ETH Zurich

When disaster strikes, drones and robots can be sent into danger zones to scout for survivors. The RoBoa from a student team at ETH Zurich is designed to snake its way through debris that would stop other solutions in their tracks.

Steering a wheelchair can be a strenuous, inefficient process, in that you have to brake with one rear wheel while pushing harder on the other. A clever new chair addresses that problem in a brilliant fashion, by using a moveable backrest to steer.

Microscopic battles rage around and in us at all times, involving surprisingly exciting weapons. Scientists have now observed a bacterium that attacks like a pirate ship, ensnaring its prey with grappling hooks and firing “cannons” that blow it open.

Vibration-absorbing, sound-damping materials such as sheets of rubber and expanded foam tend to be thick, bulky and soft. A new material is a big exception to that tendency, however, as it absorbs vibrations while staying stiff and thin.

The ANYmal quadruped robot not only walks on four legs, it can also roll on four wheels, stand up, throw boxes, and make its way up and down stairs. As if all that wasn't enough, the thing can now also climb ladders.

Gathering genetic material from treetops in tropical rainforests would be a near-impossible task to perform safely by hand. That's why scientists have developed a system that allows a drone to do the job, without even touching the trees itself.

While clay is widely used to build basic structures such as huts, we typically don't see it being utilized in large-scale construction projects. That could soon change, however, thanks to a recently developed process known as impact printing.

Doctors have successfully operated on a pig – from 9,300 km (5,780 miles) away. Surgeons in Switzerland used a game controller to perform an endoscopy in Hong Kong, paving the way for remote procedures in humans where local expertise isn’t available.

Researchers at Switzerland's ETH Zurich have devised a cheap and safe way to store hydrogen in ordinary steel-walled containers for months without losing it into the atmosphere – using iron.

We’ve all spent time and effort on pointless tasks so we look busy when the boss walks past. But now scientists have discovered a new type of fat cell in the body that does the same thing, burning energy and producing heat with pointless busywork.

When you live on the Moon, your only option for commuting back to Earth or on to Mars will be some kind of rocket. But each launch will kick up a hellstorm of debris. Building walls to contain the mess could be a perfect job for autonomous rovers.

If you want to run faster, it definitely helps if you know what it feels like to run faster. The Airshield was designed with that fact in mind, as it allows runners to train without experiencing any air resistance.