GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Harvard University and the Massachussetts Institute of Technology are joining forces within a not-for-profit partnership, edX, to offer free online courses to all.
The two universities, based in Cambridge, Massachussetts, have committed US$30 million each to develop the project, which will begin offering online courses in the fall. Course choices will be set in the summer.
“Certificates of mastery” could be obtained at a small fee by students capable of keeping up with the material, though full diplomas will still be reserved for full-time students enrolled at the universities.
On its website, MIT explains that edX will offer “its learning platform as open-source software so it can be used by other universities and organizations that wish to host the platform themselves” and allow other universities to help edX “improve and add features to the technology”.
Online learning has evolved rapidly with other elite academic institutions introducing free courses. In April, Stanford, Princeton, the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania launched a new for-profit company, Coursera. Other ventures include Udacity, started by a Stanford professor, the educational pioneer, the Open University, as well as the Khan Academy.
Links to other sources: Reuters, CNN
Webster’s Open Day: career&study info available for Media Communications.
Fun events. Hands-on training.
high school students: Business, Media, Marketing, Journalism, Social Sciences. Also grad studies, information on the master programs.
Evening BarBQ
Location: Webster University, Route de Collex 15, Bellevue
Link out: http://www.webster.ch/openday
Date: 10 May 2012
Start time: 11:00
End time: 19:00
Oak Hill is a half-day programme designed for students with learning differences such as dyslexia and/or A.D.D. (ADHD). The center will be holding an Open Morning on Tuesday 13 March from 10.00 to 11.00 am. See a demonstration reading lesson.
Location: 31, ch Precossy, 1260 Nyon
Link out: http://www.oakhill.ch
Date: 13 Mar 2012
Start time: 10:00
End time: 11:00
Girls have made it onto Swiss kids' football teams, but that doesn't guarantee equal pay
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Switzerland is stuck at number 10 in the world’s gender gap rankings, published 10 October by the World Economic Forum in Geneva, with equal pay for men and women as one of the sticking points.
Friday 10 November the country will observe “Futur en tous genres” to encourage boys and girls to consider all kinds of training and professional work without linking certain kinds of jobs to one gender or the other.
The day replaces what used to be “girl’s day”, designed to help girls focus on broader career options.
The new focus is designed to ensure that boys also take time to reflect on gender and roles in the workplace, says Geneva’s associate director for equality in the canton’s Department of Public Instruction, Franceline Dupenloup, in an interview in Les Quotidiennes (Fr).
Down near the cellar for equal pay: Switzerland ranks number 80
Source: Swiss Federal Statistical Office
Switzerland has made great strides in the WEF rankings ( WEF page on Switzerland, pdf) in recent years, moving from 40th place in 2007 to 14, then 13 and last year to 10.
And there it sits, for the WEF rankings are based on five sets of criteria: economic empowerment, education, marriage and childbearing, social institutions and political rights, childbearing ecosystem.
The WEF rankings show the US improving, France worsening and few changes in the top 10 compared to a year earlier. The Philippines stepped ahead of Lesotho, swapping slots 8 and 9, and Ireland stepped in front of New Zealand, swapping places 5 and 6.
The Swiss are number one for literacy and enrollment in tertiary education, but the country is down at number 80 for equal pay, which government statistics show to be about 20 percent lower for women, with little change in sight.
Women in ministerial positions: Switzerland ranks 7, and it is this category that boosted the country when two and then three women joined the cabinet of seven in the past four years. And since the WEF rankings are dollar-based and the franc is strong, Switzerland benefits for the category of estimated earned income (PPP US$), where it ranks fourth.
More women, 60.8%, are working and fewer men, 75.2%
Swiss statistics show women slowly but surely taking a larger role in the workplace and as their numbers grow, their influence on the earnings picture could carry weight, although there is no clear sign yet that this is starting to happen.
