Science

Magnetic Field Sensed by Gene, Study Show

A researcher studying how monarch butterflies navigate has picked up a strong hint that people may be able to sense the earth’s magnetic field and use it for orienting themselves. Many animals rely on the magnetic field for navigation, and researchers have often wondered if people, too, might be able […]

University creates bee professor post

Bern University has set up a professorial post in bee health with the aim of better understanding the insect and its dwindling colonies. The post, funded with a SFr5 million ($5.89 million) donation by the Biel-based Vinetum foundation, will be attached to the university’s veterinary faculty. It aims to study the largely […]

Eat Less Sugar…Live Longer

Weight loss programs are a multi-million dollar industry in the US, with each company claiming that their way is the best.  At the heart of the debate has been the issue of carbohydrates.  How much should we be consuming? There have been several studies conducted in the last decade comparing […]

EVOLUTION OF THE EYE

Evolution of the Eye Scientists now have a clear vision of how our notoriously complex eye came to be SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN By Trevor D. Lamb | July 13, 2011 | The human eye is an exquisitely complicated organ. It acts like a camera to collect and focus light and convert it into […]

If Einstein met Confucius

An exhibition about the life and work of Einstein will no longer appear in Shanghai following a fracas between Chinese and Swiss museums. The exhibition has been touring China as part of a celebration of 60 years of diplomatic relations between Switzerland and China. According to the Associated Press, the […]

Radar reveals Greenland bedrock

by Marc-André Miserez, swissinfo.ch Antennas developed by Swiss scientists have sounded ice layers in Antarctica up to several kilometres thick, as well as the rocks underneath. This is of interest not only to geologists and climatologists attempting to measure the effects of global warming on Earth’s ice-covered regions, but also […]

Is there life on Mars? We may soon find out

Forty years ago, space engineers launched a probe that would play a pivotal role in changing our understanding of our place in the cosmos. On 30 May 1971, Mariner 9 was dispatched to Mars on an Atlas Centaur rocket and in November that year slipped into orbit around the Red Planet. […]

First habitable planet discovered

By Yahoo! A planet 20 light years away is the first outside our solar system to be declared ‘habitable’ by scientists. The rocky ‘exoplanet’ Gliese 581d meets key requirements for sustaining Earth-like life, including rainfall and possibly even watery oceans. The planet orbits a red-dwarf star similarly called Gliese 581, […]