Now that scientists have uncovered the elusive Higgs boson particle, it’s time for them to move on to another piece of the puzzle: the mysterious substance that fills one quarter of the universe – dark matter.
Tag: switzerland
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In This Museum: Please Touch The Artwork
A joint exhibition between two Swiss museums invites visitors to experience the sensory, and sometimes sensual world of touch – by squeezing, scratching, feeling and stroking the works of art.
LE TEMPS (Switzerland) Worldcrunch BERN – A study by Swiss foreign policy think-tank Foraus says that aid development policies in poor countries have no direct effect on reducing immigration flows, Le Temps reports. The study found that most migrants come from countries that are already emerging or developed, but where there aren’t enough jobs, like […]
Swiss researchers have discovered that the more grey matter in your brain, the more generous you were likely to be, as individuals use the mental power to “overcome the natural selfishness of man.”
In his only interview following news that confirmed the existence of his Higgs boson, the British physicist recounts the long years of uncertainty, the tears at Wednesday’s announcement — as well as a certain bet that Stephen Hawking must now pa
REUTERS, NEW SCIENTIST, CERN (Switzerland) Worldcrunch GENEVA – Physicists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva have announced that they have observed a new subatomic particle that may well be the crucial Higgs boson, a.k.a. the “God particle,” thus potentially putting an end to an almost 50-year-long game of hide-and-seek with the […]
Essay: Swiss supermarket chain Migros plans to introduce a special label for products imported from Jewish settlements in occupied Palestinian territory. This attempt at “transparency”instead recalls the ‘J’ that Nazis
20 MINUTEN ONLINE (Switzerland) ZURICH – “Maybe we need another Kristallnacht…this time for mosques.” That tweet was sent from the account of Alexander Müller, a member of the Schweizerische Volkspartei (SVP), a right-wing populist party. The Kristallnacht, or Night of Broken Glass, is the name given to an infamous night in 1938, when the Nazis […]
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Can Solar Panels Cause Plane Crashes?
TAGES ANZEIGER (Switzerland) ZURICH – Clear, sunny skies typically make for safe airplane travel. But according to the Swiss Tages Anzeiger newspaper, airport officials in Zurich are worried that the reflected sunlight from solar panels planned for a nearby church steeple could blind pilots while they are landing. This is not the first time this […]
A new Internet service allows dead people to communicate with their loved ones via social media. Is this crazy or just the thing to help us grieve in the 21st century?
Essay: The UN’s inaugural 1992 Summit in Rio was full of hope, seen for years as a watershed in facing the dangers of ecological ruin. Now it is more clear than ever that economic priorities still rule.
Essay: A Swiss writer settles his score with Buddhism, which he calls “manipulative” and “brainwashing.” Facing reality is a much more *centered road to salvation.
A new tax agreement signed with Germany, Britain and Austria has the smaller Swiss banks thinking about “phasing out” customers from these countries, while bigger banks like UBS and Credit Suisse are rubbing their hands with glee.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we are sorry to inform you that we cannot proceed to takeoff because we are still waiting to receive papers for the radioactive cargo on board – please excuse the delay….”
Call it the Internet’s ‘Neutral Territory’ – Switzerland is one of the few places in the world where Internet users can take whatever they want from the Web, regardless of the source. But creators of content are fighting back.
ROMANDIE.COM, LE TEMPS (Switzerland) BERN – Switzerland seems to know its priorities. While economic storm clouds continue to gather over Europe, lawmakers in the landlocked country were busy this week negotiating what to do about marine mammals. The western world is undergoing one of its worst crises ever, but Switzerland “is taking all the time […]
TAGES-ANZEIGER (Switzerland) ZURICH – Sparks are set to fly as groups on both sides of the right-to-die debate prepare to descend on Zurich – with just one street to divide them. The Swiss city is known throughout the world as being something of a mecca for the practice of assisted suicide and what’s been dubbed, […]
Some Swiss are questioning the parallel lifestyle of rich and highly skilled migrants, some of whom come for tax breaks. The foreign residents are often set apart, for good, in their choice of schools. Can this be remedied?
