After Paris and Marrakesh, the international conference on climate (COP 23), made a stop in Germany. What was to be expected? And what do we still need to consider when faced with climate change? Suren Erkman responds.
Continue reading →With a new tool christened CRISPR-Cas9, modifying a genome is within reach for any molecular biology laboratory. This technology, first used five years ago, is generating high hopes for the treatment of genetic diseases. But it has already raised many concerns.
Continue reading →The success of the CRISPR-Cas9 molecular scissors, which notably allow scientists to modify the DNA of human embryos that are ill as well as insects seen as pests, poses some delicate ethical questions. Alain Kaufmann explains.
Continue reading →After having acted as the village for the 2020 Youth Olympic Games, Vortex will provide housing for nearly 1,000 students and academic visitors.
Continue reading →As committed intellectuals, Germaine de Staël and Benjamin Constant provide us with an interesting insight into a turbulent period of Europe’s history at the turn of the nineteenth century. And their fight for liberty remains highly topical today.
Continue reading →With one of its tasks being precisely that of issuing money, the Swiss National Bank will soon be putting the new 20 franc note into circulation. But is it appropriate to launch such denominations when fewer and fewer payments are being made in cash?
Continue reading →In her book “Une histoire érotique du Kremlin” (An Erotic History of the Kremlin), researcher Magali Delaloye retraces the life of women who gravitated to the heart of Bolshevism. Campaigner for free love, adored daughter, self-effacing, trapped or voluntarily exiled wife: what path did these women tread alongside Lenin or Stalin?
Continue reading →Siri, Aido, Roxxxy: whether machines with augmented intelligence or automatons, robots range from lawn mower to adviser and friend. While these gifted machines have not yet overtaken science fiction, they are coming close to it. Before they start laying down the law, isn’t it time to give them a legal framework? Sylvain Métille, specialist in law relating to data protection and new technologies, says it is.
Continue reading →Even in adult brains, new neurons are continually forming. Over our lifetime, we renew 80% of the cells in the area of the hippocampus, a crucial structure for learning and memory. A team at UNIL has uncovered some of the secrets of this process of neurogenesis, with the added bonus of potential therapeutic applications, notably for Alzheimer’s disease.
Continue reading →Popularised by the TV series, methamphetamine has insidiously taken hold in Switzerland. Once known as the poor man’s cocaine, the drug now sells for 500 francs a gram. UNIL investigates this phenomenon and the threat it poses.
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