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On 1 January, 1942, a document was signed by 26 states, coining theterm "United Nations". The Declaration of the United Nations exteal linkpledged that their govements wouldcontinue fighting together against the Axis Powers. Swiss Public Television, RTS, takes a closer look at attempts to make historic documents like these available to a wider public. (RTS/swissinfo.ch) The Geneva archives are testament to efforts to establish peace through diplomacy.The League of Nations wasthe predecessor of the United Nations, and was the firstinteational organisation that set out to achieve world peace.The 26 years of the League's history are summed up in 15 million pages. These documents will soon be av...

A demonstratoris detained by police during a protest rallyin Moscowearlier this year.(Keystone / EPA / Maxim Shipenkov) The automatic exchange of tax information (AIE) between countries is generally seen as an effective way of cracking down on tax cheats. But what if a country uses the data to politically oppress its citizens? It’s a buin...

Here are the stories to look forward to on swissinfo.ch for the week begiing September 25, 2017. (Keystone) MondayWe’ll havereactions from the September 24 votes - 'no' to pension reform and 'yes' tofood security. What will political pundits say about launching another attempt to ensure there is enoughmoney in the state coffers to payfor...

While expats considered Switzerland’s leisure options, such as Zurich’s techno parade, to be average, they appreciated the country’s security and stability (Keystone) In expat heaven, safety levels are Swiss, leisure options are South African, teachers are Fiish and neighbours are Mexican. In expat hell, safety levels areSouth African, leisure options are Fiish,teachers are Mexicanand...

This content was published on September 9, 2017 11:00 AMSep 9, 2017 - 11:00A record number of visitors – 30,000 – tued out for the biaual science days hosted by the University of Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH Zurich. Over the course of three days, some 300 researchers welcomed visitors at 60 stands, 40 lectures, and 14 workshops covering topics like health, robotics...

The Jungfraujoch monitoring station, home to several research projects, sits at 3,466 metres above sea level (© KEYSTONE / GAETAN BALLY) Swiss scientists recording greenhouse gas emissions from the Jungfraujoch Alpine station are working to have their data recognised by those enforcing the Par...

Inteational polls rank Be as one of the safest capital cities to live in on the planet. swissinfo.ch found out what it means to feel secure there. The city, with its thriving economy and excellent infrastructure, seems to offer a great quality of life. People appear to be pretty relaxed about p...

The pharma industry is relying more and more on data and technology. (Keystone) Big pharma companies are tuing to big data in an attempt to keep up with shifts in market demand.Swiss-based Novartis is no different. After many years building successful technology businesses, Jeremy Sohn neve...

Global warming naturally comes to mind as a topic for reflection while Switzerland swelters in a Europe-wide heatwave. To help inform our thinking about this, swissinfo.ch compiledmore than 150 years of Swiss temperature data in graphics. It illustrates both the changing climate and hotter temperat...

Unprecedented amounts of digital information, plusadvanced computing platforms to store and analyseit, bringopportunities to create value from big data – as well as certain dangers (Keystone) It’s a ubiquitous buzzword, but “big data” is about to bring a wealth of opportunities to Switzerla...

Flesh and bones meet machines in a bid to improve healthcare (Keystone) At the University Hospital of Giessen and Marburg 6,000 patients are waiting for a diagnosis of their rare conditions. In a good year, doctors can only diagnose 1,000 of them. A Zurich-developed artificial intelligence system it’s now using can diagnose baffling cases in days. Most patients have spent years bouncing from one doctor to another, building up huge dossiers of medical notes. Rare diseases typically take at least five years to correctly name, and sometimes up to 30, by which time it can be too late for effective treatment. “This is an inefficient, costly business,” Dr Jurgen Schafer, who heads the German u...

If every byte of information on the inteet needs a physical location where it’s stored, one of the safest places to keep this data might be inside a Swiss mountain. (Carlo Pisani, swissinfo.ch) Around 80 kilometres from Zurich it is one of the largest Swiss military bunkers ever built. In 2011 the bunker was converted into a data centre that’s now run by the company Deltalis. Located close to one of Europe’s major inteet backbones – the cables ruing under the motorway between Milan and Zurich – it benefits from fast response times over the inteet, or low latency. Given Switzerland’s reputation for stability and relatively restrictive laws on data secrecy (the Swiss authorities are only allow...

