Latest Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Stories

Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne EPFL researchers are using the electrical properties of a scanning electron microscope to change the size of glass capillary tubes -- Their method has already been patented as it could pave the way to many novel applications Have you ever thrown into the fire - even if you shouldn't have - an empty packet of crisps? The outcome is striking: the plastic shrivels and bends into itself, until it turns into a small crumpled and blackened ball. This...

Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne 2 young EPFL scientists have developed a device that can create 3-D images of living cells and track their reaction to various stimuli without the use of contrast dyes or fluorophores In the world of microscopy, this advance is almost comparable to the leap from photography to live television. Two young EPFL researchers, Yann Cotte and Fatih Toy, have designed a device that combines holographic microscopy and computational image processing to...

Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Water repelling molecules are said to be hydrophobic. The hydration – or formation of water interfaces around hydrophobic molecules – is important for many biological processes: protein folding, membrane formation, transport of proteins across an interface, the transmission of action potentials across membranes. It is involved as well in the process of creating mayonnaise, or in the fact that you can get rid of fat with soap. Hydrophobic...

Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne [ Watch The Video ] EPFL scientists have developed an algorithm to control light patterns called "caustics" and organize them into coherent images It's a simple, transparent acrylic plate – nothing embedded within it and nothing printed on its surface. Place it at a certain angle between a white wall and a light source, and a clear, coherent image appears of the face of Alan Turing, the famous British mathematician and father of modern...

LAUSANNE, Switzerland, August 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Debiopharm Group(TM) (Debiopharm), a Swiss-based global biopharmaceutical group of companies with a focus on the development of prescription drugs that target unmet medical needs and companion diagnostics, today presents the 'Debiopharm Group(TM) Life Sciences Award 2012' in collaboration with EPFL (Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne) to Professor Daniel D. Pinschewer for his outstanding research in the field of...

DUBAI, January 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- EPFL Middle East recently held the first in a series of workshops on the intelligent governance of large urban systems. The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) workshop provided an overview of the management and governance of transportation systems across the greater Middle East region. In particular, the workshop explored the role ICTs already play and increasingly will play in urban transportation systems with...

Peak concentrations of biocides from house paint prove prevalent in urban river basins Anti-fungal and anti-bacterial additives in house paint are present in dangerous quantities in the Vauchère river basin in the city of Lausanne, says a study to be presented the 9th of December, at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) conference in San Francisco. Chemicals engineered to kill microorganisms, called biocides, are added to exterior paints in order to prevent molding and plant growth....

By knocking out a key regulatory protein, scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland dramatically boosted insulin sensitivity in lab mice, an achievement that opens a new door for drug development and the treatment of diabetes. The research, published in the November 11 issue of the journal Cell, reveals a new and previously unsuspected role for nuclear receptor corepressor (NCoR), a...

International sports federations would like to be able to follow the movements of individual athletes more easily during televised matches, even when they're hidden from view. Today, EPFL's Computer Vision Laboratory announces an innovative system that accomplishes this task -- and the implications go far beyond sports. EPFL's Computer Vision Laboratory (CVLab), led by professor Pascal Fua, now has a new tool that makes it possible to follow multiple players at once on a field or court,...

From blue whales to earthworms, a common mechanism gives shape to living beings Why don't our arms grow from the middle of our bodies? The question isn't as trivial as it appears. Vertebrae, limbs, ribs, tailbone ... in only two days, all these elements take their place in the embryo, in the right spot and with the precision of a Swiss watch. Intrigued by the extraordinary reliability of this mechanism, biologists have long wondered how it works. Now, researchers at EPFL (Ecole...