Federal statistics show that in 1991, the rate for women ages 15 and up who were working or unemployed was 56.8 percent. This has risen, mostly steadily, and by 2010 the figure was 60.8 percent. At the peak, in the 20-25 age group, 80.7 percent of all women are working. The figure for men 20-25 is 92.6%.
From ages 30 to 50 the rate for women remains virtually unchanged, hovering between 77 and 79 percent in 2000 and now between 81 and 86 percent, with the lowest level between ages 30 and 39. Women appear to be working longer before taking time off for young families, and going back to work sooner.
Oak Hill is a half-day programme designed for students with learning differences such as dyslexia and/or A.D.D (ADHD).
Open House on Tuesday 15 November from 10.00-11.00.
RSVP to: education@oakhill.ch
Location: Chemin Precossy 31, 1260 Nyon
Link out: http://www.oakhill.ch
Date: 15 Nov 2011
Start time: 10:00
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A report published Monday 31 Octcober by Ucas, the British university admissions board, shows that wealthy students are favoured, reports the Guardian. Ucas is currently reviewing the university admissions process with an eye to reform sometime after this year’s secondary school final year students complete their high school studies.
The Guardian says that Ucas’s review to date shows that the system favours students in private schools or those from schools with tutors who know the application process. Ucas’s reforms could be the most significant in 50 years, argues the newspaper, starting with a fundamental shift in the application process. “It [Ucas] argues that teenagers should no longer apply to university with predictions of what they will achieve in their A-levels, but instead only submit their applications once they have their final grades.”
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Mandarin is making quiet steady inroads in European education, with the Financial Times the latest media to focus on West facing East in the area of languages. The British newspaper, in a feature Monday 17 October, notes that Chinese has become the fourth major language, behind French, German and Spanish. In the US, “the rise is reflected in the number of students sitting SAT II standardized tests, up 50 per cent since 2001; Advanced Placement programmes run by the College Board have grown by more than 2.5 times. In Britain, Chinese A-level exam entries in England in Wales rose 36 per cent in 2011 alone, the fastest of any major language. With 3,237 candidates, one in 11 final-year language exams are now for Chinese.”
The Economist, in an article in November 2010, took a more restrained approach, noting that Russian and Japanese also had language course booms which turned out to be fads.
The Sydney Morning Herald in February 2011 pointed out that while Australian language programmes and enthusiasm may be strong for starting Chinese, there remains a paucity of students completing Chinese courses with true proficiency in the language.
New research shows mothers, not just baby bottles, transmit BPA, source of mammary gland changes
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Researchers at the EPFL have shown through experiments with mice that indirect exposure by pregnant women and nursing mothers to Bisphenol A, also known as BPA, most likely predisposes infants to breast cancer by modifying their mammary glands.
BPA is an organic compound present in some plastics and it is the subject of growing concern in the medical world, especially concerning young children. The focus until now has been primarily on the role of plastic baby bottles that emit “a significant quantity of the molecule” when heated, according to the EPFL.
BPA has been the subject of numerous scientific studies, with conflicting research results. The World Health Organization and Food and Agriculture Organization in September 2011 published the results of their ad hoc review of the situation. The report described the widespread exposure to BPA:
“Bisphenol A (BPA) is an industrial chemical that is widely used in the production of polycarbonate (PC) plastics (used in food contact materials, such as baby bottles and food containers) and epoxy resins (used as protective linings for canned foods and beverages and as a coating on metal lids for glass jars and bottles). These uses result in consumer exposure to BPA via the diet.”
It concluded that for now it’s impossible to assess the impact of exposure, but noted that “BPA exposure during the perinatal period
has been reported to alter both prostate and mammary gland development in ways that may render these organs more susceptible to the development of neoplasia or preneoplastic conditions with subsequent exposures to strong tumour initiating or promoting regimens. In the absence of additional studies addressing identified deficiencies, there is currently insufficient evidence on which to judge the carcinogenic potential of BPA.”
The EPFL results would appear to challenge this conclusion.
