Archive News

March 12, 2020Host and parasites are often engaged in an evolutionary arms race. Researchers at Eawag have intervened in this warring relationship and demonstrated how it can be used to improve biological pest control.

March 10, 2020In the project "LeCo - "Legionella control in buildings", a number of research groups have joined to tackle the legionella issue in a wide-ranging, multidisciplinary research project. Project leader Frederik Hammes explains why this is so important.

March 3, 2020Inhalation of legionella bacteria – which thrive in warm water – can cause illness: in a new project, an Eawag-led multidisciplinary research team is investigating how the risks associated with these bacteria can best be managed.

February 27, 2020Precipitation varies substantially in terms of location and time. With climate change increasing this variability, urban stormwater systems are also affected – not least in Switzerland. How exactly their performance may change has been investigated by Eawag researcher Lauren Cook in the dissertation she has written at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (USA).

February 24, 2020Geochemist Denise Mitrano received this year’s SNSF Eccellenza Professorial Fellowship. This fellowship enables her to establish her own research group at the ETH Zurich as an assistant professor. She would like to use this opportunity to get one step closer to her career goal: to become a full professor.

February 20, 2020Degradation products of the fungal agent chlorothalonil are found widely in groundwater on the Swiss Plateau, even in places where it is used as drinking water. Dealing with these substances is becoming a challenge for waterworks. There is a wide range between rash immediate measures and concealing the problem. An Eawag fact sheet serves to contribute to an objective discussion and longer-term strategies.

February 17, 2020Eawag and the Eawag spin-off Vuna have made urine fertiliser production mobile. Today, the Urine Express will be presented at a very special location in Biel: next to the first public grass tennis court in Switzerland. In future, the tennis court is to be fertilised with urine fertiliser.

February 10, 2020Microbial communities are known to be indispensable for our planet. But surprisingly little is known about how they function. Researchers at the aquatic research institute Eawag are now shedding a little light on this subject: A new method enables them to observe the interaction between microorganisms.

February 4, 2020Although use of the fungicide hexachlorobenzene has been banned since 2004, this compound is chemically stable – and accumulates in the polar regions where humpback whales replenish their fat reserves each year. Cell line studies conducted at Eawag have now shown that, while hexachlorobenzene does not have acute toxic effects, it can cause damage to DNA in humpback whale cells.

January 27, 2020“Innovative and successful: the start-ups and spin-offs in the ETH Domain” – this is the motto which Eawag used to present itself at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos.