An den...
Oct 28, 2016 | Erfolgreiche Start-ups und Partner der Empa
Zwei Start-ups der Empa und ein Partner im modularen Forschungs- und Innovationsgebäude NEST von Empa und Eawag stehen im Finale des diesjährigen «Swiss Technology Award», die wichtigste Auszeichnung für Innovation und...
Oct 27, 2016 | New Omega Speedmaster with Empa ceramic bezel
Empa researchers have pulled off a masterstroke of ceramics research: as of now, a dark-red ceramic bezel adorns a Swiss luxury watch – a world premiere and stunning example of top-flight materials science.
Oct 26, 2016 | Former radio transmitter site
A new measurement station for air pollution monitoring has been opened in Beromünster, Canton Lucerne, the first since 1990. The measurement station, operated by Empa and the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment is...
Oct 17, 2016 | Nanostructures against antibiotic resistance
Several peptides have an antibacterial effect – but they are broken down in the human body too quickly to exert this effect. Empa researchers have now succeeded in encasing peptides in a protective coat, which could...
Oct 6, 2016 | Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2016
Empa is delighted to acknowledge the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2016 to Bernard L. Feringa, Fraser Stoddart and Jean-Pierre Sauvage – as it made a major contribution in 2011 to a research project carried...
Oct 6, 2016 | “move” with 700-bar hydrogen station
Empa has launched Switzerland’s first hydrogen station for passenger cars on its campus in Dübendorf. With a filling pressure of 700 bars, it enables fuel-cell vehicles to be refueled in just two to three minutes. The...
Sep 29, 2016 | Rosetta mission comes to an end
For twelve years, the space probe Rosetta served mankind. The European Space Agency (ESA) mission is now drawing to a close as the probe reaches its final resting place on the target comet Tschuri on September 30, 2016....
Sep 26, 2016 | Puzzling 17th century burial
In 2013 archaeologists discovered a cemetery in use as long ago as the early Middle Ages in the Bernese Lakeland region of Switzerland. One of the bodies interred there was buried in an unusual way, and in order to...
Sep 21, 2016 | Vorbereitung auf die Zukunft der Energie
Im Rahmen des Projekts «Energiewelten» haben die Empa und der Verband Schweizerischer Elektrizitätsunternehmen eine enge Zusammenarbeit vereinbart. Durch die Verschmelzung der Energiewelten als Denkmodell mit der...
Sep 20, 2016 | Single crystal measures radioactivity
A research team at Empa and ETH Zurich has developed single crystals made of lead halide perovskites, which are able to gage radioactive radiation with high precision. Initial experiments have shown that these crystals,...
Sep 16, 2016 | Keeping wood destroying fungi at bay
Swisscom Ventures and Reto Vincenz are contributing to a seed-financing round for MycoSolutions AG, an Empa, St. Gallen, spin-off company. This start-up support should allow the new firm to break into the international...
Sep 15, 2016 | Tag der offenen Tür in St. Gallen
Die Sechstklässlerin Salome Schneider aus Oberuzwil ist die Gewinnerin des Wettbewerbs vom Tag der offenen Tür der Empa in St. Gallen. Mit ihrem Vater hatte sie alle Forschungspfade und -stationen besucht und konnte die...
Sep 6, 2016 | Explosive core
A local festival, a pleasant summer’s evening, a friendly game of boules – and suddenly a deafening bang. Not from a firework or a cracker, but from an exploding boules ball.
Sep 2, 2016 | «Reliability Science and Technology»
Empa's Reliability Science and Technology lab is set to focus on the topic of nanoscale transport phenomena and will have a new head, Michel Calame. The private lecturer of Physics at the University of Basel will take...
Aug 31, 2016 | Wasserstoffbetriebenes Kehrfahrzeug in Dübendorf
Seit Ende August reinigt ein wasserstoffbetriebenes Kehrfahrzeug die Strassen in Dübendorf. Das von der Empa mitentwickelte und überarbeitete Antriebskonzept basiert auf einer Zusammenarbeit mit dem Paul Scherrer...
Aug 23, 2016 | Ozon und Sommersmog
Der Ozongehalt der Luft hat in der Schweiz trotz erfolgreicher Massnahmen zur Luftreinhaltung im Verlauf der letzten Jahre nur wenig abgenommen. Das besagen die Auswertungen von langjährigen Messreihen des Nationalen...
Aug 22, 2016 | Tag der offenen (Labor-)Tür in St. Gallen
Seit 20 Jahren entwickelt die Empa im repräsentativen Gebäude im St. Galler «Moos» Materialien und Technologien für die Zukunft. Grund genug, um zu feiern und die Türen für das Publikum zu öffnen. Knapp 4000 Personen...
Aug 18, 2016 | Future mobility
On 18 August 2016 the municipality of St Gallen commissioned the first public rapid e-charging station, located on the Empa premises. This gives the drivers of electric vehicles the ability to recharge their cars within...
Aug 9, 2016 | Satellite being X-Rayed at Empa
The much-travelled European research satellite Eureca was taken from the aerospace exhibition in the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne and loaded onto a truck before setting off on yet another adventure. The...
Jul 25, 2016 | Sommercamp an der Empa in Dübendorf
In der Woche vom 18. bis zum 22. Juli wurden an der Empa in Dübendorf Raketen und Brückenmodelle gebaut, Wald von Abfall befreit, Stickstoffeis hergestellt, Feuer gelöscht - und das für einmal nicht nur von Forschern und...
Jul 21, 2016 | Empa researcher to act as co-editor of NanoImpact
Empa researcher Bernd Nowack is one of the editors-in-chief of the scientific journal NanoImpact, which was launched in May as the first journal to focus solely on nanosafety research. It aims to cover and bring together...
Jul 17, 2016 | Empa researchers develop new flame retardants
Flame retardants are invisible assistants in car seats, gasket sealants, furniture and even in aeroplanes. However, their ingredients are not always harmless. Empa researchers developed three innovative flame retardants...
Jul 1, 2016 | Swiss Administration: role model for energy efficiency
On 29 June the Swiss Federal Office of Energy hosted an information event at Empa presenting the annual report 2015 of the role model function of the Federal Administration for energy efficiency (“Energie-Vorbild Bund”)....
Jun 30, 2016 | How water droplets adhere to surfaces
An international team of researchers headed by the University of Zurich and with participation of Empa has developed a system that enables them to electrically switch back and forth between adhesion and stiction (static...
Jun 23, 2016 | Cooperation with Korea
Cooperation between Empa and the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) in the field of nano-safety research has been intensified further by the inauguration of a KRISS “branch” in St. Gallen. On 23...
Jun 22, 2016 | NEST-Unit "Vision Wood"
At the end of April, a construction crane pushed the first residential units into NEST just like they were a set of drawers. The new unit, called “Vision Wood”, is true to its name, as it contains a great deal of that...