The Lausanne-based polytechnic institute says that BPA is so pervasive that it is not possible to do a controlled study.
Hiking near the Jungfraujoch (baby gets a backpack ride), August 2011
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – WWF, the environmental organization, and Switzerland’s largest supermarket chain, Migros, are joining forces to help children learn more about and appreciate the Swiss Alps. Mountainmania is a seven-week online quiz programme that kicks off 13 September, designed to teach children more about the Alps.
The two organizations are ready to hand out 50,000 diplomas to “mountain champions” who correctly complete the quiz.
“We need to take care of our Alps,” says WWF chief executive Hans-Peter Fricker. “We’ll only be able to do this if we instill a love for the mountains in children, starting as early as possible.”
Migros will be featuring its bio brands during this period, aiming to increase their sales by 10 percent during the seven weeks. The mountainmania albums that are sold will contribute CHF1 per album to WWF Alpine projects that include restoring areas of the Rhone and Rhine rivers to natural habitats for trout and beavers, and helping encourage the natural return of large carnivores to their Alpine habitats.
Chateau de Chillon is one of Switzerland's most visited landmarks, but canton Vaud's other 11 major chateaus are also part of rich historical tapestry
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Canton Vaud’s 12 historic chateaus, open to the public, are joining together to offer a special deal at the end of September to encourage people to learn more about this aspect of local history. A single ticket will open the door to all 12 the weekend of 24-25 September, for CHF15 for adults and CHF10 for children or CHF35 for a family.
The 12 “monuments” are: Prangins, Ollon, Chillon, Oron, Coppet, Nyon, Morges, Moudon, La Sarraz, Yverdon, Grandson and Avenches. Some are privately owned, others publicly and while most are medieval, two are 18th century.
They are part of the canton’s landscape of about 200 chateaus, towers, fortified residences and lords’ seats.
They are regularly open to the public but the shared ticket has been offered only once before in the 17 years of the Vaud Chateaus Association.
Emys, a robot developed as part of the Lirec (Living with robots and interactive companions) project funded by the EC (photo, ©2011 LIREC)
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM – The European Commission 20 July agreed to commit €7 billion to research and development, in what it says is its “biggest ever European Commission funding package”, designed to create some 174,000 jobs in the short term and another 450,000 in the long term and to stimulate nearly €80 billion in gross domestic product (GDP) growth within the next 15 years.
Research, Innovation and Science Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn says the package will be used for stimulating European innovation through research funding.
The funding will take the form of grants to 16,000 recipients in European universities and research organizations and to industry specialists, with “a focus on small and medium-sized enterprises”.
“A common problem is bridging the gap between research and the market, and this funding can help demonstrate the commercial potential of a new technology, for example, or that a new idea can work on a sufficiently large scale to be industrially viable,” the EC notes on Cordis, its news site.
“Challenges like climate change, energy and food security, health and an aging population can be better managed if public sector intervention is used effectively to stimulate the private sector and remove bottlenecks stopping the best and brightest ideas from reaching the market, due to problems such as a lack of finance or fragmentation in research.”
How the money will be spent
The EC details how the funds will be distributed. Key points include:
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Energy research has been selected as the topic for the 2011-12 Swiss National Research Programme (NRP), overseen by the State Secretariat for Education and Research (SSER). The call for papers opened 8 July, with a deadline of 21 September for applications.
One to three new NRPs are selected for funding after proposals are reviewed, and the Swiss National Science Foundation is then responsible for implementing them.
The SSER says the NRPs “are the Swiss government’s research promotion tool intended to support research projects dealing with contemporary issues of national importance and which have the potential to make a scientifically sound and innovative contribution within a practical period of time to a solution to urgent societal or economic problems.”
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Two Swiss professors’ study of how the Swiss view Muslims, published 6 July, is attracting media attention in several Arabic and other Muslim countries (see links at the end). Their University of Zurich researchers’ two-year, CHF159,000 study was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundaton after the Swiss population voted to ban the construction of minarets.
