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Environment

19 April 2022
Amman

Light amplification accelerates chemical reactions in aerosols

Energy and Environment Environment

Consideration in future climate models important.

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28 March 2022
Margit Schwikowski

Rescuing Earth’s icy memory

Environment

An international research team with PSI participation is rushing to preserve glacier ice for posterity.

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29 October 2021
Margit Schwikowski i

"We can now look at climate change regionally"

Energy and Environment Environment

Margit Schwikowski is head of the Laboratory for Environmental Chemistry at PSI. In an interview, she explains what aerosols have to do with climate change.

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15 June 2021
Teaser Ice Memory

‘Ice Memory Mission’ accomplished

Energy and Environment Environment

During its expedition to the Monte Rosa massif, the international Ice Memory team extracted two ice cores over 80 meters long from Colle Gnifetti, the oldest ice in the Alps.

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1 June 2021
Teaser Monte Rosa

The glacial memory of the Monte Rosa

Energy and Environment Environment

The next mission to preserve the climate heritage of the Pennine Alps has begun: For the Ice Memory Project, researchers set off for Monte Rosa’s Colle Gnifetti.

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24 March 2021
Teaser aerosole

Aerosol formation in clouds

Media Releases Energy and Environment Environment

How chemical reactions in clouds can influence the global climate.

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19 March 2021
Teaser Feinstaub Amman

Particulates are more dangerous than previously thought

Media Releases Energy and Environment Environment

A precise look into the finest particles in the air shows how compounds harmful to human health are formed.

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18 November 2020
Kaspar Dällenbach

Which particulate air pollution poses the greatest health risk?

Media Releases Energy and Environment Human Health Environment

The composition of particulate matter can influence its harmfulness to human health just as much as the amount, PSI researchers show in a newly published study. Experiments and computational modelling showed that in Europe high concentrations of particulate matter harmful to human health occur mainly in metropolitan areas.

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23 October 2020
Waldrundgang Teaser

SwissFEL: a perfect habitat for the black mortar bee

Large Research Facilities SwissFEL Miscellaneous Environment

For the construction of the SwissFEL facility in 2013, around five hectares of forest were cleared and transformed into a new habitat for flora and fauna. Biologists and forest engineers have now assessed the results of the renaturization project and are excited about the progress to date.

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1 October 2020
Iodsäure beeinflusst Wolkenbildung am Nordpol

Iodic acid influences cloud formation at the North Pole

Energy and Environment Environment

An international team of scientists has identified a novel driver of new aerosol particle formation in the Arctic: iodic acid, a chemical compound, which had not previously been observed in the region.

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7 April 2020
Teaser Radioaktive Stoffe im Güterverkehr

Sniffing out radioactive substances in freight transport

Environment

With a mobile measurement portal, PSI regularly carries out radioactivity checks on heavy goods vehicles. The purpose of this work, on behalf of the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, is to discover stray radiation sources.

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13 March 2020
Teaser: Erstmals chemische Reaktionen direkt im Feinstaub nachgewiesen

First-time direct proof of chemical reactions in particulates

Media Releases Environment Energy and Environment

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have developed a new method to analyse particulate matter more precisely than ever before. With its help, they disproved an established doctrine: that molecules in aerosols undergo no further chemical transformations because they are enclosed in other particulate matter.

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20 September 2019
Teaser 13 Monate in der Arktis

Thirteen months in the Arctic

Environment Energy and Environment

A PSI research project investigating atmospheric chemistry will be on board the icebreaker Polarstern on 20th September 2019. Researcher Julia Schmale talks about the upcoming expedition and her role in it.

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25 July 2019
Teaser Forschen über den Wolken

Research above – and about – the clouds

Environment Energy and Environment

At the Jungfraujoch research station, PSI scientists study particulate matter in the atmosphere. And have to deal with the fact that the human body is not made for life at 3,500 metres above sea level.

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13 June 2019
teaser an frischer luft und im smog

In fresh air and in smog

Environment Energy and Environment

PSI researchers drill through millennia-old glacier ice in the high mountains and analyse the world's highest particulate concentrations in Delhi, India. They are helping to address questions regarding climate change and to reduce air pollution.

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17 October 2018
teaser picture

Why the Little Ice Age ended in the middle of the 19th century

Media Releases Energy and Environment Environment

In the first half of the 19th century, a series of large volcanic eruptions in the tropics led to a temporary global cooling of Earth's climate. That Alpine glaciers grew and subsequently receded again during the final phase of the so-called Little Ice Age was due to a natural process. This has now been proven by PSI researchers on the basis of ice cores.

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26 September 2017

Atmosphere in X-ray light

Media Releases Energy and Environment Research Using Synchrotron Light Environment

PSI researchers have developed an experimental chamber in which they can recreate atmospheric processes and probe them with unprecedented precision, using X-ray light from the Swiss Light Source SLS. In the initial experiments, they have studied the production of bromine, which plays an essential role in the decomposition of ozone in the lower layers of the atmosphere. In the future, the new experiment chamber will also be available for use by researchers from other scientific fields.

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9 February 2017

How Switzerland could supply its electric power in 2050

Environment Energy and Environment Renewable Energies ESI Platform

The Laboratory for Energy Systems Analysis at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI is investigating how Switzerland’s electricity supply might look, up to the year 2050, under a variety of boundary conditions. On the basis of their calculations, the lab’s researchers are able to generate insights on possible future developments of the energy sector, for example, determine how an ambitious reduction in CO2 emissions could be achieved at the lowest possible cost.

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This is a text from the PSI media archive. The contents may be out-of-date.
1 February 2017

Historical copper, trapped in ice

Media Releases Environment Energy and Environment

Until now, the onset of copper production in South America was still unclear. Hardly any written records or artefacts from the early high cultures in Peru, Chile, and Bolivia have been preserved. Now, however, researchers of the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI in Villigen (Switzerland) have tracked down the evidence. Through analysis of ice from the Illimani glacier in the Bolivian Andes, they found out that copper was being mined and smelted in South America since around 700 BC.

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This is a text from the PSI media archive. The contents may be out-of-date.
14 December 2016
teaser picture

The open-air researcher

Energy and Environment Environment

Atmospheric scientist Julia Schmale is starting out on a three-month research cruise around the Antarctic. There she will be searching for the cleanest air still to be found on our planet.

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This is a text from the PSI media archive. The contents may be out-of-date.
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5232 01/20222

5232 — The magazine of the Paul Scherrer Institute

01/2022
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