Schweizerischer Nationalfonds / Fonds national suisse

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 ...

Obstacles slow down birds tracking global warming

The age of blood stains says more about the crime

Bern (ots) - The composition of blood stains changes over the course of weeks and months. Forensic medicine hopes to make use of this fact in future to convict suspects - or to prove their innocence. The blood-stained paper lay on the roof terrace for almost a year, protected from the rain but otherwise exposed to the elements. Fortunately it wasn't evidence of a violent crime; no, the drops of blood were part of a ...

Mosquitoes prefer cooler temperatures

Bern (ots) - Mosquitoes have thermal preferences. This is an important parameter to better predict outbreaks of diseases transmitted by these insects. "If they have a choice, when it's hot, mosquitoes hide in a cool place to rest," says Niels Verhulst, author of a study recently published in the journal Thermal Biology (*). The entomologist from the University of Zurich summarises the results of the experiment he ...

1,500 new research projects and 400 fellowships abroad in anniversary year

Bern (ots) - In 2022, the SNSF approved 910 million francs for its regular funding schemes. We awarded a further 173 million for the Horizon Europe transitional measures. Coronavirus research generated a wealth of knowledge. On 1 August 2022, the SNSF celebrated its 70th anniversary. Founded in 1952 out of concern that Swiss research might sink into mediocrity after ...

Transition to a sustainable economy: policy recommendations

Bern (ots) - How can economic progress be aligned with social and environmental responsibility? In closing, the National Research Programme "Sustainable Economy" (NRP 73) presents recommendations in this regard. To mark its conclusion, the National Research Programme "Sustainable Economy: resource-efficient, future-oriented, innovative" (NRP 73) is presenting a white paper with recommendations to policymakers for the ...