Patrick Ettinger and Kurt Imhof concluded that in recent years a system has operated that has encouraged the Swiss to believe that Muslims are a danger. Three elements have created the situation, they say: terrorist attacks in other countries, the political strategy of right-wing populist political parties and a tendency for media to be more polarized and to generalize.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The first-ever international conference that brings together experts from five continents to a meeting on infection control and resistance to antibiotics meets in Geneva 29 June – 4 July. The meeting is a key session for experts in the wake of recent major infections with new elements, the e. Coli breakout in Germany and an NDM1 outbreak in India.
The meeting hosts 1,300 participants from 80 countries, with 600 abstracts presented.
The conference has two main goals, say the organizers: to carry the principles of infectious disease prevention beyond hospitals and ensure they are observed more generally in all areas of patient care, and to mobilize a far greater number of people in the fight against infections that are resistant to antibiotics. Patients, professionals and authorities all need to be more aware of the problem of resistance, according to World Health Organization experts.
Highlights will include a presentation on “Escherichia coli made in Germany” and the history of the NDM-1 bacteria in India, by authors and the editor of Britain’s Lancet medical journal and Friday as a day to celebrate the 10 commandments of hand hygiene in commemoration of the 150 years since Ignác Philipp Semmelweis published his thesis suggesting that students dissecting cadavers were carrying germs away on their hands.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The impact of a strong home currency is starting to hurt some Swiss industries, says Swissmem, the mechanical and electrical engineering industries body said Thursday 23 June. “The strong Swiss franc is exerting pressure on export prices – sometimes hugely so – thereby squeezing companies’ margins. Swissmem fears that the negative effects of the strong franc on Switzerland as a centre of industry and research will intensify during the year.”
The Swiss franc was trading at CHF1.00 to $1.19 Thursday and CHF1.00 to euro.84.
Federal gov’t takes steps to ease franc’s impact on R&D for innovative projects
Bern announced Wednesday that additional monies for “particularly promising” R&D (research and development) projects have been approved by parliament, providing a new injection of CHF10 million in 2011 and again in 2012 to encourage innovation at an earlier stage and make it possible to work with top-level research institutions.
A second measure gives CTI (Commission for Technology and Innovation) the flexibility to waive the normal requirement for a startup to provide cash to cover 10 percent of the cost of working with a research institution, if it decides the entrepreneurs are financially unable to do so. Companies are required by law to cover at least 50 percent of the cost of working with a research institution, part of this in cash.
Rock-a-bye zzzzzzzz (hammock, the perfect place to nap)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Every culture does it and has done it for centuries, but why rocking puts us to sleep has remained something of a mystery.
Now a research team based at the University of Geneva has provided the explanation, arguing that a swinging motion “exerts a synchronizing action in the brain that reinforces endogenous sleep rhythms.”
Twelve healthy male volunteers, ages 22–38, were asked to nap on a bed that could either remain stationary or rock gently.
All participants were “good sleepers, non-habitual nappers with no excessive daytime sleepiness and had low anxiety levels. Sleep quality and quantity were assessed by questionnaires and actimetry recordings.” The men took two 45-minute afternoon naps (14:30-15:45),
“one with the bed stationary, and one with the bed put in motion (condition order randomized). The motion parameters were set to stimulate vestibular and proprioceptive sensory systems, without causing nausea or any entrainment of cardiac rhythm. In both conditions the naps were spent in complete darkness in a controlled room temperature (21 ± 1°C) and the level of auditory stimulation was around 37 dB. During both sessions, polysomnography data were recorded continuously. Sleep stages and sleep spindles were visually identified by two experienced scorers, blind to the experimental conditions.”
