Humans aren’t the only living beings able to perceive the emotions of others and respond to them. When it comes to empathy, animals and people are more alike than not.
country: Switzerland
Stay updated with comprehensive news on Switzerland from Worldcrunch. Discover insights on Swiss politics, economic strategies, societal issues, and cultural landmarks with translations from top international sources. Highlights include Zurich, Geneva, and cultural events.
With the recent Iran and Greece agreements, diplomacy has regained its prior glory. Three former diplomats say negotiation is all about balancing tenacity and flexibility.
Stories for humans, like water for fish…
Severe heat doesn’t just threaten the physically vulnerable such as babies and the elderly. It also poses a serious risk to those suffering from anxiety.
A Swiss group has unveiled new white solar panels intended to blend in better with the country’s architecture.
Signs of eternal fashion in a new Geneva barbershop that serves men only, and only men who know what will never go out of style.
More and more countries are limiting cash transactions and the amount people can carry. Beyond the economic rationale, what are the moral implications?
After Swiss banking scandals shook global finance, arrests at the Zurich-based world soccer body shine a light on what’s wrong with business as usual in Switzerland.
Millions of gaming enthusiasts tune in to YouTube videos of Wartek’s live commentating on the gaming hit Call of Duty. Meet a new kind of Internet celebrity.
By the end, Pascal Bourquin will be 75 years old. It will take him 25 years to achieve his goal of walking every Swiss hiking trail, the equivalent of circling the earth twice.
When Patricia started hearing voices, she was fascinated. Within a year, she would wind up in the hospital. She now tries to cope with her illness, refusing medicine, opting for church and yoga.
Zurich has adopted a system that feeds past criminal information into an algorithm that can help predict when and where crimes will occur. Early indications are that it may actually be reducing crime rates.
A brother and sister have set Lausanne alight for the past two years with a celebration of “positive sex” and “alternative porn.” The Swiss city has been surprisingly submissive. Austin, Texas might call it the XXX answer to their SXSW
GENEVA — Drones are increasingly hovering over our heads. In the past six months, dozens of them were seen flying in France over sensitive Parisian sites, military installations and nuclear power plants. And with the threat of terrorist attacks, these machines are a real source of concern for the military and the police, and not […]
Scientists are increasingly revising the idea of human nature as inherently competitive and violent. A documentary explores the possibility of a prehistoric “utopia,” when people lived without cruelty or war.
The more time technology saves us, the less we feel we have. Three researchers explore this modern ‘double paradox.’
The dynamics of social networks have established a climate of caution for young people, whose sense of fun is more narcissistic and less political than previous generations.
Technology has transformed the world of prosthetics. But are all the bells and whistles, and the hefty price tags they require, really what ordinary patients need?
LAUSANNE — She’s seen me naked. How can I leave her? He brought me so much. How can I tell him I’m leaving? I spent so much time finding the right one. Now we’re supposed to just split up? And yet things were clear from the start: This was always going to be a temporary […]
DISENTIS — The snow hasn’t fallen yet, and the crowds are still to come. It’s a rainy December day under a low grey sky. A ray of sunshine sometimes pierces through the clouds to caress the eternal whiteness of eastern Switzerland’s summits. Having departed from the town of Coire, the small red train takes travelers […]
LUCERNE — In 2001 Kurt Mathis bought the Haldigrat chairlift “spontaneously,” after he’d read about it in the newspaper. The previous owners, two brothers from the Swiss canton of Aargau, felt that running it no longer was worth it. “It was a little bit like when I decided to marry my wife,” the 59-year-old says. […]
The past few years have seen Switzerland forced to reveal secret banking details to national authorities. That means a brutal job for the bankers of Geneva
Gender, virility, violence and fear: warmaking has long been thought to have a very specific and masculine identity. But a French researcher has shown that it’s not so simple.
A new Swiss study suggests that playing video games, especially first-person shooter games like GTA and Call of Duty, facilitates the kind of learning that could be useful for other tasks.
A Swiss NGO convenes representatives of 35 rebel groups in Geneva to talk about the mechanics, and great difficulties, of respecting humanitarian laws when fighting civil wars.
Especially since the breakthrough on the Higgs Boson particle, running CERN in Geneva may be the most influential job in physics. For the first time it will be filled by a woman.
LEIMBACH — At first glance, nothing distinguishes this apartment building on the outskirts of Zurich from those around it. Located on the upper reaches of a peaceful neighborhood in Leimbach, Switzerland, its sandy-colored walls are surrounded by a wild and vast garden. The tall trees of the Entlisberg Forest, perched on the nearby mountain, cast […]
Invented by Buddhist monks, secularized and developed by Western science, mindfulness seems to be everywhere. But the aim is to make the most of life, not to seek nirvana.
European universities are a bastion of original thinking, but as more and more gets taught and learned in the English-language, conformism is bound to spread.
Many of Google’s services have been created in Switzerland, and the Zurich site has grown from just two employees in 2004 to 1,300 today. It’s like a snow-capped Mountain View.
Switzerland’s Federal Council, it’s seven-member collective head of state, has been called to intervene to guarantee children the right to be heard, notably in divorce cases.
Video game competitions can attract millions of spectators online. A Swiss “cyber athlete” shares his story as the booming industry sets its sights on real-world credibility.
Tiny freshwater hydrae have incredible powers of regeneration. In the quest for human longevity, researchers in Switzerland are trying to learn from their very little and long lives.
Top executives and even ordinary folks use the skills of the French company Net Dating Assistant to pose for them online and woo would-be lovers.
GENEVA — In a way, the worst thing that could have happened for physicists at CERN, the world’s largest particle physics research center, was discovering the holy grail of physics — the so-called God particle, also known as Higgs boson. Because after finding it in July 2012 — and confirming it six months later, after […]
GENEVA — Philippe Rey-Gorrez, founder of the software company Teamwork, has a passionate belief in what can be achieved in groups. And this self-taught IT engineer, officer in the French army at 18 and sports enthusiast has applied his passion to his work in a very real way: He offers the 280 employees of his […]
GENEVA — When it comes to insomnia, some use the megaphone of the digital era, posting Facebook status updates to round up companions of misfortune — one-night or lifelong problem sleepers who want to talk. But there are myriad other coping mechanisms for this growing societal issue. And though insomnia can mean pure agony, it […]
“Science needs time. Bear with us, while we think,” declares a new movement of researchers pushing back against the demands to always make breakthroughs and publish findings.
The Chinese-born fashion designer creates clothes that react to light, sound, even a passing glance. What would Lady Gaga think?