Schweizerischer Nationalfonds / Fonds national suisse

Preventive drone attacks based on digital traces are a grey area under international law

Bern (ots) - Identifying terrorists by analysing their online activities is an approach that is sometimes at odds with international law, especially if the outcome is death. A study has documented this problematic legal and ethical issue. These days, virtually everyone leaves footprints in the digital world. Terrorists are no exception. Intelligence agencies realised ...

She observes children's digital habits - and doesn't demonise smartphones

Wie Fadenwürmer altern - und was das für die Menschen bedeuten könnte

Bern (ots) - Ein Protein reduziert die Lebenserwartung von Fadenwürmern. Diese Entdeckung wirft die Frage auf, ob es beim Menschen ebenfalls den Alterungsprozess mitbewirkt. Selbst von den am besten erforschten Genen und Proteinen kennt man noch längst nicht alle Geheimnisse. Wie das Schweizer Taschenmesser haben sie zahlreiche, teilweise unbekannte Funktionen. Mit ...

Robot swings its way to unexplored treetops

An architect of nano power plants

Torsten Schwede appointed as new President of the SNSF Research Council from 2025

Fishing for DNA to measure biodiversity

Observing apes to get a better understanding of humans

How robots make people hear voices

Bern (ots) - Researchers have developed a method for triggering auditory hallucinations in healthy people. They are investigating the causes of a phenomenon that can be a huge burden for people with psychiatric illnesses. Studies indicate that five to ten per cent of all people sometimes hear voices - those of dead relatives or higher beings, for example - without having any kind of illness. In other words, the phenomenon is not restricted to people with psychiatric ...

New SNSF Foundation Council from 2024

Bern (ots) - The new SNSF Foundation Council has been elected. Smaller in size, it brings together leading figures from science, business and government, and will take up its duties at the beginning of 2024. The SNSF is a foundation under private law with a funding mandate under public law. As the senior governing body, the Foundation Council is responsible for ensuring that the foundation stays on mission and for ...

Covid-19: Research findings form the basis for scientific communication with public authorities

Bern (ots) - Insights into Covid-19, recommendations for health authorities and vaccines: the findings and synthesis report for the Swiss National Science Foundation's National Research Programme "Covid-19" (NRP 78) were presented today. The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) launched the National Research ...

Phosphorous - too much in lakes, too little in the soil

Bern (ots) - Over-fertilised waterways, impoverished soils: the use of phosphorous in agriculture is creating a dilemma, and it all began thousands of years ago. This has been verified by an analysis funded by the SNSF. It is well known that phosphorous from agricultural fertilisation and wastewater is harmful to lakes. But the entry of phosphorous into water is also contributing to the scarcity of this substance, which ...

The expert on pain in children

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Do bacteria make you fat? Prizewinner Maria Luisa Balmer is looking for answers

On a quest for new particles

Agency photos aestheticise dying

The ocean supermodeller

Stacking - a route to higher-performance solid-state batteries

Are your backup data secure?

Bern (ots) - The new backup protocol for Whatsapp messages was subjected to a comprehensive security analysis by a research team. One identified weakness can be resolved with a strong password. Every day, people around the world exchange billions of messages using the Whatsapp messaging service. End-to-end encryption is used to ensure they are secure. However, until recently the automatic backups of chats did not enjoy the same level of security, as the personal key to the ...

The insatiable virus hunter

The news? - too complicated...

Bern (ots) - People are sometimes reluctant to read a newspaper or follow the news on TV. Why should that be? Although negativity is often cited as a reason for avoidance, it's not the only reason - according to a researcher from Fribourg. Many people deliberately avoid anything to do with current affairs. According to a recent survey by Reuters, 40 per cent of Americans prefer not to read a newspaper or watch the news on a screen. The anxiety caused by current affairs is ...