News

ETH Zurich researchers have developed FlexiQuad, a soft drone whose frame deforms in a controlled manner when it collides with obstacles. They have filed a patent application for the structural design. Despite its soft frame, the drone can fly fast and manoeuvre nimbly. 

Solar storms can knock satellites out of their orbits. A space mission led by ETH Zurich intends to better predict weather conditions in the solar system from 2030 onwards. 

Padryk, Méline & Elisa in Lawrence, Kansas

Paper on microfluidic platform for co-culturing microtissues with continuously recirculating immune cells received Microsystems & Nanoengineering 2026 Hot Paper Award

AI is transforming the way we monitor and manage biodiversity. While these tools hold promise to level the playing field, they could also entrench existing inequities, says Melissa Chapman. At the UN biodiversity conference in Armenia, she aims to understand how the use of AI is shaping the negotiations. 

Something spooky is crawling around our lab… 🖐️🎃

Meet our walking robotic hand, featured by ETH Zürich! It learned to use its fingers as legs through machine learning in simulation. That’s a step towards more adaptable robots that can reach places others can’t.

Congrats to our Amirhossein Kazemipour and Hehui Zheng! Might be handy for Halloween. 😉

Did the Addams Family stop by ETH Zurich? A severed hand crawls over a piano, scurries along the corridors and gets up to mischief in a cupboard. But there’s nothing supernatural about it – it’s all robotics. The video shows what this unusual robotic hand can do, why researchers find it fascinating and what it’s doing at Halloween. 

The South African startup nonCrete has built a community centre using biomass concrete made from recycled invasive plants. The low-strength shell structure of the ceiling was made possible by the Block Research Group.

With nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, materials can be analysed to an atomic degree of precision. ETH Zurich is home to one of the most powerful NMR spectrometers in the world – and many of its research groups have now embraced this technology.