The authors write in their summary in the journal Current Biology that “We show that lying on a slowly rocking bed (0.25 Hz) facilitates the transition from waking to sleep, and increases the duration of stage N2 sleep (ed. note: the deepest point of sleep during a nap). Rocking also induces a sustained boosting of slow oscillations and spindle activity. It is proposed that sensory stimulation associated with a swinging motion exerts a synchronizing action in the brain that reinforces endogenous sleep rhythms. These results thus provide scientific support to the traditional belief that rocking can soothe our sleep.”
The team was led by Laurence Bayer, Irina Constantinescu, Michel Muehlethaler and Sophie Schwarz, from the neuroscience department at the Hug university hospitals in Geneva and the Swiss Center for Afffective Sciences, joined by Stephen Perrig and Julie Vienne from the Swiss Laboratory at Hug and the CIG in Lausanne, with Pierre-Paul Vidal from the Unviersity Paris Descartes.
Zzzzzzzzzz
La Chataigneraie - Int'l School of Geneva in Founex
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A group of students who are in their next to final year at La Châtaigneraie in Founex are safe, according to the International School of Geneva, after arriving in Marrakesh Thursday morning 28 April and finding themselves only a few hundred metres from the blast that shook the Arguna Cafe and killed at least 14 people.
La Châtaigneraie is one of four campuses of the International School of Geneva. The students are on an International Baccalaureate programme geography field trip and in a letter being sent to parents today the school says that “all of our students are safe and well and though they were aware of the explosion [they] were at no time in any danger. The group are now in the hotel and will stay there whilst the details and cause of the explosion are determined.”
School officials say they are “keeping an open mind about the continuation of the trip. As and when further information becomes available we will review it, make a final decision.”
The cause of the blast is not yet clear, although Morocco’s Interior Ministry said early Friday on state television that it was a terrorist act.
The official death toll is 14, but local TV reports in Morocco say 15 people died, including six French citizens, five Moroccans, a Russian and a British citizen, but the government has not officially confirmed the nationalities. France has confirmed the deaths of its citizens.
Don’t eat armadillo meat and don’t handle them! researchers caution
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Direct contact with armadillos can lead to leprosy infection, a team of researchers in Switzerland and in the USA has confirmed, using what they call advanced DNA analysis and extensive field work.
The Global Health Institute at EPFL in Lausanne and NPHA (National Hansen’s Disease Program) report 28 April in the New England Journal of Medicine that a never-before-seen strain of Mycobacterium leprae has emerged in the Southern United States and that it is transmitted through contact with armadillos carrying the disease.
Only about 150 cases of the disease appear each year in the US, traditionally imported by people who have worked abroad in areas with leprosy. Researchers are quick to point out that the disease is treatable with antibiotics and that 90 percent of people who come into contact with leprosy, officially known as Hansen’s Disease, fight off the infection spontaneously.
Source: EPFL (click on image to view larger)
Public health authorities in the US became alarmed when they realized that one-third of the cases they were seeing were infected people who had never been outside the US.
Armadillos have been known since about 1970 to also carry the disease.
The new study shows inter-species contamination and the presence of a unique strain.
“There is a very strong association between the geographic location of the presence of this particular strain of M. leprae and the presence of armadillos in the Southern US,” says Stewart Cole, head of the Global Health Institute in Lausanne who is known as a leader in the field of leprosy bacilli genome. “Our research provides clear DNA evidence that the unique strain found in armadillos is the same as the one in certain humans.”
The new strain of the bacteria, named 3I-2V1, was found in 28 armadillos out of 33 wild ones included in the study, and in 22 patients, all of whom reported no foreign residence, out of the 50 who took part in the study. The researchers used genome sequencing to identify the new strain and cross check it with other known strains from Europe and Asia. They used genotyping to identify and classify the population infected. It became clear that leprosy patients who never travelled outside the US but lived in areas where infected armadillos are prevalent (see map) were infected with the same strain as the armadillos, EPFL reports.
The researchers make three recommendations: avoid frequent direct contact with the animals, don’t cook or consume their meat and monitor the expansion of their range, as they move north in the US.
