Archive News

February 10, 2017Periodic oscillations of bottom-water oxygen concentrations can alter benthic communities and carbon storage for decades, reveals a new study published in Science Advances. This is particularly relevant as low oxygen conditions are on the rise in the world’s oceans.

February 10, 2017No less than 500 new species of cichlids, brightly coloured perch-like fish, evolved in Lake Victoria (East Africa) over the past 15,000 years – a record in the animal and plant world. This evolutionary puzzle has now been solved by scientists from Eawag and Bern University.

January 10, 2017Hanspeter Zöllig has been awarded the 2016 Otto Jaag Water Protection Prize for his dissertation entitled “Electrolysis for the Treatment of Stored Source-Separated Urine”, which examined how electrolysis can be employed to recover nitrogen from urine. The prize recognises excellent PhD theses and masters dissertations in the fields of water protection and hydrology.

December 15, 2016In the past, Lakes Zurich and Greifen have repeatedly been affected by blooms of potentially toxic cyanobacteria. This was confirmed by an analysis of sedimentary DNA carried out by Eawag scientists.

December 14, 2016Kathrin Fenner was appointed as extraordinary professor ad personam in the field of environmental chemistry. Kathrin Fenner is group leader in the department of Environmental Chemistry at Eawag. She graduated in Chemistry at the University of Zurich and obtained her PhD at the Department of Chemistry of ETH Zurich.

December 1, 2016In Switzerland, even though levels of antibiotic use in medical and veterinary applications are comparatively low, the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is increasing. These bacteria can also enter water systems via wastewater treatment plants.

November 24, 2016Database experts from Japan, the US and Europe have developed an algorithm which allows information on mass spectra to be standardized. The so-called SPLASH (SPectraL hASH) makes it easier to search for mass spectra online.

November 23, 2016The World Health Organization (WHO) approved the redesignation of Eawag as a “WHO Collaborating Centre for Sanitation and Water in Developing Countries”. Eawag is one of 21 such collaborating centers in Switzerland and 281 throughout Europe.

November 17, 2016The residual flow in the Sarine River is insufficient to maintain its dynamic flow. Research is currently being carried out as part of the “Energy Turnaround” National Research Programme (NRP 70), to ascertain whether hydropower can be made more environmentally friendly through controlled experimental flooding. The first experimental flood event has taken place, and researchers are now analysing all the data and records that have been collected.

November 16, 2016With the help of modern sensors and the innovative remote data transfer system LoRaWAN, researchers at Eawag are investigating the relationships between precipitation and the resulting drainage processes. It is hoped that the new technology, otherwise known as the “Internet of Things”, will enable wastewater disposal and sewage systems to be run as efficiently as possible, as well as allowing the quality of wastewater and waterbodies to be monitored.