Men, Women and All the Others ...10

Science: Colourful stories on the Internet are reaching millions page 25 Men, women and all the others ...... 10 The anthropology The people without The hype around of Art Basel ...... 36 a country ...... 38 perovskites ...... 43 Gender is a continuum

Hardly has a woman announced that she’s pregnant, when she and her partner have to hear the question: ‘Is it a boy or a girl?’ This desire to know our biological gender is bound up with how we are assigned our roles in society. And this influences not just the development of our identity, but also many other aspects of our lives. Society remains rigorously oriented to the poles of masculine and feminine, and we can observe this everywhere – from the signs on public toilets to the different level of insurance premiums we pay until we retire.

However, this dual classification does not always correspond to biological reality. While still in the womb, our genes determine which hormone cascade will be triggered to develop our reproductive organs. The result of this complex process is a female, a male or a variant of biological gender otherwise known as hermaphrodites, intersexuals or persons of ambiguous gender. Estimates vary drastically as to just how many people are born into bodies that are neither male nor female. Klinefelter is the most common of these syndromes, and is characterised by the occurrence in boys of an extra X chromosome (thus XXY). Its prevalence rate is reckoned to be one in 1,300.

What is certain is that variations in gender development are far more common than society thinks. One reason for this lack of visibility has been the medical doctrine requiring such children to be assigned an unambiguous gender by surgical means as soon as possible. It is still carried out today in some places – despite the fact that it’s only in the rarest of cases that such early surgery is recommended for medical reasons. Since the 1990s, people who suffered such operations during childhood have been trying to put a stop to them. They have also been campaigning for the right to greater self-determination. In France, for example, a 64-year-old person recently acquired the right to a passport stating a ‘neutral’ gender. In their endeavour to be allowed to decide how they define themselves, they are being helped by transgender lobby groups and by artists who have chosen their own gender identities.

A greater variety of gender types is now being brought into public awareness than could ever be encompassed by a stereotypical division into just male and female – though in fact this variety has always existed. In the current edition of Horizons we aim to demonstrate the breadth of this variety, and how we as a society deal with it.

Pascale Hofmeier, editorial board Horizons – the Swiss magazine for scientific research No. 107, December 2015 horizons Contents 25

Frankie Robin Eike Toni Wanjakurzgesagt.org Kai Claude Eddie Elliot Alex Hope Camille Jordan Gustl Kim Patrice Emerson Hayden Danni Pat Maris Sascha Jamie Dominique Nicola Skyler Charlie Andrea Addiso Focus: Intersexuality Knowledge and politics

24 Science for the bath tub A new magazine for the humanities and 10 social sciences is filling a gap in the mar- Gender: Indeterminate ket. Some people are neither male nor female. The 25 Science on the Internet medical sciences and society are still seeking On the Internet, science is being brought to millions of people by a new generation for a way to deal with this indeterminacy. of communicators. 29 13 Science without borders There’s more than man and woman Frédéric Darbellay is investigating inter- Under the influence of our chromosomes, genes and hormones, disciplinarity, and he’s sure of one thing: our gender develops as either male, female or a variant of them. it’s got explosive potential.

17 “If we meet someone we can’t pigeon-hole as a man or a woman, it bothers us” The gender researcher Andrea Maihofer explains why we insist on unambiguity when it comes to gender.

18 The long path to self-determination Since the 1990s, people with gender variance have been campaigning for recognition.

23 Swiss law only recognises two genders The law demands that we’re assigned a gender. But in legal terms, options other than male and female would be conceivable.

◂ Cover and inside cover: Man or woman? Surveys tell us that most men remove a pullover head first. Three quarters of women, however, cross their arms when doing so. Photos: Valérie Chételat

4 Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 30 36 42 Valérie Chételat Valérie Keystone/Georgios Kefalas Keystone/Georgios S. Paofai, Institut des Sciences Chimiques de Rennes (CNRS-Université de Rennes 1) de Rennes (CNRS-Université de Rennes Chimiques Sciences des Institut S. Paofai, Biology and medicine Culture and society Environment and technology

30 36 42 Pianist, house-husband and The power of money at Art Basel A promising crystal researcher The sociologist Franz Schultheis has been Perovskite is a dream material for use in The biologist Richard Benton is studying investigating the art world’s “annual fair”. solar electricity, lasers and energy. the sense of smell in fruit flies. 38 45 32 “Few European countries The Dead Sea’s living archive History in fish bones look forward to the emergence of a 200 metres under the seabed, microbes are The material dug up at archaeological sites Kurdish state” living in an extremely salty environment. can tell us even more about times gone by. The West’s current sympathy for the Kurds won’t last long, says the historian Jordi 46 33 Tejel. X-rays of Prussian blue The filter in the brain Physicists are using X-rays to study the Where do soil pollutants go? 41 decay of historical pigments Breeding animals for less methane Back to work after a baby break Three old dialects turn into a new one 48 Dutch mass violence in Indonesia Bacteria in fertiliser Diagnosis from the air we exhale A new isotope for medical scanners

In pictures Fieldwork Access all areas 6 34 50 At the ends of nerve cells In the heat of the Indian elections We need the humanities

Debate How does it work? Inside the SNSF and SA 8 49 51 Should we stop manipulating our Glasses to make the virtual more real Change at the top of the SNSF germline?

Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 5 In pictures

6 Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 Lest we forget

“What molecules are needed to form and maintain synapses?” This is the question being asked by Jan Pielage at the Friedrich Miescher Institute (FMI) in Basel. He and his team mark molecules with fluorescent colours. This makes it possible for us to see the innumerable synapses that are used to transmit nerve impulses for muscle contractions. The image reproduced here demonstrates what’s happening in a gap of a twentieth of a millimetre. The ends of a nerve cell of a fruit fly larva are glowing blue. They are growing on a muscle cell that can’t be seen here as it is in the dark. Under the microscope, we can see how synapses are formed between the nerve cells and the muscle cells. Thanks to the high resolution of their 3D structured-illumination microscope, Pielage and his team can observe the processes unfold- ing in the synaptic clefts, which are just 200 nanometres across. The proteins on the side of the muscle cells are marked red, while those on the nerve-cell side are green. They are grouped in large numbers within the spherical synaptic boutons in order to create impulses sufficient to activate the muscle cells. The blue protein links the exte- rior of the nerve cell with its inner structure and stabilises the synapse. If it is absent, then the end of the nerve cell disintegrates and a trace of red protein remains on the muscle- cell side. This is probably more or less what happens in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a deadly type of muscular atrophy. Pielage’s findings can be broadened to apply in part to the brain, he says. “Similar mechanisms control the plasticity of synapses for learning and remembering”. ff

R. Stephan et al.: Hierarchical microtubule organization controls axon caliber and transport and determines synaptic structure and stability. Developmental Cell, 2015.

Image: Jan Pielage, FMI, Basel

Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 7 Debate

Should we stop

manipulating (photomontage) Chételat Valérie Alper, Barbara the human germline?

In China, the new CRISPR/ Cas method has been used to manipulate the human germline for research purposes. But shouldn’t researchers everywhere respect the human germline until more is known about the possible ramifications?

says the stem-cell researcher No Dieter Egli. Genetically modifying the germline is done, for example, if both partners carry set of conditions. For example, it could be banned today in Switzerland and in many the same genetic defect or if several ge- restricted to research for the purpose of other countries. We know almost nothing netic defects are present at the same time. healing diseases. about the efficacy and the safety of such Another possibility, which we should con- Would this mean opening up a doorway interventions, and still less about the sider in this light, is a genetic correction to to the genetic improvement of human belong-term effects – intended or otherwise. the germline. ings, like some people fear and others hope? The experiments with human embryos I’m convinced that humankind has to face in China demonstrate just how crude the up to such questions, and that we have to technology still is. Only in four of 86 cas- “The discussion about regulate the application of these technolo- es did the genetic manipulation succeed gies. These discussions are necessary, and on a molecular level, and even they were manipulating the germline they will be all the more successful, the only partially successful. Most of them requires more knowledge better we know the possibilities and the displayed genetic abnormalities. On the boundaries of manipulating the germline. basis of these results, we shouldn’t ex- and more research” pect to be applying this technique in the Dieter Egli Dieter Egli is an assistant professor at Columbia near future. University in New York. He took his doctorate On the other hand, humans suffer from at the University of Zurich and has carried out many genetically determined diseases, and We have to learn how effectively and research into therapeutic cloning. we are constantly uncovering more of the how safely we can manipulate genes in the genetic causes. How are we supposed to human germline, and we have to find out fight these? One possibility is pre-implan- whether this is better than other therapies. tation diagnostics. The Swiss federal parlia- It’s a contradiction in terms to demand ment would like to allow its use in certain that we wait until we know more, yet at cases. Pre-implantation diagnostics – in the same time to place a moratorium on re- other words, examining the embryo before search. If we want to know more, we have it is implanted in the mother – cannot al- to carry out research. We shouldn’t put a ways prevent disease. There’s little to be brake on it, but promote it within a basic