José Ramirez is a former migrant worker from Houston who contracted the disease after hunting and eating armadillo meat. Ramirez offers a fourth recommendation: get rid of the stigma attached to the disease, which is a bacterial infection that can be cured. “We need to take this opportunity to give leprosy patients a voice and to learn to not use the word ‘leper’ that has negative connotations around the world, a stigma that should be replaced with an understanding of the disease and its causes.”
Ramirez struggled for more than five years with the disease before it was properly diagnosed. He is now disease-free after receiving antibiotic treatment.
Are you a lark or an owl? Hormones may play a key role
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The University of Zurich’s Pharmacology and Toxicology laboratory is actively seeking “individuals suitable” for the next stage of its Chronobiology and Sleep Research project, already underway, using a method the laboratory has developed to text sleep patterns in real time.
Previous studies have been limited by the difficulty of observing normal sleep patterns under laboratory conditions.
“One major obstacle in studying the human circadian oscillator is the difficulty of measuring properties such as period length. So far, this task has been achieved in only a few heroic studies employing extensive subject observation under controlled conditions”, researchers note on their web page.
Journal report shows hormonal basis for changing sleep patterns
The work continues with research reported 11 April in the journal PNAS, a new study from researchers at universities in Basel and Zurich who have found a hormonal basis for the changing sleep patterns that people undergo during old age.
An article “Serum factors in older individuals change cellular clock properties“, paves the way for a possible drug-based remedy to counteract these changes in sleep schedules.
Each person’s daily circadian rhythm, the 24-hour cycle of sleep and consciousness, functions via a system of cell-autonomous clocks that can be found in nearly every cell of the body, all of which are controlled by the brain.
As the cells’ molecular make-up does not alter during the aging process, Lucia Pagani from Basel, Steven A Brown from Zurich and their group looked into a possible hormonal influence on the changes.
EPFL Brain Mind Institute shows role of lactate in memory
EPFL students, counting on memory
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The number of people with Alzheimers is steadily increasing, prompting fears of living with a crippled memory, or even dying from Alzheimers, which became the sixth leading cause of death in the US in May 2010. Researchers in several countries have set their sights on various aspects of cell life to get to the source of memory and to understand how, biologically, it functions.
Stem cell research is making it possible to grow, in the laboratory, basal forebrain cholinergic neurons (BFCN), a type of nerve cell lost when Alzheimers disease begins to develop, British media reported Monday 7 March. The research could, in the distant future, lead to therapies. It is the latest in a series of efforts to pinpoint key cells that affect the disease.
Astrocytes use lactate to feed neurons
A surprising cell finding is now opening thanks to recent discoveries at the EPFL Brain Mind Institute in Lausanne and Mt Sinai School of Medicine in New York, working together. In a paper published 4 March in the journal Cell, the two show the importance to memory of astrocytes in memorization.
“These cells, which exist in very large quantities in the brain (they are more numerous than the neurons) and which we know are found at the interface between the blood system and the synapses, turn out to be a supplier of energy for the neurons. They feed them with lactate, a ‘cousin’ of glucose in that it originates from the same precursor–glycogen–of which a stock is present in these star-shaped cells. The researchers have been able to prove that this lactate was an indispensable condition for memorization processes to occur.”
The research holds out hope that one day it may be possible to artificially stimulate memory “by acting on the production and transportation of this lactate”. For now, it is leading EPFL researchers under Pierre Magistretti, director of the Brain Mind Institute, in new directions. “The interest for the astrocytes and lactate, which have not been the object of significant study, will certainly increase over the next few years,” says Magistretti.
Ed. note: International Brain Week is marked in Lausanne by a series of lectures open to and aimed at the general public, mostly in French, from nutrition and the brain to understanding synapses: programme.
Canton Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A secondary teacher who was dismissed in October 2010 after a dispute with the Stalden school authorities over a crucifix, will remain suspended, according to a Valais cantonal tribunal judgement issued 28 January. It did not return a verdict on the dismissal itself.