Scientist are calling for the replacement of old heating systems in Swiss buildings. An iovative facade producing solar energy was added to a renovated apartment house in the city of Zurich (Stephanie Hess) A renowned energy specialist has called on Zurich’s cantonal parliament to replace old oil and gas heating systems with new, more sustainable technology. A special tool, the individual initiative, gives citizens an additional instrument to engage in politics. It is not as if Swiss scientists have nothing to say in their fields of expertise – just take the experts at Geneva's CERN research centre, others developing important robotic parts, or Bertrand Piccard and his round-the-world fl...

So far, no genetically modified food crop has been commercialised in India even though field trials of some like GM mustard is underway (Keystone) Despite a current ban on genetically modified crops in agriculture in Switzerland, taxpayer money is being used to develop transgenic crops in India. Some outputs of this research have even been licensed to a private company with links to Monsanto. The humble chickpea - or chana as it is commonly known in India - is a tasty legume that is rich in protein. It is used in a wide range of curries, street food and even served to devotees visiting Hindu temples. But not all the delicious chickpeas grown in the fields reach the plates –or banana leav...

While anxious about the post-Brexit risks for the UK, the Roche CEOwas upbeat on the future of the pharma sector in the US (Keystone) Roche, the Swiss pharmaceutical company, has waed that the UK risks losing its lead in medical research after leaving the European Union. The Swiss group called for Britain to move quickly to replace European regulations with rules that give patients access to iovative treatments or else risk delays in developing crucial medicines. The future of local drug regulation was "my biggest worry in the UK", said Severin Schwan, Roche's chief executive. London-based European Medicines Agency, which supervises drugs used in the EU, is expected to relocate to another ...

Rumours spread fast on social media, and finding out what's true or false can be difficult. At swissinfo.ch we've been testing out an automated way to do exactly this, as part of a project called Pheme. We also find out how our data joualist, Duc-Quang Nguyen, finds data sources in Switzerland, and how he tus them into articles. Do you want to know how joualists sort fact from fiction at swissinfo.ch? Get in touch with the producer of this programme, joualist Jo Fahyon twitter or on Facebook. Let's block ads! بخوانید...

How the brain processes odour signals into actions and behaviours is still something of a scientific mystery. (imago/blickwinkel) How do fruit flies use their noses to sniff out the rotting fruits they love so well? That’s what award-wiing scientist Richard Benton is trying to understand, and his work could help fight one of Switzerland’s newest invasive pests. They say you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, but for University of Lausae researcher Richard Benton, it’s more than a finger-wagging adage – it’s a testable hypothesis. Benton’s research passion is the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. More specifically, it is D. melanogaster’s sense of smell, which plays a m...

Justice Minister Sommaruga (centre) and Economics Minister Schneider-Amma (right) during Friday's news conference in Be (Keystone) The Swiss cabinet has proposed to use a unilateral safeguard clause to curb immigration if it is unable to reach agreement with the European Union on limiting influxes of foreigners. The cabinet aounced the plans, despite opposition by Brussels, in order to implement the controversial rightwing initiative, approved by voters two years ago, to re-introduce quotas for EU citizens. Under the proposal to be submitted to parliament, Switzerland claims the right to limit free access to the labour market due to serious economic or social problems. Economics Minis...

Justice Minister Sommaruga (centre) and Economics Minister Schneider-Amma (right) during Friday's news conference in Be (Keystone) The Swiss cabinet has proposed to use a unilateral safeguard clause to curb immigration if it is unable to reach agreement with the European Union on limiting influxes of foreigners. The cabinet aounced the plans, despite opposition by Brussels, in order to implement the controversial rightwing initiative, approved by voters two years ago, to re-introduce quotas for EU citizens. Under the proposal to be submitted to parliament, Switzerland claims the right to limit free access to the labour market due to serious economic or social problems. Economics Minis...

The Gotthard road tuel is the main transport link for cars and trucks crossing the Swiss Alps (Keystone) Voters on Sunday will decide on the construction of an additional road tuel through the central Swiss Alps, one of Europe’s main north-south links for cars, buses and trucks. A broad coalition of environmental groups and mainly leftwing parties is challenging last year’s decision by parliament to build a second 17km tube through the Gotthard massif in the heart of Switzerland. The govement says the existing tuel needs renovation after more than 35 years. A second parallel arm would absorb the more than 17,000 vehicles on average passing the thoroughfare every day. Later on, the two...