8 Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 says the bioethicist Anna Deplazes Yes Zemp. The CRISPR/Cas method allows us to carry ‘improvements’. Before using this tech- yet, for ethical reasons, these experiments out far more precise, less risky manipula- nique in the human germline, it must first were carried out on embryos that were tions of the human germline than any be clarified how we are going to deal with incapable of further development. So even other technology. But even if the efficacy of such aspirations. the researchers themselves seem to think this technique can still be improved, there that their experiments would be problem- remain risks such as undesirable integra- atical if they were carried out on embryos tion and the emergence of genetic mosaics. “The international scientific that could actually develop. This could per- So we are faced with the question: should community should regulate haps provide us with a basis for a global countries such as Switzerland now lift consensus. their ban on manipulations of the germ when using this technology The international scientific community line, or should we renounce such experi- would be considered should draw up rules – in a code of conduct, ments all over the world? I’m in favour of for example – that would stipulate when the latter option. inacceptable” using this technology would be considered Genetic modifications to the human Anna Deplazes Zemp inacceptable. Such a code would be afford- germline affect the development process ed the necessary authority if the most im- and every cell of the developing human in- portant research institutes, funding insti- dividual. Furthermore, these changes are This has to be a global discourse. And try- tutions, journals and conferences insisted passed down to future generations. Are we ing to achieve that is a very ambitious goal. on it being upheld. really ready to take on the responsibility for Representatives of different cultures have the genetic profile not just of the emerging different opinions regarding experiments Anna Deplazes Zemp possesses a doctorate in individual human being, but also for his or on human germ cells and embryos. We’ve molecular biology and works at the Institute for her descendants? already had a foretaste of this in the discus- Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine of the We have to be aware that transhuman- sions surrounding the experiments by the University of Zurich. Her current research includes ists dream not just of healing illnesses by Chinese group. They manipulated human working on the ethics project of the National technological means, but also of improving embryos using the CRISPR/Cas technique, Centre of Competence in Research ‘Molecular the human race. People could use CRISPR/ and their experiments were largely criti- Systems Engineering’. Cas to try and achieve such inheritable cised in Western, Christian cultures. And

Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 9 Focus: Intersexuality

Baptism isn’t just about giving a child a name. It’s also a ritual for creating a member of society. This also assigns the child a role in that society. The 50 most popular names for boys in Switzerland are all gender-specific. With girls, only one name can be used for both genders. It’s No. 38: Lynn. Photo: Sergey Goruppa/Fotolia.com

10 Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 XX, XY, XXY, X and the others Biology knows more gender variants than just male and female. But they’re not yet accepted by society or the law.

Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 11 12 Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 Focus: Intersexuality

There’s more than man and woman

Human sexual development is a process that is genetically controlled in the womb. If it’s disrupted, divergences occur. By Irene Dietschi

alliope is the main character of Three sex chromosomes third and seventh weeks of pregnancy are Jeffrey Eugenides’ Pulitzer-Prize- “But this process is prone to error. Mal initially identical in both male and female winning novel Middlesex (2002), distribution or failed pairings can occur”, embryos. They only start to differ after the and the drama of her life revolves explains Lauber-Biason. The known anom- seventh week of pregnancy. Female em- Caround an inherited genetic defect. She is a alies that affect the sex chromosomes in- bryos form ovaries, while males form tes- seemingly normal girl, but during puberty clude Klinefelter syndrome, where there tes. This development is steered by a whole she notices that she is becoming increas- is an extra X chromosome (karyotype 47/ series of different genes in each sex (see the ingly different. A specialist is given the task XXY). It’s thought to affect 1 in every 650 graphic). But this process can also be affect- of solving her ‘problem’ by surgical means, male new-borns. Those affected are infer- ed by mutations. “We know the main gene but Calliope is given a glimpse of her medi- tile, have small testicles and sometimes that is involved in the development of the cal records shortly before the operation is female body proportions; they also pro- gonads, but when anomalies occur, we can to take place. Here, she reads that her kar- duce too few male sex hormones. The chro- only determine the genetic reason in about yotype is 46/XY and she realises the truth: mosome set 45/X is also relatively com- 50 percent of cases”, says Lauber-Biason. “I’m a boy”. mon – in other words, when a person has “It’s a wonderful book” says Anna Lau- a single X chromosome. In many cases it A fragile hormone cascade ber-Biason, Professor of Endocrinology at is responsible for spontaneous abortions. A hormone cascade is responsible for sub- the University of Fribourg. “Besides its lit- 98 percent of foetuses with this karyotype sequent developments. In the male foetus, erary quality, it offers a good, comprehensi- die in the womb, and if a foetus is indeed the SRY gene is indispensable. This gene ble introduction to the topic of intersexu- born, then this karyotype can cause Turner lies on the Y chromosome and encodes ality”. She refers to Eugenides’ novel in her syndrome. The girls who are affected are the TDF protein (the ‘testis-determining lectures – though the word ‘intersexuality’ small in stature, have no functioning ova- factor’). It is this gene that is primarily re- is no longer considered correct today when ries and don’t develop breasts unless they sponsible for the development of the male. referring to those of ambiguous gender. are given hormones. Together with other genes, SRY controls The medical world tends instead to speak the development of the testes, which al- of disorders, or differences, in sexual devel- ready excrete large quantities of testoster- opment – ‘DSD’ for short. “When anomalies occur, one while in the mother’s womb. It is un- So what exactly happens, in biological der the influence of this male sex hormone terms, when something goes awry with we can only determine the that the internal reproductive organs of sexual development? Lauber-Biason ex- genetic reason in about 50 the male develop (the prostate, the sperm plains that human sexual development ducts and the epididymis), as do the exter- takes place in three main phases. The first percent of cases” nal genitalia (in other words the penis and involves the chromosomes, the second the Anna Lauber-Biason the testicles). gonads and the third the reproductive or- This cascade is also liable to disruption. gans. The process begins at the moment of A mutation in the gene for the androgen re- procreation, when 23 chromosomes each When there is a normal chromosomal ceptor can mean that the male hormones from the egg and the sperm come together distribution of XX or XY, the sex is geneti- are absorbed only inadequately (or not at to form a full set of 46, including the two cally fixed. At the beginning, however, all). “This androgen resistance means that sex chromosomes: 46/XX for a woman and the embryo is a hermaphrodite – the sex the male genitalia do not develop prop-