Valentin Abgottspon removed a crucifix from a classroom and refused to put it back when ordered to do so by school authorities. The man cited a Federal Court decision in defense of his right not to have crucifixes in rooms in which he teaches.
The Swiss Bishops Conference sees the case differently, saying in a statement that it considers removing the crucifix a measure of “intolerance incompatible with the freedom of religion and conscience.”
The teacher dismissed in Valais, who is also president of the cantonal section of the Freethinkers Association of Switzerland, which advocates for secularism and the separation of church and state, is seeking employment.
Over 500 people have joined in a Facebook campaign of “solidarity” with Abgottson.
Links to other sites: Le Nouvelliste (Fr), Swissinfo
Inside looking out could be the contact lens of the past (photo, wikipedia)
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Glaucoma and diabetes patients may soon find they are wearing contact lenses to monitor their health, with a Swiss company leading the way. New Scientist promises that we are about to see contact lenses whose purpose is not to help us look outward, but to aid doctors who want to better see what’s happening inside our bodies.
Glaucoma patients are first in line, already benefitting from a product that Swiss startup Sensimed, a 2003 spinoff from EPFL in Lausanne, commercialized in October 2010. It is, according to New Scientist, the world’s first smart contact lens that transmit information wirelessly: “Highly sensitive platinum strain gauges embedded in Sensimed’s Triggerfish lens record changes in the curvature of the cornea, which correspond directly to the pressure inside the eye,” and this information is transmitted to a recording device worn by the person.
Glaucoma can cause vision loss through damage to the optic nerve, often through too much pressure in the eye.
Sensimed’s technology, or similar smart contact lens technology, could be used to monitor a number of diseases. Researchers in the US, at Washington State University in Seattle are developping a solar-powered lens that can monitor glucose levels in diabetes patients.
EPFL’s new media centre has exclusive research, educational use rights to make digital record of musical treasure
Ray Parker Jr.'s smooth vocals - Photo ©Montreux Jazz Festival
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Ten thousand recording tapes will now become the Montreux Jazz Festival (MJF) library, “the largest testimony of live music recorded at the same place (more than 4,000 bands played in Montreux), both in audio and video, for the past 40 years resulting in 10,000 recording tapes,” EPFL and the Montreux festival enthused when the project was announced in 2008, as part of the 40th anniversary celebrations of the MJF.
The global economic crisis hit soon after.
It has taken two years to find the funds, one person close to the project told GenevaLunch, but it has a home as of December 2010, at the MetaMedia centre for new media announced 9 December at EPFL.
The importance of the project has repercussions for the entire music world: back in 2008 the joint announcement by the Lausanne polytechnic university and the festival noted that “Despite the use of the best state of the art technologies at the time of each recording, there is urgency for their safeguard.” The physical deterioration and technological obsolescence of the audio-visual media, says EPFL today, “of which there are no backup copies—has prompted the Montreux Jazz Festival to find a solution to manage these media in the long term.” Great 20th century recordings of music by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Phil Collins and David Bowie risked being lost.
Audemars Piguet, the Swiss watchmaking company, Montreux Sounds (owned by MJF founder Claude Nobs), Kudelski in Lausanne and EPFL have joined forces to make the digital record of 5,000 hours of music, representing some 4,000 artists. The group calls the collection of music “a unique treasure and without a doubt one of the greatest musical documents of the past 40 years”.
Protestors strike Royals’ car
The UK Parliament’s lower house, the House of Commons, has approved, after a lengthy debate, a tuition fee increase for university students, from £3,000 to 9,000 a year. The vote came Thursday evening 9 December and student protestors promptly let their anger be known in London’s streets, striking, among other cars, one in which Prince Charles and his wife Camilla were riding, on Regent Street. Neither was hurt, but a window was broken and the car was sprayed with paint.
