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AI increases Precision in Plant Observation
Artificial intelligence (AI) can help plant scientists collect and analyze unprecedented volumes of data, which would not be possible using conventional methods. Researchers at the University of Zurich (UZH) have now used big data, machine learning and field observations in the university’s experimental garden to show how plants respond to changes in the environment.
UZH Press Release, September 2023
Tracing Chile’s Indigenous Roots Through Genetics and Linguistics
How do today’s indigenous communities of South America trace back to the history of human migration and contact in the continent? An international team has worked to reconstruct the legacy of Chile’s largest indigenous community, the Mapuche, in a quest to strengthen their representation in the history of the continent. It appears the Mapuche long lived in relative isolation but do bear some influences from other populations of the Central Andes and the far south of Chile.
UZH Press Release, June 2023
Does the history of our languages match the history of our genes? A team of scientists at the University of Zurich and the Max-Planck-Institute have revealed a large number of matches – but also widespread mismatches in around 20 percent of cases, including in Malta, Hungary and Namibia.
UZH Press Release, 22 Nov 2022
Threatened Aldabra Giant Tortoise Genome Decoded
They can live for more than 100 years and weigh up to 250 kilograms – Aldabra giant tortoises. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now decoded the genome of Aldabrachelys gigantea, one of only two remaining giant tortoise species worldwide. The findings will help to ensure the long-term survival of the threatened species.
UZH Press Release, 12 Oct 2022
Im alten Ägypten wurden die Organe der Toten separat in speziellen Gefässen einbalsamiert. Wissenschafter haben erstmals genetisches Material daraus gewonnen. Sie hoffen so zum Beispiel herauszufinden, welche Krankheitserreger die Menschen in sich trugen.
NZZ, 18.08.2022
Frogs Use Brains or Camouflage to Evade Predators
How do frogs protect themselves from predators? Some species rely on cognitive predator evasion, using their large brains and strong hind legs. For species exposed to high predation pressure, however, this strategy takes too much energy, and effective camouflage to avoid being detected in the first place may be preferable. Evolutionary biologists at the University of Zurich now reveal how these different survival strategies evolved in frogs.
UZH News, 18 Aug 2022
Die Sommer werden heisser. Kommen Tiere, Pflanzen und Mikroorganismen damit klar?
Neue Untersuchungen deuten darauf hin, dass ihnen dies weniger gut gelingt als erhofft.
NZZ am Sonntag, 13.08.2022
Global Spread of Powdery Mildew through Migration and Trade
The worldwide distribution of one of the most important cereal pathogens is the result of human activity. Researchers at the University of Zurich have traced the history and spread of wheat powdery mildew along wheat trade routes and found that mixing of genetic ancestries of related powdery mildew species played a central role in the evolution and adaptation of the pathogen.
UZH Press Release, 3 August 2022
Green genetic engineering will help secure our food supply, believes plant biologist Beat Keller. One possible approach involves genetically modifying wheat to make it more resistant to powdery mildew.
UZH News, 12 Juli 2022
In the Beginning Was the Popcorn
Genetically modified crops could contribute to making agriculture more sustainable and productive, says Ueli Grossniklaus. This new green genetic engineering has so far met with skepticism – but the challenges of climate change and the global grain crisis may change people’s views.
UZH News, 22 June 2022
Wundersaft Sperma: Ein Teelöffel Erbinformation (ab 29:30)
Sperma - der Stoff, aus dem Leben entsteht. Das Ejakulat, ein Protein-Shake. Im Wundersaft tummeln sich bis zu 600 Millionen Samenzellen. Gut 1,5 Gigabyte an Erbinformation enthalten Spermien.
3sat, Wissenschaftsdoku, 13.1.2022
Delta, Omikron & Co: Wie werden neue Virus-Varianten entdeckt?
Das Coronavirus hat unser Leben noch immer fest im Griff. Doch was ist eine Virus-Variante? Wie wird eine Veränderung im Virus entdeckt?
SRF Kinder News, 11.12.2021
Do languages and genes share cultural evolutionary history?
Languages and genes tell stories about the past but statistical analysis reveals that these are not always the same.
Science Advances, 6 Oct 2021
Die Grammatik steckt in unseren Genen
Wie ist Sprache entstanden? Und wie hat sie sich entwickelt? Sprachwissenschaftler blicken immer weiter zurück in die Vergangenheit der Menschheit – dank neuer Methoden.
SRF, 24.08.2021
What If Our History Was Written In Our Grammar?
Humans have been always on the move, creating a complex history of languages and cultural traditions dispersed over the globe. An international team under UZH’s lead has now traced families of related languages over more than 10,000 years by combining data from genetics, linguistics and musicology using novel digital methods. Their findings: grammar reflects best the common prehistory of a population and therefore mirrors genetics more than any other cultural feature.
