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Two Swiss astronomers were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in early October 2019 for their discovery of planets outside our solar system. But how does one learn to discover new planets? Two physics students and a Bachelor’s student from the Department of Interdisciplinary Natural Sciences at ETH Zurich recently completed an independent project in which they searched for extrasolar planets with the study telescope.

Structures known as ‘time crystals’ — which repeat in time as conventional crystals repeat in space — have recently captured the interest and imagination of researchers across disciplines. The concept has emerged from the context of quantum many-body systems, but ETH physicists have now developed a versatile framework that clarifies connections to classical works dating back nearly two centuries, thus providing a unifying platform to explore seemingly dissimilar phenomena.

Nearly 250 Bachelor students and around 80 Master students have started today their new degree programmes at the Department of Physics. They were welcomed in two separate events.

Prof. Dr. Jean-Pierre Blaser, emeritus ETH professor of Experimental Physics and first director of the Paul Scherrer Institute, passed away on 29 August 2019, at the age of 96.