The vote now goes to the House of Lords and if approved, to the Queen for her signature before it becomes law.
Lausanne, Zurich bottom of list in annual public administration school review
Swiss cantons financial index, source, IDHEAP, 2010. Legend: combined index, financial health, financial management
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva and Neuchatel fare well in the annual review of 20 Swiss cities by Idheap, the Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration in Lausanne. Zurich and Lausanne do less well, figuring at the bottom of the list.
The school, which publishes a number of studies and regular reports on Swiss public finances, presented the 2009 comparative report to journalists 24 November, although the report came out in late October. It measures the financial health of the Swiss confederation, the cantons and a selection of cities. It bases its ranking on two main factors: the extent to which expenses are covered by revenues and the quality of financial management.
Lausanne and Geneva, contrast in financial management
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Rolex’s new awards programme for entrepreneurs, the Young Laureates, pulled in some 600 people for the 11 November ceremony, where five people between 18 and 30 won recognition and prizes of $50,000 each for their projects.
The awards went to: Jacob Colker from the United States, Reese Fernandez from the Philippines, Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu from Nigeria, Piyush Tewari from India and Bruktawit Tigabu from Ethiopia. Their projects range from transforming volunteering for the 21st century to enabling impoverished women to create eco-ethical fashion goods, from developing interactive radio in order to promote sustainable farming, to training volunteers to provide rapid care to road accident victims and developing TV programmes to improve children’s health.
Bruktawit Tigabu’s video on her winning project: TV and children’s health
An independent review mandated by the British government has concluded that universities should be allowed to charge more than the currrent limit of £3,290 a year per student. If Lord Browne of Madingley’s plan is adopted, the recommendation could prompt a major increase in fees, up to £36,000 for a three-year degree programme. The coalition government is likely to run up against stiff opposition if it allows higher fees: the Liberal Democrat party in the coalition made an election promise to ban the fees altogether.
The study also recommended that funding be provided for 10 percent more places to meet the rising demand for university degree-level education and that students be given a higher earning threshold before they are required to start paying back their loans, from the current £15,000 a year to $21,000.
Solar Impulse on its maiden flight in July 2010
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Solar Impulse captured the public imagination 7 July with the success of its first night-time flight using only solar energy gathered during the day and stored. Now the plane is reaching out to a larger public as it prepares for a low-altitude flight to Geneva and from there to Zurich via Fribourg and Bern at the end of September. The flights are scheduled for sometime around 28 September, the centenary of a flight by Ernest Failloubaz, the first holder of a pilot’s licence in Switzerland, who flew from Avenches to Payerne in a Bleriot airplane.
The schedule and route for Solar Impulse will be announced closer to the date, depending on weather conditions.
A night for bats and bats aficionados. Plenty of activities for those attending from 19:30 to 21:30. RSVP recommended +41 22 418 6403.
Listen to WRS’s recap of the previous bat night across Switzerland.
Location: Place Favre, Chêne-Bourg
Link out: http://www.ville-ge.ch/mhng/cco/
Date: 3 Sep 2010
Professor Stanislav Smirnov of Unige wins Fields medal
India and Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – A professor at the University of Geneva, Unige, is among four scientist awarded the top mathematics prize in the world: the Fields Medal.
Stanislav Smirnov, 40, received the award for proving two fundamental conjectures in statistical physics. Specifically, the 2010 Fields medal was given to Smirnov for the “proof of conformal invariance of percolation and the planar Ising model in statistical physics.”
The award was presented to Smirnov on 19 August, opening day of the International Congress of Mathematicians in Hyderabad, India.
According to the description of his work given during the ceremony, Smirnov “gave elegant proofs of two long-standing, fundamental conjectures in statistical physics, finding surprising symmetries in mathematical models of physical phenomena.”
The mathematician was born in St Petersburg and after attending university in Russia moved to the United States to pursue his doctoral degrees. He has been a Professor at Unige since 2003.
