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UZH News

Archive Media Releases 2023

Article list Media Releases

  • Neuropsychology

    Physical and Social Activities Promote Healthy Brain Aging

    Physical and social activities in old age have a protective effect on the entorhinal cortex. This important area of the brain, which plays a central role in memory, is impaired in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, even in the early stages.
  • Plant Biology

    Inoculation Against Diseased Fields

    A Swiss research team has now shown that inoculating the soil with mycorrhizal fungi can help maintain or even improve yields without the use of additional fertilizers or pesticides. In a large-scale field trial, harvests increased by up to 40 percent.
  • Paleontology

    Protection of Highly Threatened Sharks and Rays Inadequate

    Research into elasmobranch functional diversity has revealed previously overlooked, critical conservation priorities, underscoring the urgent need for targeted action to safeguard the threatened species.
  • Exhibition

    Cross-Stitch Technique or Childhood Memory?

    Elaborately embroidered textiles from the Negev desert are on display at the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich from the end of November.
  • Media Transformation

    Internet Use as Everyday Religion on the Rise, Cyborgization Still in its Early Stages

    Artificial intelligence has already arrived, cyborg technologies for self-optimization have not yet. Especially among younger people, internet use is becoming an everyday digital religion. These are results of a representative survey of Swiss internet users conducted by UZH.
  • Sociology

    How Often Intra-European Migrants Send Money Back Home

    How often do European migrants in Switzerland transfer money to their home countries, and how much money do they send? People from Portugal tend to send smaller amounts more often, while people from the UK are more likely to send larger amounts but do so less frequently.
  • Media research

    Swiss Public Critical of AI in Journalism

    People in Switzerland generally have a critical attitude toward the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the production of news coverage. There is currently little appetite to consume and pay for AI-produced news.
  • Ophtalmologie

    Gentherapie: Wirksamer Transport grosser Gene

    One problem in gene therapy is that not all genes transfer equally well into the target cells. UZH researchers have now developed a flexible method to transfer large genes efficiently and without significant side effects.
  • Evolutionary Biology

    Genetics of Attraction: Mate Choice in Fruit Flies

    Genetic quality or genetic compatibility? What do female fruit flies prioritize when mating? UZH researchers show that both factors are important at different stages of the reproductive process and that females use targeted strategies to optimize the fitness of their offspring.
  • Media Research

    News Coverage in Major Media Outlets Is Politically Balanced

    A new study by the fög shows that news coverage in the major media outlets in particular is diverse and politically balanced. While proposals from governmental authorities are more likely to be covered positively, popular initiatives are given more overall attention.
  • Evolutionary Biology

    AI Increases Precision in Plant Observation

    Researchers at UZH have used big data, machine learning and field observations in the university’s experimental garden to show how plants respond to changes in the environment.
  • Academic Year 2023

    More Master’s Students at UZH

    A total of around 27,700 people will return to or begin studying at the University of Zurich next week. Of those, 3,500 are just starting out on their university careers at the Bachelor’s level.
  • History

    Wide-Ranging Cases of Sexual Abuse in Swiss Catholic Church

    An independent team of historians was given unprecedented access to archives of the Swiss Catholic Church to investigate cases of sexual abuse within the church. The UZH researchers have now documented 1,002 cases of sexual abuse committed by Catholic clerics, church staff and members of Catholic orders that have occurred in Switzerland since the mid-20th century.
  • Scientifica 2023

    Science Draws in the Crowds

    20,000 to 30,000 visitors experienced science up close this weekend at Scientifica, Switzerland’s largest science festival. Some 1,000 researchers from the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich were on site to present their work.
  • Robotics

    Challenge Accepted: High-speed AI Drone Overtakes World-Champion Drone Racers

    EIn a milestone for artificial intelligence (AI), the AI system “Swift”, designed by UZH researchers, has beaten the world champions in drone racing – a result that seemed unattainable just a few years ago. The AI-piloted drone was trained in a simulated environment.
  • Sociology

    Many people feel their jobs are pointless

    A sociological study confirms that employees in financial, sales and management occupations are more likely to conclude that their jobs are of little use to society.
  • Pharma Research

    AI Brings Hope for Patients with Lyosomal Storage Disease

    Advances in the use of Big Data, learning algorithms and powerful computers improve research into serious metabolic disease.
  • Sports

    Women’s Soccer Rated as Highly as Men’s

    The quality of women’s vs. men’s soccer has been the subject of heated debates. Research conducted at UZH has now settled the score – with some interesting findings.
  • Physics

