The Swiss Connection

When and where the next avalanche will happen is hard to predict. In a special cold laboratory in Davos, researchers simulate the effects of wind on fresh snow to better understand the mechanisms that trigger avalanches.

For centuries, avalanches have posed a threat to mountain farmers and their livestock. With the development of winter tourism, roads, railways and hydropower plants, the interest in avalanche research and protective measures has grown.

The origins of the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF date back to 1936, when a small group of researchers moved into a snow lab on the Weissfluhjoch summit above Davos. Today the institute monitors the conditions of avalanches throughout Switzerland, investigates the effects of climate change on snow cover and operates the national avalanche warning service.

Researchers at the SLF study how snow is built up and how it changes under various conditions, how avalanches occur and how they move over the terrain. In this episode of "Exploring Science in Davos" we take you inside the institute’s cold chambers.

Hosted by: Jo Fahy
Journalist: Sara Ibrahim
Journalist/Sound: Michele Andina

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SWI swissinfo.ch is a public service media company based in Bern, Switzerland. 

Solar irradiance provides heat and light for life. It waxes and wanes with the cycle of solar activity, which currently cannot be predicted accurately. Solar storms can have a great impact on technology. In February 2022, a solar storm destroyed 40 Starlink satellites from Elon Musk’s company SpaceX. Researchers in Davos are collaborating on several space experiments to find out more about solar physics.

In 1904 the Prussian businessman Carl Dorno travelled to Davos with his daughter, who was suffering from tuberculosis. In those days the Alpine town was a health resort for tuberculosis patients. As an amateur meteorologist, he began to build scientific instruments with the aim of investigating how the climate influenced our health. This was the birth of the Physical Meteorological Observatory Davos (PMOD).

In the early 1970s, the observatory also became home to an international calibration centre for radiation measurements, the World Radiation Center (WRC). The radiometers developed there are used by weather stations all over the world, not only on the ground but also in space. For instance, two instruments are on board the Solar Orbiter, a Sun-observing satellite developed by the European Space Agency (ESA).

To make more accurate predictions about climate change, researchers in Davos need to better understand solar cycles, which last about 11 years. Why is there a lot of activity in some cycles and very little in others? Understanding these mechanisms also helps predict solar flares, which can interfere with technologies such as electricity grids, navigation and communications.

In this episode of our Science in Davos series, PMOD/WRC director Louise Harra gives us an insight into the research with the Solar Orbiter instruments.

Hosted by: Jo Fahy
Journalist: Sara Ibrahim
Journalist/Sound: Michele Andina

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SWI swissinfo.ch is a public service media company based in Bern, Switzerland. 

The small city of Davos in southeastern Switzerland, located at an altitude of 1,560m above sea level in the Swiss Alps, attracted tuberculosis patients back in the 1800s and 1900s after scientists discovered that clean mountain air had a positive effect on their health. However, with the development of antibiotics, the sanatoriums eventually lost their purpose. Today that same clean Davos air, marked by the absence of tree pollen, such as birch, oak or alder, minimal air pollution and extremely low amounts of indoor dust mites – presumably because of the cooler and dryer climate – is a draw for asthma and allergy patients seeking treatment in the town’s clinics.

Allergic diseases have become more prevalent in recent decades. They now affect more than one billion people worldwide, with estimates suggesting there could be up to four billion sufferers by 2050. While the reasons for this are not yet fully understood, experts believe several factors can contribute significantly to developing chronic diseases. Today we are exposed to many pollutants, such as chemical substances in our diet or cosmetics, worsening air pollution and microplastics.

Thanks to the proximity to allergy patients and the ability to analyse various biosamples, Davos has become an ideal location for research and experiments in this field.

As they pursue their exploration of the scientific side of the resort, Sara Ibrahim and Michele Andina visit the Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research (SIAF), where around 50 biologists, biochemists and physicians are working to understand what's causing allergic diseases and find preventive and curative treatments.

This podcast is an audio version of the SWI swissinfo.ch video series with the same title.  Find out more about science research in Switzerland on www.swissinfo.ch/science

Hosted by: Jo Fahy
Journalist: Sara Ibrahim
Journalist/Sound: Michele Andina

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SWI swissinfo.ch is a public service media company based in Bern, Switzerland. 

Before 1960, broken bones were treated simply by using plaster casts or traction. Then 13 Swiss surgeons began rethinking fracture treatment: they standardised instruments, screws and nails, scientifically evaluated every operation, and started training surgeons. On their tour of Davos’s scientific communities, Sara and Michele go behind the scenes to see what new technologies are currently being developed.

