Macho man likes to speed

Forget all that talk about women drivers… A study from Neuchâtel University involving researchers from Zurich and Heidelberg has demonstrated something many people knew deep down: young men are mostly responsible for driving accidents due to excessive speed! A team at the university’s institute for work psychology tested 83 male guinea pigs. These testosterone fuelled [...]

Swatch boss seeks creative prop from Clooney

Swatch chairman Nicolas G. Hayek says Hollywood star George Clooney will sit on the board of a new company that is to develop clean energy systems in Switzerland. Hayek, who will be chairman of the company, said he had hesitated between Clooney and former US vice-president Al Gore for a board seat but plumped for [...]

Swiss elections: baring (nearly) all not enough…

The Swiss elections took place on Sunday with the “victory” of the rightwing People’s Party. There was unfortunately one group of candidates that failed to make an impact on voters even if their campaign was one of the most talked about in recent memory. Seven budding politicians (including Christian Democrat Mirjam Arnold – see above) [...]

Another day, another election in Switzerland

It looks like Switzerland’s electoral scene has undergone a slight change. Latest results from the federal elections – held once every four years – show that the rightwing People’s Party has reinforced its position as the country’s most influential party after running a controversial campaign, while the Greens have also posted gains. The centre-left [...]

Climate concerns

The Swiss are apparently the most worried people in the world about global warming according to a poll carried out by the Nielsen Company in 47 countries. To counter climate change, 68 per cent of those polled said they would buy local products, while nearly half said they would choose products with the least packaging. [...]

Gotta have chocolate

If that craving for your favourite Swiss chocolate sometimes feels like it is coming from deep in your gut, there is a good reason for it. A small study in the Journal of Proteome Research links the type of bacteria living in people’s digestive system to a desire for chocolate. Everyone has a vast community [...]

Defusing a ticking time bomb

Swiss researchers have come to the help of the Rwanda’s government. Methane and carbon dioxide deep in Lake Kivu threaten local populations with a potentially lethal gas eruption. If these gases were destabilised by an earthquake or a volcanic eruption, people could be poisoned, much in the same way it happened at Cameroon’s Lake Nyos [...]

Swiss to design solar sub

Are the Swiss edging closer to cuckoo land? The latest cunning plan to attract tourists seems to indicate this might be the case. BLS railways and Bern power company BKW are backing the development of the world’s first submarine powered by the sun. An off-the-rack submarine would be upgraded to run off solar power, ie [...]

Death tourism

The Swiss appear to agree with assisted suicide, but are divided over whether the liberal regulations should apply to patients from abroad. Under Swiss law, assisted suicide is not illegal, ie the patient has to carry out the final act himself. According to the polling institute Demoscope, 53 per cent of respondents approve of assisted [...]

Staid Swiss politics becomes a battlefield

Swiss politics is finally getting the attention of the world’s media. Police in the capital, Bern, clashed on Saturday with leftwing militants who tried to interrupt a planned election rally by the rightwing Swiss People’s Party. The widely condemned violence is just another sign of rising tensions ahead of parliamentary elections in two weeks time. [...]