    New Superconductors Can Be Built Atom by Atom

    The naturally occurring topology of atoms can make it difficult to create new physical effects. One atom at a time, researchers have now successfully designed new states of matter.
  • Exhibition

    Who Sees What? Ritual Costumes from Sri Lanka, a Reflection on Encounters

    The Ethnographic Museum showcases newly acquired masks, costumes and ritual objects from Sri Lanka with the aim to foster dialogue – and critically reflect on its own history.
  • Behaviour

    Criticism with care is more persuasive

    When unethical behavior is criticized, demands are often met with defensiveness and denial. New research shows that concern for their welfare makes people more open to criticism.
  • AI language models

    GPT-3 Informs and Disinforms Us Better

    AI language model produces accurate tweets that are easier to understand, but also tweets containing disinformation that are harder to detect, according to a UZH study.
  • Dental Medicine

    How the Evolution of Tooth Enamel Tissue Unfolded

    Researchers at the UZH Center for Dental Medicine show that mutations in the Notch pathway can lead to defective structures in tooth enamel.
  • Soil Science

    Climate Change Releases Carbon Stocks Deep Underground

    Global warming is accelerating the decomposition of soil humus. It is also affecting the waxy and woody compounds – previously thought to be stable – which help plants store carbon in their leaves and roots.
  • Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies

    Climate Change: Rising Rainfall, not Temperatures, Threaten Giraffe Survival

    Giraffes in the East African savannahs are adapting surprisingly well to the rising temperatures caused by climate change. However, they are threatened by increasingly heavy rainfall.
  • Tracing Chile’s Indigenous Roots Through Genetics and Linguistics

    Researchers have reconstructed the legacy of the Mapuche, Chile’s largest indigenous community, in a quest to strengthen their representation in the history of the continent.
  • Chemie

    New Class of Antibiotics to Fight Resistant Bacteria

    Researchers have modified the chemical structure of naturally occurring peptides to develop antimicrobial molecules that bind to novel targets in the bacteria’s metabolism.
  • Johanna Spyri and Heidi archives included in the Memory of the World Register of UNESCO

    The Johanna Spyri and Heidi archives in Zurich have been added to UNESCO's Memory of the World International Register. The University of Zurich will be working with both institutions to promote the academic study of the collections.
  • Evolution of Language

    Chimpanzees Combine Calls to Communicate New Meaning

    Similar to humans, chimpanzees combine vocalizations into larger communicatively meaningful structures. UZH researchers suggest that this ability might be evolutionarily more ancient than previously thought.
  • Physiology

    Main Suppliers of Epo in the Human Body Identified

    We know Erythropoietin, or Epo for short, from doping cases. But the body also produces this vital hormone. Now, scientists have been able to identify the main producer of Epo, laying the foundation for the development of new therapies.
  • Sociology

    Misconceptions Put Women Off STEM Subjects

    Young women seem to be less drawn to degrees in science or technology. But what is putting them off? A sociological study at UZH has revealed that outdated gender stereotypes – such as supposed differences in analytical thinking – play a major role.
  • Neuroscience

    Scallop Eyes as Inspiration for New Microscope Pbjectives

    Neuroscientists have developed new objectives that enable high-resolution imaging of tissues and organs in a much wider variety of immersion media than with conventional microscope lenses.
  • Climate Change Threatens Lemurs on Madagascar

    What happens when rainy seasons becomes drier and dry seasons warmer? Research shows that climate changes destabilize mouse lemur populations and increase their risk of extinction.
  • Exhibition

    Looted Cultural Heritage Objects from Imperial-Era China

    A new exhibition at the Ethonographic Museum shines a light on objects looted during the 1900/01 Boxer Rebellion in China that eventually ended up in museums and collections across the West.
  • DNA Research

    Artificial Intelligence Improves Efficiency of Genome Editing

    Researchers at the University of Zurich have developed a new tool that uses artificial intelligence to predict the efficacy of various genome editing repair options. Unintentional errors in the correction of DNA mutations of genetic diseases can thus be reduced.
  • Sociology

    Men Are Leaving Feminizing Occupations

    Many women and men still work in sex-typed occupations. One important reason for this is that men are selectively leaving occupations that are increasingly taken up by women, a recent study from the University of Zurich has shown.
  • Geography

    Grassland Ecosystems Become More Resilient with Age

    A long-term experiment now shows that grassland plant communities with multiple species need about 10 years to adjust to each other and produce an even amount of biomass again.