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...