Photos: Keystone/Imagebroker/Oleksiy Maksymenko; Keystone/Imagebroker/Alex Maxim Keystone/Imagebroker/Alex Maksymenko; Keystone/Imagebroker/Oleksiy Photos: 46/XY for a man. glands, or gonads, that form between the erly in the womb; instead, to all outward

Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 13 How gender develops This complex process is prone to error: gene mutations or a maldistribution of chromosomes can impair sexual development. By Valentin Amrhein ...... 3 rd to 7 to th week of pregnancy

Genes: Embryonic Genes: WNT4, RSPO1, gonads SRY, SOX9, FOXL2 SF1, CBX2 Purely genetic sexual difference ...... 7 th to 24 to th week of pregnancy

Ovaries GONADS Testes

No hormones necessary Hormones from the testes from the ovaries (androgens) necessary

Anti-Mullerian hormone Testosterone suppresses development Genes: of internal female WNT4, HOXAs sex organs

Uterus, INTERNAL Prostate, vagina SEX ORGANS sperm ducts

EXTERNAL Vulva SEX ORGANS Penis, scrotum

Birth

Puberty Oestrogens Androgens

SECONDARY SEXUAL Breasts,… CHARACTERISTICS Facial hair,…

14 Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 Focus: Intersexuality

appearances, a girl is then born with fe- females. This is a metabolic disorder that male genitals”, says Lauber-Biason. Those is inherited. “In this syndrome, female affected often don’t notice that something foetuses are exposed to large quantities of isn’t right until they reach puberty and androgens that are formed in the adrenal find that menstruation does not occur. cortex, meaning that they are born with masculinised genitals”, explains Lauber- When gene control fails Biason. These girls have a normal uterus During the course of pregnancy, various and normal ovaries, but a clitoris that in genes in the female foetus switch on and some cases resembles a penis. They also control the development of the internal lack a vagina, and the large vulva looks like and external reproductive organs. These a scrotum. Boys can also have this disorder, include WNT4, whose significance for fe- though they display different symptoms. male sexual development was determined And what is Calliope’s problem in “Mid- by the research of Lauber-Biason and her dlesex”? She too suffers from an inherited group. They were able to demonstrate that metabolic disorder, as a late consequence WNT4 is elemental to the development of an incestuous relationship of her grand- of functioning ovaries. A defect in WNT4 parents. In her case, her androgen receptors means that the ovaries of the girls affected were inadequately stimulated in the womb. produce a surplus of male hormones and Typically, the feminine characteristics of are barely able to form egg cells. those affected disappear during puberty and they take on an increasingly male appearance. When this happens to Calliope, “The ‘female-by-default’ she runs away from home and lives thereafter as a man, and this is exactly what theory is a mistake” many do in real life. Cal, as he henceforth Anna Lauber-Biason calls himself, is already over forty when he falls in love with a woman photographer and reveals himself to her. And she accepts For Lauber-Biason, WNT4 also helps him as he is. refute the ‘female-by-default’ theory pro- posed in the 1950s – according to which the Irène Dietschi is a freelance journalist in Olten. human organism is essentially female as long as it has no Y chromosomes. “There have to be two X chromosomes for a complete female organism to be formed”, she says, “and it needs the genetic control ex- ercised by WNT4 in order for the ovaries to function properly”. Lauber-Biason’s group recently made another contribution to the genetic jig- saw puzzle of sexual development in humans, by explaining the significance of the CBX2 gene. A mutation in foetuses with a male genotype leads to complete femini- sation; furthermore, this gene seems to be involved in developing both the testes and the ovaries. Lauber-Biason discovered this mutation in a patient who seemed to have testes in her abdomen. “But when these ‘testes’ were supposed to be removed surgically, they proved to be ovary-like gonads – so they were left where they were”, relates Lauber-Biason. However, CBX2 anomalies are extremely rare, just as is the case with WNT4 mutations. Doctors more frequently find the so- called adrenogenital syndrome in genetic

Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 15 16 Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 Focus: Intersexuality

“There’s a very broad spectrum”

The fact that we insist on unambiguity in matters of gender is the result of historical conditioning, says the gender researcher Andrea Maihofer. But these fixed norms are starting to become more fluid. By Susanne Wenger