Mushroom lovers beware. Health authorities in Zurich recently destroyed 10 tons of Ukrainian mushrooms after determining that the wild fungi contained unacceptable levels of radiation.
Who foots the bill if a doctor decides on a treatment option that is not approved for the medical condition in question? Insurers say they’re under no obligation to pay, even if the treatment was effective. And if the doctor’s “off label” choice saves a p
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Are Power Moms The New Gays?
Essay: ‘Brigitte Mom’ is a new German magazine for the post-modern mother, who the publishers want us to believe are the hippest urban creatures since upwardly mobile gays and lesbians.
American artist Jeff Koons wows again in a new exhibit at the Beyeler Foundation outside Basel, Switzerland. Divided into three parts – the new, banality and celebration – the show is unapologetically trite but wholly seductive.
Mounting a television screen on a urinal is the latest way for advertisers to reach a “captive” audience — in this case, exclusively male.
Some working parents couldn’t make it without the grandparents taking on steady child-care duties. But in Zurich, Switzerland, if the kids are with the grandparents for an extended stay, it must be reported to the city — or the family risks a fi
As one case regarding whistleblowers selling account information to German tax authorities is closed, Switzerland is faced with a new whistle-blowing scandal as two Swiss banks employees hand over client information to U.K. tax officials.
Scientists have begun to develop high-tech “guardian angels” to constantly keep tabs on your health – in your clothes and jewelry. But privacy – and health – questions loom.
Color expert Katrin Trautwein “could never live anywhere that has white walls.” Her three-room apartment in Uster, Switzerland is proof of that. But she rejects the “naïve” notion that yellow is necessarily sunny, or that beige is always bland.
As divorce and blended families are becoming mainstream –think of the Brady Bunch as pioneers in the field– the homes where they live have to adapt to the new family dynamic. Architects and real estate agencies are eager to jump on the bandwagon.
The newest trend on the red carpet: Why are it-girls and stars carrying a book under their arm, heading to a movie premiere with Nabokov’s Lolita or Albert Camus’s La Peste? Well, look inside.
Esther G. fell in love at the tender age of 16. She didn’t want to have sex, however, unless she was married. And she didn’t want to marry until she was much older. And so she waited – for about 10 years. Was it worth the wait?
A federal court in Switzerland rules that rent should not be based solely on market conditions, but on how much the landlord originally paid for the property.
Smoking lounges are enjoying a comeback in Switzerland. The sixth-floor smoker’s room at the Bon Génie in Geneva, for example, boasts a Mad Men-style ambience and a state-of-the-art ventilation system. Beats having to puff away in the alley out back.
Op-Ed: Switzerland is the only European country where girls are allowed to work as prostitutes beginning at age 16. That’s a reasonable age of sexual consent. But for sex workers, Switzerland lives in sin until it raises the minimum age for prostitution t
Dmitri and Elena Rybolovlev are fighting a brutal battle over the Russian oligarch’s fortune. Tracking down and dividing the epic assets of one of the richest men on the planet is an endless task.
Thanks to their thick walls, Zurich’s historic buildings are in some cases more energy efficient than their more modern counterparts. That’s certainly the case if you compare them to 1960s-era constructions like the building that houses
The Natural History Museum in Switzerland has just opened a fascinating exhibition dedicated to a rather odd subject: poop. Called KK.ZOO, the exhibition is far more pleasant than it sounds. Highlights include a 65-million-year-old T-Rex turd.
Authorities in Switzerland’s Geneva canton would love to bid adieu to the area’s non law-abiding asylum seekers. They’re now offering people a new incentive to ship off on their own accord: cash. But when does the offer go too far?
After 15 years of running the “Hut” at the base of the Matterhorn mountain, Kurt Lauber knows the peak like a big brother. The “Watchman” has roped together memories of perilous rescues and the daily quirks of a mountain life.
A new system is being used in Zurich to avoid potentially dangerous teachers from being hired which aims to keep certain profiles permanently barred from the profession.
A right-wing politician wants the public’s help hunting for foreign-born criminals in Switzerland. Echoing the outrage in the U.S. over the shooting of black teenager Trayvon Martin, Swiss critics say this is the most dangerous kind of racial pro