News
How a Swiss man’s discovery changed astrophysics
Thirty years ago, Swiss physicist Didier Queloz discovered the first planet outside our solar system, revolutionising astrophysics. What the discovery has brought him and why he still hasn’t had enough.
Minute witnesses from the primordial sea
Researchers at ETH Zurich have been able to measure - for the first time - how the amount of dissolved organic carbon in the sea has changed over geological time. The results reveal that our explanations of how the ice ages and complex life forms came about are incomplete.
Exoplanets are not water worlds
There is much less water on the surfaces of distant planets outside our solar system than previously thought. These exoplanets do not have thick layers of water, as was often speculated. That’s the conclusion of an international study led by ETH Zurich.
Open Call for NOMIS–ETH Postdoctoral Fellowships
The 2025 call for applications for the NOMIS–ETH Fellowship Programme
within the Centre for Origin and Prevalence of Life is open. Researchers
are invited to apply until 7 November 2025, at 17:00 Zurich local time.
Gabriel Giger awarded Origins Federation PhD Prize
We congratulate Dr. Gabriel Giger on being awarded the 2025 PhD Prize by the Origins Federation for his outstanding doctoral research conducted at ETH Zurich under the supervision of COPL member Prof. Julia Vorholt.
How urea forms spontaneously
Urea is considered a possible key molecule in the origin of life. ETH researchers have discovered a previously unknown way in which this building block can form spontaneously on aqueous surfaces without the need for any additional energy.