Professor Maihofer, one of the first difference between the genders. Gender questions we ask when a child is born is: research tries to demonstrate that this ‘Is it a boy or girl?’ Why do we want to mind-set is being constantly recreated, and know this straightaway? that it has an impact on the socialisation Andrea Maihofer: Because our society is of individuals. Just look at children’s adver- still organised along the lines of a hetero- tising, where girls and boys are addressed sexual, gender dualism. Every individual in an extremely different manner. This all that is born has to be identified immedi- contributes to the perpetuation of a binary ately as either male or female, even if it’s gender system. It’s a complex circle. not so clear – as in the case of some intersexual children. Right from the start, we treat kids so that they are given a gender “If we meet someone we can’t identity that is as clear-cut as possible, one pigeon-hole as a man or a that is easily recognisable by others. If we meet someone we can’t pigeon-hole easily woman, it bothers us” as a man or a woman, it bothers us. What’s your explanation for that? The reasons are cultural. Bourgeois so- Ethics commissions advise us not to ciety developed the notion of a natural, operate on children whose gender is Intersexual children should not hierarchically structured, heterosexual unclear. Transgender lobby groups are be operated on, says Andrea gender duality with clear differences be- fighting for their rights. In the media, Maihofer. © All rights reserved tween women and men. But societies have we see artists who have chosen their also existed that were less binary in their own gender identities. How does all Operations on intersexual children are orientation. In the 15th and 16th centuries, this fit in, do you think? rightly regarded as an abuse of their hu- not so many gender differences were made In historical terms we are living at a time man rights today. In Germany, people who when dressing small children from the when more and more people are refusing wish to change their official gender are no upper classes. Girls and boys were dressed to live out the heterosexual gender dual- longer required to be operated on or to take similarly and adopted similar physical pos- ism that has been dictated to them. It cor- hormones. They do have to produce refer- tures. You can find a lot of pictures in mu- responds neither to their actual bodies, nor ences proving that they will only be able to seums to prove this. to their attitude to life nor to their sexual live out their real gender if they are allowed Gender is regarded as a natural self-understanding. We are dealing with an to change it. But they don’t have to alter characteristic. What’s your opinion on increasing plurality in our modes of exist- their physical body at all. That’s a huge dif- this as a gender researcher? ence with regard to gender and sexuality. ference from how things used to be. It wasn’t so long ago that women were There are transgender people who want to judged to be incapable of coping with a live unambiguously, but not in the gender Susanne Wenger is a freelance journalist based university education. It was said that their into which they were born. There are people in Bern. very nature made them unable to think ra- who withdraw from any such unambigui- tionally, and that they were too emotional ty. And there are others who want to stage a for careers as doctors, judges or suchlike. very stereotypical masculinity or feminin- Today, women often get better academic ity. Today, there’s a very broad spectrum. Gender results than men and there are more and Is society ready to accept this more female doctors and judges. This clear- development? The philosopher and sociologist Andrea ly refutes any claim that ‘nature’ makes I think it’s important that society cre- Maihofer is a Professor of Gender Studies all this impossible. Nevertheless, people ates a situation that allows people to live and Head of the Centre for Gender Studies at

Photos: Keystone/Valentin Flauraud; Keystone/Imagebroker/Ed Endicott Keystone/Imagebroker/Ed Flauraud; Keystone/Valentin Photos: keep on claiming that there’s a natural out this plurality without discrimination. the University of Basel.

Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 17 Focus: Intersexuality

Enforced silence For a long time, the medical profession has been keeping quiet about people whose biological identity strayed from the norm. And change is only coming slowly. By Antoinette Schwab

here is nothing new about children Some of those who experienced these op- tests were sometimes evaluated by the very being born with ambiguous generations in their childhood have described same institutions that had advised silence der traits. They used to be called them in interviews and autobiographical on the diagnosis of DSD in children. hermaphrodites, and later ‘inter reports as ‘torture’, ‘genital mutilation’ or Tsexuals’. The latter term is misleading, even ‘child abuse’. Stopping the operations however, because it incorporates the word It took a long time for people to start ‘sexual’. To be more precise, “‘intersexual- Secret diagnoses arguing against surgical gender assign- ity’ refers to bodies, and in some circum- Those affected have found the silence en- ment – and the reason for this probably lies stances to illness. It doesn’t primarily refer forced around them to have been at least precisely in the fact that people with DSD to sexuality or sexual orientation”, says as bad as the operations themselves. Their were kept in the dark about it for decades. Jürg Streuli, a doctor and medical ethicist patient records bore the instruction: “The It was not until the early 1990s that those from Zurich. For this reason, the abbrevia- patient is not to be informed about this affected began to protest against what tion ‘DSD’ has been in use for a few years diagnosis”. That, too, was Money’s idea. had by then become a standard treatment. now, meaning ‘Disorders of Sex Develop- The child should not be allowed any doubt Their resistance became stronger when it ment’ (or ‘Differences of Sex Development’). about its gender. It had to endure surgical was revealed in 1997 that Money’s textbook operations to the genitals – the clitoris was example – the so-called ‘John/Joan case’, to The damage done by desiring clarity shortened or even amputated (or was it in which doctors all over the world were still From the 1950s onwards it was custom- fact really a penis?) and a neovagina was referring – had long been a failure. The boy ary for DSD children to be assigned a gen- created that had to be stretched constantly. in question had been surgically altered to der as soon as possible, and for them to be Initially, a metal rod was used for this; lat- assume a female gender at the age of two, surgically operated so as to adjust them er it was made of plastic. And to avoid the but had switched his gender back at the to this chosen gender. This practice goes supposed danger of cancer occurring, tes- age of 14, living from then on as ‘David’. He back to the sex researcher John Money in ticles and ovaries were also often removed. committed suicide in 2004. the USA. People with DSD had been oper- It was a paradoxical situation. For on the ated on before this, but now it was given a one hand, the children had to endure doc- theoretical basis and carried out system- tors, students and nurses peering between “Intersexuality refers atically. It was in this context that Money their legs at regular check-ups, but on the to bodies, not to standardised the use of the word ‘gender’ other hand, no one was allowed to say to signify one’s sexual identity in society. anything about it. sexual orientation” He was convinced that you could turn any- Most of those who speak out today only Jürg Streuli one into anything, as long as the environ- became aware of their diagnoses by ac- ment was constructed accordingly. In order cident. The stories they tell in Internet to make this easier, the appearance of the forums often sound similar: stories of Daniela Truffer is from Switzerland, and genitalia had to correspond to the gender pain and drugs without any explanation she also only found out her story when she to which one was assigned. So the genitalia as to why these were necessary. Stories of saw her medical files – by which time she had to be corrected as soon as possible after shame, and of feeling afflicted by some pos- was 35 years old. She was born in 1965 with birth. Every child born with DSD was con- sibly monstrous disease. Some even had to male chromosomes but indeterminate sequently treated as an emergency, even if endure the public revelation of their diag- genitalia and was then surgically operated this wasn’t the case in a medical sense. As noses. When sex tests began to be carried upon to become a girl. It was the wrong de- a result, children underwent unnecessary out in sports, some female athletes were cision, as a doctor later noted in her medi- cosmetic operations that could have been found to possess male chromosomes even cal files. But that recognition came too late done at a later date, had they been desired. though they had no idea about it at all. Such for her: “My original physical state has Keystone/Interfoto/Friedrich Photos:

18 Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 19 Focus: Intersexuality

been lost irretrievably”, she has written on team that decides on treatment includes her blog: “They took my dignity from me”. representatives not just from the differ- She found out on the Internet that there ent medical areas but also from the fields are others who had undergone similar ex- of ethics and psychology. However, no over- periences. In 2007, Daniela Truffer founded view exists of what operations are being the human rights group ‘Zwischenge- carried out, or where. And to the present schlecht.org’. Since then she has fought to day, the recommendations of the Advisory have these operations stopped and has also Commission have not been turned into a been campaigning for the physical and binding regulation. The Federal Council in- mental integrity of children with DSD to tends to reply to this position paper by the be respected. She is convinced that many of end of 2015. these children are still being subjected to surgery today, and that children and parents alike are being inadequately informed. “The suffering that some Her group also offers advice to activists people have had to abroad and has already achieved success in several cases. For example, the Zurich experience because of past Children’s Hospital had played a pioneer- practices must be recognised ing role in treating DSD in the 1950s, but in 2014 it initiated a medico-historical study by society” to evaluate the treatment of people with National Advisory Commission on DSD. This will be the first-ever study of its Biomedical Ethics NEK-CNE kind in the world.

Recognising suffering The topic is also being discussed at the The National Advisory Commission on UN. No less than three UN committees Biomedical Ethics has also been dealing have commented on the Swiss situation in with this topic at the express request of the space of a single year. Under the title the Swiss Federal Council. In a statement “Harmful practices”, the Committee on the in 2012 – which is probably unique in the Rights of the Child expressed its deep con- world – the Commission recommended cern about the surgical operations. The Hu- that any decisions on treatment in the man Rights Committee has asked for sta- realm of gender determination should only tistics, and the Committee against Torture be made when the persons affected are able has noted that neither sanctions nor repa- to make those decisions for themselves. rations have been made, and it further rec- After a birth, parents can be in a confused ommends that all necessary measures be or desperate state of mind and thus often taken to guarantee the integrity and self- want a quick decision; but this is precisely determination of those affected in future. what should not be allowed. The Commis- sion’s first recommendation on their list Antoinette Schwab is a freelance journalist in Bern. of 14 points runs as follows: “The suffering that some people … have had to experience www.intersex.ch (self-help) because of past practices must be recognised by society”. Today, clinics are more reticent. Some operations that are not medically necessary are postponed till later. Children and parents are better informed, and in the

Zurich Children’s Hospital, for example, the Karmann Keystone/EPA/DPA/Daniel Keystone/Laif/Wernet; Photos:

20 Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 21 22 Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 Focus: Intersexuality

