DNA dating site promises better sex

Sweaty t-shirts shouldn’t be a turn-off according to a new dating website. ScienceMatch.com promises to increase chances of better sex, fertility and lasting relationships with less risk of cheating. The bold claims are based on a Bern scientist’s odour attraction research. Claus Wedekind’s studies focused on genes that play an integral role in a part [...]

What am I looking at?

Remember those strange pictures that a doctor would ask you to look at and say what you saw? I don’t know if NASA still uses them (at least that’s what they say in the movies), but despite these tests having no valid scientific basis, they are still part of the collective consciousness. Hermann Rorschach, the [...]

Edelweiss going commercial

The edelweiss, one of the symbols of Switzerland, could soon be heading down from the alpine slopes into florists’ shops. Scientists say that they have managed to grow the bloom at ground level and with stems long enough for bouquets. The whitish star-shaped edelweiss normally grows at between 2,000 and 3,000 metres in altitude. It [...]

Fruit fly has trouble deciding between Arthur and Martha

Swiss scientist Yaël Grosjean has discovered that sexual orientation in fruit flies is controlled by a previously unknown regulator of chemicals in the brain. While the evolutionary basis for homosexuality remains a mystery, researchers have succeeded in using genetic manipulation or drugs to turn the flies’ homosexual behaviour on and off within a matter [...]

Arachnophobia

Alien spiders are invading Europe: no sign though of huge, furry monsters goose-stepping across the countryside. It’s not quite as scary, but tiny eight-legged beasts are moving in from abroad. No D-Day to speak of, but a slow process that has been taking place for over a century. According to Wolfgang Nentwig and his [...]

Getting down and dirty underwater

Here’s some news that will make men sit up and take notice: researchers have pinpointed an “oral sex” gene that makes females suck up sperm through their mouths. The gene was found in the cichlid fish, where the males have evolved a way to lure females close so that they can squirt sperm into their [...]

Welcome to the dark side…

Chocoholics rejoice and make your’s a dark one: researchers at Zurich University have published results from a study that show that dark chocolate doesn’t just taste good or boost your morale. It can also be beneficial for blood flow. Forty grammes of chocolate with at least 70 per cent cocoa content have measurable effects [...]

The dream of Piccard-us

Swiss adventurer, shrink and family man Bertrand Piccard has finally presented a model of his solar plane after four years of research. Solar Impulse is supposed to travel around the world day and night using the sun as its only power source. Piccard, who along with co-pilot Brian Jones, was the first to make [...]

Who killed the dinosaurs?

Massive volcanic eruptions in India may have spelt the end for the dinosaurs 65 million years ago – and not a meteor smacking into into Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, creating the 180km-wide Chicxulub Crater. Scientists from Switzerland and the United States have been able to date the eruptions, which created the Deccan Traps lava beds, to [...]

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 [...]