All posts tagged: ETH Zurich

ETH Zurich researchers detect a possible fifth force of nature

ETH Zurich researchers detect a possible fifth force of nature

Published by Jenni Sidey

Precision measurements of calcium atoms revealed an unexpected pattern that cannot be explained by the simplest atomic physics calculations. Known effects inside atomic nuclei, especially nuclear polarization, could account for the anomaly, so the result is not evidence of a fifth force. The measurements still place some of the strongest limits yet from this method on a hypothetical particle linking electrons and neutrons. Calcium atoms have produced an unusually clear break from a pattern physicists expected to follow a straight line. The deviation is real, but its cause remains unresolved, sharpening a search for forces that may exist beyond known physics. The Standard Model of particle physics describes elementary particles and three of the four known fundamental forces with remarkable precision. Yet important gaps remain. It cannot provide a viable dark matter candidate, explain the universe’s matter-antimatter imbalance or account for neutrino masses inferred from oscillation measurements. “The Standard Model is currently the best explanation of the universe, but we know it cannot explain everything,” said Diana Prado Lopes Aude Craik, a physics professor at …

Researchers analyze 25 billion neutrons and find that they don’t disappear into a mirror world

Researchers analyze 25 billion neutrons and find that they don’t disappear into a mirror world

Published by Jenni Sidey

A high-precision experiment found no evidence that neutrons can transform into mirror versions and disappear into a parallel particle world. Researchers tested about 25 billion ultracold neutrons while carefully changing magnetic fields that could influence the proposed transformation. The result rules out earlier mirror-neutron signals across 99.98 percent of possible field directions, although it cannot disprove every form of mirror matter. A mirror copy of the particle world could exist beside ordinary matter, yet one of the most precise neutron experiments ever attempted has found no sign that neutrons slip into it. Theoretical physicists have proposed a parallel sector containing mirror electrons, protons, neutrons, and counterparts to every known elementary particle. These particles would be nearly invisible because they would not respond to the standard forces governing ordinary matter. That weak connection makes mirror matter difficult to detect. It also makes the idea relevant to dark matter, the unknown substance that accounts for far more mass in the universe than visible matter. Mirror particles could fit that role because they would barely interact with atoms, …

Handheld breath detector reveals when the body starts burning fat

Handheld breath detector reveals when the body starts burning fat

Published by Jenni Sidey

A handheld, smartphone-guided detector measures breath acetone, a marker of fat burning, in about 90 seconds. Tests on 12 healthy adults showed the device closely matched laboratory mass spectrometry across 312 breath samples. The sensor tracked metabolic changes caused by intense exercise, high-carbohydrate meals, ketogenic meals, fasting, and longer dietary interventions. The technology could support home monitoring and help personalize care for obesity, diabetes, epilepsy, and other metabolic conditions. A single breath can reveal when the body has shifted toward burning fat, but reading that signal has usually required bulky laboratory equipment. A handheld detector now aims to bring the same metabolic insight into homes, clinics and everyday routines. The smartphone-assisted device measures acetone, a volatile molecule released in breath when the body relies more heavily on fat for fuel. It delivers a result in about 90 seconds and closely matched laboratory mass spectrometry across hundreds of breath samples. Researchers from ETH Zurich described the system in the journal Device. They designed it to detect subtle changes in fat metabolism that many consumer breath analyzers …

ETH Zurich scientists developed a new drug to slow Alzheimer’s development

ETH Zurich scientists developed a new drug to slow Alzheimer’s development

Published by Jenni Sidey

Alzheimer’s disease slowly strips brain cells of the energy they need to survive. However, one damaged enzyme may be doing more of that work than anyone realized. At ETH Zurich, a team led by molecular pharmacologist Ursula Quitterer says it has identified a new protein target linked to the disease’s progression. They also designed an experimental compound that interrupts the process in mice. The compound, known as CPD10 or “compound 10,” did not cure the disease. Nevertheless, it slowed nerve-cell loss, reduced key signs of damage in the brain, and helped the animals live longer. The work points to a different way of thinking about Alzheimer’s treatment. This approach focuses less on clearing debris after damage has piled up. Instead, it aims to stabilize a protective system inside cells before the damage spirals. Graphical abstract of the study. The G-protein-coupled receptor kinase 2 (GRK2) exerts essential functions in cell growth and survival. (CREDIT: Cell Reports Medicine) When a protective enzyme turns harmful The central player is an enzyme called GRK2, a regulatory protein active in …