Man or woman – by official consent

Swiss law assumes that there are men, women, and no one else. But in purely legal terms, other options are perfectly possible. By Susanne Wenger

n the eyes of the state, we can remain used to be a woman can’t bear children making it easier to change the gender en- nameless for a maximum of 72 hours, either. It is simply impossible to avoid fix- try in the Civil Registry, and making legal and for the same length of time we may ing oneself in a specific gender. “Whoever proceedings unnecessary to bring about remain devoid of gender. But within would like to avoid it simply comes up such changes. Ithree days of its birth, a baby has to be reg- against the boundaries of gender categori- Nor is Büchler much convinced by the istered with its full particulars. That’s what sation that are set by law”. idea of a third category: “Such a catch-all the Civil Registry Ordinance demands. solution could not do justice to the sheer “Gender may not be left open”, says Andrea Do we need two genders? variety of transgender identities and of Büchler, the Chair of Private Law and Com- Other countries go about these matters physical gender traits that exist”. She parative Law at the University of Zurich. with a greater degree of differentiation. thinks we should instead be asking if the The Civil Registry only knows male and Since 2013 it has been possible in Germany law really needs the category of ‘gender’ female. Büchler calls this the “legal com- to omit stating the gender of children who at all. Categorisation is in itself injurious pulsion to unambiguousness”. This gender at birth are not unambiguously either male to the personal rights of those who do not dualism can be traced through the whole of or female. The Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote fit the binary gender order: “Young people the law, from maternity insurance to com- of a “revolution”. In Australia, intersexu- are often under great mental pressure, and pulsory military service to marriage and als can place an ‘X’ in their passport where they would be free of their burden if we quota regulations. The law, says Büchler, they are otherwise required to state their were no longer officially registered as -ei is founded on certain assumptions: that gender. In 2014, the Indian Supreme Court ther male or female”. gender can be determined clearly, and that recognised the transgender hijra commu- Why should the state be interested in gender identity corresponds to the physi- nities as a neutral, third gender with access our gender at all? This is Büchler’s radical cal body. These supposed certainties are to minority rights. question, and it is one that is bound to pro- upset by people whose bodies are between voke controversy. But in pragmatic, politi- the sexes, and by transsexuals who wish to cal terms, not even a less radical solution live in the opposite gender. “Transgender “Transgender identities has a chance of becoming a matter of prior- identities bring into question the very fun- bring into question the very ity. When a proposal was made to the Swiss damental convictions of the law”. Federal Parliament in 2013 that children Changing one’s official gender at a later fundamental convictions of of uncertain gender should not be entered date is a correspondingly complex pro- the law” as either male or female in the Civil Regis- cess – even though the jurisprudence re- Andrea Büchler try at least until adulthood, it was dropped flects a cautious degree of liberalisation without even being discussed. in this respect. A judgement made by the Zurich High Court in 2011 is regarded as a In Switzerland, it does not seem practi- Susanne Wenger is a freelance journalist based milestone in this field. The Court allowed a cable to offer a third category. In 2012, the in Bern. change in the Civil Registry from male to National Advisory Commission on Biomed- female, even though no sex-change opera- ical Ethics argued in favour of the right to Büchler, Andrea; Cottier, Michelle (eds.): Legal tion had taken place. Despite this, the judg- self-determination among people of diver- Gender Studies – Rechtliche Geschlechterstudien. es ruled that the necessary requirement gent sexual development. But it refused Eine kommentierte Quellensammlung, Zurich 2012. of the change being irreversible had been to recommend introducing a non-specific fulfilled. The person had achieved her “de- category, claiming that those affected sired female gender”, and hormone treat- would only be stigmatised all the more ment had rendered her infertile as a male. because gender dichotomies are “deeply Büchler finds this an interesting point re- anchored in our society and culture”. As a

Photos: Keystone/Imagebroker/Oleksiy Maksymenko; Keystone/Gallery Stock/Gunnar Tufta Stock/Gunnar Keystone/Gallery Maksymenko; Keystone/Imagebroker/Oleksiy Photos: garding sex changes, because a man who compromise, ethicists now recommend

Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 23 Knowledge and politics

INTERVIEW NEWS “You have to be able to read it in the bath” Less social science in Japan On 8 June 2015 the Japanese government sometimes come across as compendiums delivered a shocking announcement: 86 of guidelines. We feel we’re much closer to national universities have been called to Virchow scholarship, and we want to show how it’s undertake “steps to abolish organisations a continually evolving process. [active in the human and social sciences] How will you do that? or to transform them so as to serve the Our websites allows readers to leave needs of society better”. According to the comments at specific points in an article. blog Social Science Space and the newspa- This promotes a factual discussion, based per Yomiuri Shimbun, 26 institutions have on specific arguments. What’s more: said they are ready either to reform the there’s no need to sign up, you just have programmes or to cap intakes. The Science to leave your e-mail address. We wanted Council of Japan has published an open to avoid the trap whereby general debates letter expressing its protest. take place underneath online articles and diverge quickly from the subject at hand. Authors are able to reply and then we The journal of preprints decide which articles will go into print. Who is writing the articles? The idea is so simple it needed a genius Researchers, off-campus scientists and to implement it. Using Discrete Analysis, journalists. Then we’ll be the ones get- the mathematician Timothy Gowers, UK, ting our hands dirty on the editorial side has launched a 100% open-access journal. of things, because we want articles that Manuscripts must first be submitted to can be understood in 10 minutes. You the prepublication server Arxiv, ensur- have to be able to read Avenue in the bath! ing they are widely accessible. There they A magazine is a thing of beauty. We’re undergo peer review before being officially aiming for “Brad Pitt with spectacles”, published or not, as the case may be. The a blend of intelligence and beauty. cost will be $10 per publication, which for What is your business model? the moment will be paid for by the Univer- We were able to raise start-up money, but sity of Cambridge. Corinna Virchow, who holds a PhD in Ger- in the longer term we’ll be counting on man studies, has just launched a magazine advertising income and subscriptions to for the humanities called Avenue. The pub- the print magazine. We’re still negotiat- Science in exile lication is a partnership with Mario Kaiser ing distribution with the major Swiss and is due to appear online and in print. publishers, and we are also thinking about There are multiple European initiatives to guerrilla marketing. Furthermore, we support refugee scientists or to profit from How is Avenue innovative? are going to create ads based on extracts them. The EU platform Science4Refugees It will address the humanities as a whole, from the magazine and place them at bus allows CVs and job offers to be placed rather than just being about history, stops. That’s the ideal time to connect with online. In Germany, Change for Science psychology or philosophy. This approach people’s minds, isn't it? is centralising offers such as access to is lacking in the German-speaking world. What will be the topic of the first issue? libraries or courses. Silent University is The current choice of magazines often Cyborgs. working as an exchange platform for shows scholarship and science as a group- exiled scientists. And the British organi- ing of immutable facts into articles. These • www.avenue.jetzt sation Cara is offering scholarships to researchers who are in immediate danger in crisis countries and supporting their visa applications.

