Understand, hack, change: 38 girls are taking the world of technology by storm

The Federal Council has decided that Switzerland will not participate in the European Earth observation programme Copernicus during the 2028–2034 programme period either – despite repeated calls from Parliament and a recent study which concludes that the benefits of joining clearly outweigh the costs. Switzerland will therefore continue to use the freely available satellite data, but will remain excluded from participation in Copernicus services, tenders and committees. In an interview with the SATW, Dr Claudia Röösli, Head of the Earth Observation Applications and Services Group at the University of Zurich’s Remote Sensing Laboratories, analyses the decision. Her conclusion: Switzerland is foregoing a say in the matter, economic potential and the development of expertise in a field of the future.

Hearing and understanding are not the same thing: people with hearing loss struggle not only with quieter sounds, but also with distorted and incomplete signals. The brain has to work very hard to fill in the gaps. Simply amplifying sound with hearing aids is therefore often not enough. Neuroscientist Nathalie Giroud is conducting research at the University of Zurich and the University Psychiatric Hospital Zurich into how the brain processes and compensates for spoken language, and how it reaches its limits in doing so. Her findings open up new avenues for auditory training and show how the voice could even serve as an early warning sign for diseases in the future.