The University of Zurich and Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin are entering into a strategic partnership. This will enable Zurich and Berlin to step up cooperation in medical research and teaching. The first joint priority area is digitalization in medicine. More …

Generosity entails costs. Its benefit to us, though, is indeterminate. Why are we nonetheless generous toward others? Neuroeconomist Philippe Tobler has peered into the brains of generous people and discovered an answer to that question. More …

State-of-the-art sequencing technology can analyze billions of DNA fragments in a matter of hours. A group of researchers at the Functional Genomics Center Zurich has demonstrated how this high-speed method can be leveraged to increase coronavirus testing capacities: Hundreds of thousands of samples could be processed each day. More …

The coronavirus isn't going anywhere anytime soon. As long as there is no vaccine, policymakers need reliable information about the level of infection within the population. Milo Puhan, an epidemiologist at UZH, is leading a national study that investigates this very issue. More …

How do UZH professors give lectures to an empty room? How have churches gotten through the crisis? The special circumstances created by the coronavirus pandemic have raised new questions for research. We present two current projects. More …

Computer scientist Sven Seuken uses artificial intelligence to design complex electronic markets that aim to benefit vendors and customers in equal measure. More …

Artificial intelligence is already commonplace in healthcare, lightening doctors’ workloads and helping them make medical decisions. The legal issues have yet to be resolved, however. More …

From checking loan applications to selecting job applicants, decisions are increasingly being made with the aid of artificial intelligence. While AI doesn’t make them any fairer, it can make us wiser, says ethicist Markus Christen. More …

Algorithms sort the internet for us. The problem is, no one knows exactly how they decide. Information scientist Anikó Hannák is trying to change this. What she’s finding out in the process offers food for thought. More …

Artificial intelligence is changing the way we work. Information scientist Abraham Bernstein predicts that it won’t make us redundant. But there will be new forms of collaboration between humans and machines that will open up new and interesting avenues. More … 1 Comment

There are still many unanswered questions around the coronavirus: How many people in Switzerland are immune? How long does immunity last? And how can high-risk patients be quickly identified and given the best treatment? Three UZH researchers told us in these video interviews about their search for the answers. More …

How does effective fundraising for science work? What’s the best way for researchers and donors to work together? These were the topics discussed by NOMIS Foundation Managing Director Markus Reinhard, UZH Vice President Research Michael Schaepman, and UZH Foundation CEO Martin Gubser. More …

Thanks to neurotechnology, it could soon be possible to read people’s thoughts, says linguist Balthasar Bickel. While fascinating from a me­dical perspective, it’s also incredibly dangerous. More …

The UZH Foundation has launched a fundraising campaign for urgent research projects tackling the Covid-19 pandemic. The focus is on research into antibodies to determine immunity and improvements in treatment. More …

Researchers from the Universities of Zurich and Cambridge have succeeded for the first time in creating a single computer-simulated model that combines processes in the development of planets that were previously simulated separately. In their novel simulations on the Piz Daint supercomputer, they identified a new kind of friction mechanism that could solve a ubiquitous problem in astrophysics. More …

Staff at the University of Zurich’s Institute of Medical Virology have been working flat out and are now able to carry out around 800 to 1,000 coronavirus tests a day. Alexandra Trkola, who heads the institute, explains what determines the quality of a good diagnosis. More …

On 30 March a new COVID-19 test center was opened on the premises of the UZH Center for Travel Medicine. In this interview with UZH News, Professor Jan Fehr, the director of the center, explains why a new test facility is important and who it is primarily geared to. More …

With their ability to maintain life-long friendships and form coalitions within wide social networks, the dolphins in Shark Bay, Australia, display a complex social life. This is a sign of intelligence, says anthropologist Michael Krützen. More …

People and intelligent machines learn in similar ways, says philosopher Hans-Johann Glock. Unlike humans, however, computers do not pursue their own goals – not yet, at least. More …

Birgit Watzke does research into specialist care provision for people with mental health needs. More …