UZH Press Release, 19.8.2021
In the animal kingdom, it’s the ladies who get to pick their partners. So if males want to mate, they have to woo females and outshine their rivals. UZH biologist Stefan Lüpold examines what gives male animals the edge when it comes to sexual selection.
UZH Magazin, 2/2021
Originating in Africa, homo sapiens spread across the globe, and with it the human language. A project is now underway to trace the genealogy of the world's languages with the help of highly advanced methods borrowed from big data, genetics and geostatistics.
UZH Magazin, 2/2021
Evolution passiert hier, jetzt und schnell
Evolution ist kein langsamer Prozess, sondern geschieht tagtäglich. Das zeigt die Ausstellung «evolution happens!» im Zoologischen Museum unter anderem am Beispiel der Antibiotikaresistenz.
SRF, 16.06.2021
Evolution geschieht hier und jetzt / Evolution Happens, Here and Now
Eine neue Sonderausstellung im Zoologischen Museum der Universität Zürich macht mit Beispielen aus Medizin, Landwirtschaft und Naturschutz die Evolution und ihre Konsequenzen in unserem Alltag sicht- und greifbar. Die Ausstellungsinhalte wurden in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Universitären Forschungsschwerpunkt (UFSP) «Evolution in Aktion: Vom Genom zum Ökosystem» erarbeitet.
A new special exhibition at the Zoological Museum of the University of Zurich shines the spotlight on evolution and its consequences in our everyday lives. The exhibition, which uses examples from medicine, agriculture and nature conservation, was developed in collaboration with the University Research Priority Program (URPP) Evolution in Action: From Genomes to Ecosystems.
UZH Medienmitteilung / Press Release, 14.6.2021
Wissenschafter an der Universität Irchel können erkennen, wo sich die Covid-19-Varianten aus England und Südafrika bei uns verbreiten.
NZZ, 3.3.2021
Ernährung, Stress, soziales Engagement: All das beeinflusst nicht nur uns, sondern im Zweifel auch unsere Kinder und Enkel, sagt Isabelle Mansuy.
taz, 25.1.2021
Play is so important that nature invented it long before it invented us. By Andreas Wagner.
Nautilus, December 16, 2020
Natural Selection also Increases the Adaptability of Organism
Natural selection causes organisms to adapt continuously. Researchers at the University of Zurich now show for the first time that proteins in bacteria develop a new property more rapidly when the selection pressure is high. Natural selection can thus also increase the evolutionary capacity itself.
UZH Press Release, 3 December 2020
According to Isabelle Mansuy’s research, the epigenome – which can switch our genes on and off – can be modified, positively or negatively, by our lifestyle choices. At least some of these modifications are passed down through the generations.
UZH News, 30 Nov 2020
Wheat Diversity Due to Cross-Hybridization with Wild Grasses
Bread wheat can grow in highly diverse regional environments. An important reason for its great genetic variety is the cross-hybridization with many chromosome fragments from wild grasses. This is shown by the genome sequences of 10 wheat varieties from four continents, which an international consortium including researchers from the University of Zurich has now decoded.
UZH Press Release, 25 November 2020
Covid-19 ist ein Weckruf: Wir sind nicht allein auf diesem Planeten
Was richten Pandemien mit einer Gesellschaft an? Verena Schünemann ist Paläogenetikerin und erforscht alte Krankheiten von Menschen, Tieren und Pflanzen, um daraus für die Gegenwart und die Zukunft zu lernen.
Podcast 'Im Gespräch', Republik, 13.11.2020
Host Genetic Factors Shape Composition of Virus Communities
Plants can be infected by multiple viruses at once. However, the composition of the pathogen community varies, even if individuals belong to the same species and the same population. Ecologists at the University of Zurich have now shown that these differences are primarily due to genetic variation among the hosts. The loss of genetic diversity could thus render species more vulnerable to infections and extinction.
UZH Press Release, 5 November 2020
Evolutionary biologist Kentaro Shimizu gathers flowers from a Swiss alpine meadow and cultivates Japanese wheat in a garden on UZH’s Irchel Campus. He wants to find out how plants are adapting to climate change.
UZH News, 22 Oct 2020
Krankheiten als Erbe der Evolution
Warum wird der Mensch krank? Der Homo sapiens ist aus Sicht der Evolutionsbiologie eine Mängelkonstruktion - seit jeher anfällig für Leiden aller Art. Krankheit ist Erbe unserer Evolution.
3sat, scobel, 22.10.2020
Languages and Genes Shed Light on pre-Incan Cultural Development in Central Andes
A recent study combines newly available analyses and methods from linguistics and genetics to tackle a long-standing topic in archaeological research, confirming the demographic and cultural elements of a north-south divide in the Central Andes.