ETH Zurich scientists create perfect randomness for the first time

ETH Zurich scientists create perfect randomness for the first time

Published by Jenni Sidey

Perfect randomness sounds simple, until you try to make it. A die can be polished, balanced and rolled thousands of times. Yet, one face may still land up a little more often than the others. In daily life, that slight tilt hardly matters. However, in cryptography, it can become a serious weakness. A barely detectable pattern in a stream of random numbers can make private keys easier to predict. That can open the door to broken encryption. That problem is what drove a team at ETH Zurich to a result that sounds almost paradoxical: using flawed randomness to create perfect randomness. In a study published in Nature, researchers led by Renato Renner and Andreas Wallraff showed that quantum physics can amplify weak random input into a string of bits that is fully unbiased. Moreover, they argue, the output is certifiably unpredictable. The advance centers on a simple but stubborn truth. Random-looking numbers are not always truly random. Some generators produce outputs that pass statistical tests but still carry hidden structure. That matters because, as the …

Human activity found to literally move mountains

Human activity found to literally move mountains

Published by Jenni Sidey

From a distance, the Matterhorn looks fixed in place, a giant wedge of rock planted above Zermatt and unchanged by time. New measurements show that the famous Alpine peak is in constant motion, rocking back and forth in a slow, nearly imperceptible rhythm driven by seismic energy moving through the Earth. An international research team found that the mountain vibrates roughly once every two seconds, with motion so slight that people cannot feel it. Yet the signal is there, and on the summit it can grow much stronger than at the base. “The movements of the underground cause every object to vibrate, which we fortunately cannot feel, but detect with sensitive measuring instruments,” Donat Fäh of the Swiss Seismological Service at ETH Zurich said in a statement. That idea is familiar in bridges and tall buildings. The striking part here is scale. The same kind of resonant behavior can be picked up in one of the Alps’ most iconic mountains. Oblique aerial image showing the east flank of the Matterhorn with the Hörnli ridge on …

Planetary scientists reveal where Earth’s water and building blocks came from

Planetary scientists reveal where Earth’s water and building blocks came from

Published by Jenni Sidey

For years, planetary scientists have argued that some of the material that built Earth must have drifted in from beyond Jupiter, carrying water and other volatile ingredients with it. Estimates often put that outer Solar System share somewhere between 6 percent and 40 percent. A new analysis led by ETH Zurich researchers Paolo Sossi and Dan Bower takes a very different view. After comparing Earth’s isotopic makeup with that of meteorites, Mars and the asteroid Vesta, they argue that Earth formed almost entirely from material already present in the inner Solar System. That does not mean the question is settled. Sossi himself says the debate over Earth’s building blocks is “far from over.” But the new study, published in Nature Astronomy, sharply narrows the room for one popular idea, that large amounts of outer Solar System matter crossed Jupiter’s orbit and became part of the growing Earth. “We were truly astonished to find that the Earth is composed entirely of material from the inner Solar System distinct from any combination of existing meteorites,” Bower said. …

New hydrogel prints bone-like implants at record speed

New hydrogel prints bone-like implants at record speed

Published by Jenni Sidey

A cube of healthy bone is anything but solid. Inside it, countless tiny channels carry fluid and help cells move, feed, and rebuild. Xiao-Hua Qin, a professor of biomaterials engineering at ETH Zurich, likes a striking comparison: “A piece of bone the size of a dice contains 74 kilometers of tunnels.” The Gotthard Base Tunnel, the world’s longest railway tunnel, runs 54 kilometers. That hidden architecture is one reason broken bones usually heal, and one reason severe breaks can become a surgical puzzle. When a fracture is too extensive, or when surgeons remove a bone tumor, they often rely on implants that help the body knit the gap back together. Many of today’s options involve autografts, pieces of a patient’s own bone, or metal and ceramic parts. Autografts can require a second surgery to harvest tissue. Metal implants, meanwhile, can be too rigid and may loosen over time, which can compromise stability. Qin and colleagues are now pushing a different idea: an implant material that starts soft, like the body’s own first step in repair, …