The AO Foundation in Davos has been a leader in research into the healing of bone fractures for decades. Today, more than 100 scientists and PhD students from all over the globe work at the AO Research Institute Davos (ARI), which is focused on pre-clinical research. They study biomechanics and the biology of bones, discs and cartilage, and work on new surgical techniques, tools and devices, such as "smart" implants that measure bone healing in patients.

Some of ARI’s work depends on tests with live animals to ensure that studies are not affected by any hidden issues that would prevent the translation of a concept or implant to patient treatments. ARI recently set up a barn for so-called “specific-pathogen-free” (SPF) sheep. For sheep to be deemed SPF, they are separated from conventional sheep and kept in a purpose-built stable. However, the goal is to gradually reduce the dependence on, and even someday completely forgo, animal tests. Several projects at the ARI are aimed at achieving this.

Hosted by: Jo Fahy
Journalist: Sara Ibrahim
Journalist/Sound: Michele Andina

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SWI swissinfo.ch is a public service media company based in Bern, Switzerland. 

The Swiss town of Davos is famous for mountain slopes, winter sports and the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. But did you know that it also attracts scientists and doctors from all over the world? In this six-part video series, SWI swissinfo.ch journalists Sara Ibrahim and Michele Andina take you on a journey to discover five of Davos’s research institutes.

In this first episode, they take you to the AO Davos Courses, a two-week training congress for surgeons learning to treat bone fractures. In hands-on workshops and online live surgeries, experts explain how to master everything from trauma surgery to prosthetics and joint replacement. Participants then practise 3-D models with drills and screws.

Hosted by: Jo Fahy
Journalist: Sara Ibrahim
Journalist/Sound: Michele Andina

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SWI swissinfo.ch is a public service media company based in Bern, Switzerland. 

Construction workers got a surprise recently while laying a pipeline underneath Lake Lucerne in central Switzerland. On the lake floor they found the traces of a prehistoric village! This finally confirmed a long-standing theory among archaeologists, who believed that people had lived in the area thousands of years ago.

But why were the traces of their home so deep within the lake? Across Switzerland there are about 500 pile dwelling sites, but these are normally found along the shorelines of lakes. And how do archaeologists manage to unravel prehistoric findings underwater? On this episode of The Swiss Connection podcast, we take a boat ride to get to the bottom of this mystery. While onboard, we meet a team of international experts and learn about an unusual technique using sound to map the depths of a lake.

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In this second part of our two-part series on assisted suicide, SWI reporter Kaoru Uda tells host Susan Misicka what it was like to accompany two Japanese patients who came to Switzerland to die.

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Every year, over 1,000 seriously ill people end their lives in Switzerland with the help of suicide assistants. 
 
 Assisted suicide is legal in several countries, including Switzerland, Canada and the Netherlands. A handful of other countries – like Germany and Colombia – are working out the legal and practical details.

Some people even travel great distances to die in Switzerland because assisted suicide is illegal where they live. For example, a 104-year-old Australian man made the trip in 2018.

One of the people who helped him was Erika Preisig, a Swiss doctor and the founder of Life Circle, which operates in Basel in the northern part of the country. She’s passionate in her belief that people should have the right to die. She’s even been charged with -- and later acquitted of -- murder. 

Long before she started doing assisted suicide, Preisig worked in palliative care. Then her father had a stroke and threatened to throw himself in front of a train. Preisig decided to help him find another way, as she was telling SWI swissinfo.ch reporter Jessica Dacey.

This episode is the first of a two-part series on the topic. In the next episode, we’ll hear the stories of two seriously ill Japanese patients who came to Basel in 2021. 

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SWI swissinfo.ch is a public service media company based in Bern, Switzerland. 

Now that Switzerland has approved marriage for all, host Susan Misicka talks with some couples who explain why it's important to them. We also hear from opponents of Swiss legislation granting same-sex couples the right to marry.

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SWI swissinfo.ch is a public service media company based in Bern, Switzerland. 

In this encore episode of The Swiss Connection, we visit Swiss century-old pen and pencil maker Caran d'Ache. Podcast host Susan Misicka takes a tour of the factory and feels a bit silly when Caran d’Ache President Carole Hubscher sees her hasty choice of writing instrument.

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SWI swissinfo.ch is a public service media company based in Bern, Switzerland.