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Press Release, October 21, 2020
Diese Pflanze blüht nur auf dem Urnerboden
Besondere Entdeckung im Hochtal - Die Evolution brauche Millionen Jahre, glauben wir. Eine Alpenblume belegt, dass sich neue Arten auch innert 150 Jahren entwickeln können.
Tagesanzeiger, 17.10.2020
Evolution in Action: New Plant Species at Urnerboden
A new plant species named "Cardamine insueta" appeared in the region of Urnerboden in the Swiss alps, after the land has changed from forest to grassland over the last 150 years. The inheritance of two key traits from its parent plants enabled the newly emerged species to grow in a distinct environmental niche, as researches from the University of Zurich now show.
UZH Press Release, 6 October 2020
Füchse in Zürich haben plötzlich Pfoten und Schädel wie Haustiere. Fische jagen Tauben. Insekten fliegen nicht mehr ins Licht. In kürzester Zeit passen sich Tiere und Pflanzen der Stadt an. Darwin wäre überrascht gewesen, wie schnell das geht. «Einstein» über erstaunlich flexible Stadtbewohner.
TV: SRF 1, Einstein, 1. Oktober 2020
Whether hot or cold, wet or dry: the fruit fly is comfortable just about everywhere. A European research network has been investigating how evolution helps it to adapt to new environments.
Horizons, 03/09/2020
Wie viel Migration steckt in dir?
Woher komme ich? Welche Spuren meiner Vorfahren trage ich in mir? Mag ich gerne Kaiserschmarrn, weil das die Leibspeise meiner österreichischen Urgrossmutter war? Mein Temperament, dank einem Schuss italienischer DNA vom Grossvater? Verrät der DNA Test wirklich Schlaues über uns?
Radio SRF 1, 26. August 2020
Syphilis May Have Spread through Europe before Columbus
Columbus brought syphilis to Europe – or did he? A recent study conducted at the University of Zurich now indicates that Europeans could already have been infected with this sexually transmitted disease before the 15th century. In addition, researchers have discovered a hitherto unknown pathogen causing a related disease. The predecessor of syphilis and its related diseases could be over 2,500 years old.
UZH Press Release, 13 August 2020
Aus Pandemien der Vergangenheit lernen: Genetik alter Krankheitserreger
Podcast von Verena Schünemann im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung der Kommission UZH Interdisziplinär "Covid-19: Universitäre Verantwortung in Zeiten globaler Verwerfungen" vom 15. Juni 2020
Neues Verfahren revolutioniert Corona-Tests
Moderne Sequenziertechnologien analysieren innert Stunden Milliarden von DNA-Bausteinen. Eine Gruppe von Forschenden am Zentrum für funktionelle Genomik zeigt, wie die rasante Technologie für Corona-Reihentests nutzbar gemacht werden kann: Hunderttausende von Tests innert Tagen sind möglich.
UZH News, 12.06.2020
Newly Identified Gene Reduces Pollen Number of Plants
Producing fewer sperm cells can be advantageous in self-fertilizing plants. An international study led by the University of Zurich has identified a gene in the model plant Arabidopsis that reduces the number of pollen. In addition to supporting the evolutionary theory, these findings could help to optimize plant breeding and domestication in agriculture.
UZH Press Release, 8 June 2020
In a unique project, researchers from the University of Zurich have been observing a population of wild house mice for 17 years. They’re learning things they’d never see in the lab. We’ve gone on a field trip to visit them in their barn.
Horizons, 04/06/2020
Coronavirus SARS‐CoV‐2: filtering fact from fiction in the infodemic
Q&A with virologist Professor Urs Greber
FEBS Letters, April 2020
Thanks to neurotechnology, it could soon be possible to read people’s thoughts, says linguist Balthasar Bickel. While fascinating from a medical perspective, it’s also incredibly dangerous. We sat down with the linguistics expert to discuss the future of language and its origins.
UZH Magazin, 1/20
With their ability to maintain life-long friendships and form coalitions within wide social networks, the dolphins in Shark Bay, Australia, display a complex social life. This is a sign of intelligence, says anthropologist Michael Krützen.
UZH Magazin, 1/20
Ancient Hornwort Genomes Could Lead to Crop Improvement
An international research team led by the University of Zurich and the Boyce Thompson Institute illuminate the origin of land plants by analyzing the first hornwort genomes. In this ancient group of land plants, they discovered genes that could help crops grow more efficiently with less synthetic fertilizer.
UZH Press Release, 16 March 2020
Coronavirus: Wir sind noch immer Jäger und Sammler, zumindest ein bisschen
NZZ, 11 March 2020
Herbarium genomics - Opportunities and challenges
PlantScienceNews, No. 37, Spring 2020
Forscher der Uni Zürich entdecken riesiges Schildkröten-Fossil
Die Wissenschaftler haben einen sensationellen Fund gemacht. Nun muss der Stammbaum des Panzertiers überarbeitet werden.
Tagesanzeiger, 13 February 2020
Ausgezeichnete Medizinforschung
Vier Forscher der Universität Zürich und des Universitätsspitals Zürich wurden mit dem Pfizer Forschungspreis 2020 ausgezeichnet. Mit ihrer Forschung leisten sie Beiträge zur Bekämpfung von HIV-Infektionen und Multipler Sklerose.
UZH News, 10 February 2020
Diverse ways to think about cancer
What can we learn about cancer by studying it across the tree of life?
Mètode 103, December 2019
When it comes to disease-causing viruses, medicine is still waiting for a breakthrough. The reason lies in the special way these quasi-living organisms function. Viruses don’t simply attack us; they live in constant symbiosis with us.
UZH Magazin, 4/19
A new National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) will be based at the University of Zurich. Entitled “Evolving Language”, it will investigate the origins and future of language. UZH linguist Balthasar Bickel will serve as co-director of the research network alongside Anne-Lise Giraud from the University of Geneva. The national network includes numerous other universities and research institutes within Switzerland.
UZH News, 18 December 2019
Open science is gaining momentum. According to Mark Robinson and Marc Thommen, the open science delegates newly appointed by UZH to support the transformation to greater cooperation, the movement will bring about major changes in the academic system.
UZH Journal, December 2019
Through heat, saline soil or aridity, the environment can directly influence the activity of genes. As the biologist Ueli Grossniklaus has demonstrated, in plants these epigenetic changes can sometimes be inherited.
UZH News, 20 October 2019
Frank Rühli is an evolutionary medicine expert who is conducting pioneering research on mummified entrails. He recently became the first person to study the Egyptian Museum’s collection of canopic jars from an interdisciplinary perspective.
UZH News, 9 October 2019
Exploring the Mystery of Plant Diversity
Professor Kentaro Shimizu (45), of the University of Zurich in Switzerland, is trying to uncover the secrets to plant diversity by decoding plant genes while conducting field work in the Swiss Alps. Most organisms including animals have only about 20,000 to 30,000 genes, and Shimizu is hoping to understand why there are so many different species of organisms living on the earth. Through his research, he's learned that the numbers of chromosomes inherited from parents play a significant role in the evolution and diversification of living organisms. Shimizu is also applying his research findings to creating an improved wheat variety that will survive the changing global environment. We'll follow Professor Shimizu as he explores the mystery of plant diversity.
NHK World-Japan, 4 September 2019
Menschheitsgeschichte in Südamerika vor der Kolonialzeit (in German)
Über das Leben und die Kulturen der Menschen in Südamerika vor der Kolonialzeit gibt es nur wenige Informationen. Eine Studie der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft und der Universität Zürich hat nun neue Erkenntnisse über die Menschheitsgeschichte auf dem Kontinent gewonnen. Interview mit Chiara Barbieri.
detektor.fm, 29 August 2019
Humans May Have Had Key Role in Cave Bear Extinction
Humans may have played a substantial role in the extinction of the European cave bear at the end of the last ice age. These findings of a study with the involvement of the University of Zurich suggest a drastic cave bear population decline starting around 40,000 years ago.
UZH Press Release, 16 August 2019
Hidden Genetic Variations Power Evolutionary Leaps
Laboratory populations that quietly amass "cryptic" genetic variants are capable of surprising evolutionary leaps, according to a paper in the July 26 issue of Science. A better understanding of cryptic variation may improve directed evolution techniques for developing new biomolecules for medical and other applications.
UZH Press Release, 25 July 2019
Mice hint at how people’s emotional trauma may affect the biology of their children—and their children’s children.
Science, 19 July 2019
Interplay of Pollinators and Pests Influences Plant Evolution
Brassica rapa plants pollinated by bumblebees evolve more attractive flowers. But this evolution is compromised if caterpillars attack the plant at the same time. With the bees pollinating them less effectively, the plants increasingly self-pollinate. In a greenhouse evolution experiment, scientists at the University of Zurich have shown just how much the effects of pollinators and pests influence each other.
UZH Press Release, 11 April 2019
The University of Zurich offers attractive research opportunities, including such for postdocs from abroad – this becomes clear by looking at some of the researchers who thanks to EU grants have been able to work in the lab of their choice.
UZH Journal, November 2018
Shraddha Karve is a postdoc at the Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies. She researches the stress resistance of bacteria and the evolution of proteins. She is currently organizing a conference to strengthen cooperation between researchers from India and UZH. We met with her to find out more.
UZH News, 5 September 2018