THREE QUESTIONS

“You need both the carrot and Does your archive really work? est of researchers to keep it up to date. the stick” 87% of our institution’s scientific articles We also highlighted the advantages, such from the period 2011 to 2013 are available as enabling alternative statistics (down- University programmes in our archive. And we regularly verify loads, etc.). You have to use both the carrot

Tilt ULg Tilt for self-archiving scien- that these are the full texts. Anyone whose and stick. tific publications (“green work is missing receives a punitive letter And what about copyright problems? open access”) often don’t from the Rector. Authors must respect any embargo pe- work. One exception is How did you succeed? riod required by a company publishing the University of Liège in First of all, we put in place a rule requiring their work. For example it may require Belgium. Here are some researchers to archive their articles. Above six months before a manuscript can be insights from its former all, however, the University now only submitted to an open archive. Our system, Rector, Bernard Rentier. evaluates internal finance requests and however, allows us – with a single click – to career promotions on the basis of articles request the author to send the manuscript, in the archive. It is therefore in the inter- which is perfectly legal and effective. ▸▸▸▸ www.youtube.com/crashcourse ▸▸▸▸ www.facebook.com/IFeakingLoveScience ▸▸▸▸ www.periodicvideos.com ▸▸▸▸ www.youtube.com/Vsauce ▸▸▸▸ www.facebook.com/pornscience ▸▸▸▸

24 Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 Explaining science Short, colourful and irreverent In the digital sphere, people tell research stories differently. Popular posts in the digital village can reach several million readers. Text: Roland Fischer Layout: Bogsch & Bacco

ho explains science? New science channels are being es- tablished on the Internet, in blogs and social media, and Wthey are reaching the younger generation through the mainstream media’s back door, as it were. These channels are often run by newcomers and scientific amateurs with personal passions for their topics and a sure feeling for how the attention economy functions. The Net loves the easily digestible products of laboratories and classrooms – unbelievable experiments, crazy scientists, cute biology and jokes about chemical bonding.

Consequently, there’s a vigorous debate going on today about whether this is an opportunity for ‘real’ science, or a threat to it. One way or another, future generations are automatically going to be given a more open picture of what science is about. Here we offer three sketches of science communicators typical of the scene.

▸▸▸▸ www.youtube.com/crashcourse ▸▸▸▸ www.facebook.com/IFeakingLoveScience ▸▸▸▸ www.periodicvideos.com ▸▸▸▸ www.youtube.com/Vsauce ▸▸▸▸ www.facebook.com/pornscience ▸▸▸▸

Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 25 Knowledge and politics Shebeko/Shutterstock

t was only a matter of time before Elise A shy star Andrew from England began to feel she Criticism of the IFLS boss took on more I was swimming against the current. But substance recently. She’s a newcomer in she can’t complain, because thus far she’s many senses – while she has a degree in largely been riding on the crest of a wave. the natural sciences, she has never had In 2012, at the age of 23, she launched a any training in communication or journal- Facebook page that went on to gain a ism – and researchers began to accuse her million ‘likes’ in just six months. Today, of being a ‘bargain basement’ for science Andrew reaches more people through facts and of trying to entice people to her social media than the readership of site by giving sensational titles to her Popular Science, Scientific American and articles. And it’s true that last spring, IFLS the New York Times put together. And she’s managed over the space of several days to done it with the most unlikely of topics: warn of an imminent new ice age, then to science. dismiss this warning as baseless, and then The I Fucking Love Science (IFLS) is a Face- to blame the media for always dramatis- book phenomenon. Only few such pages ing everything. Andrew made no reply to have experienced such swift growth in the criticism levelled at her, and in fact Facebook recent years. So it’s not surprising that since IFLS became so successful she has this phenomenon and the woman behind been relatively shy of publicity. Nor was it have become the target of criticism, Horizons able to reach her for comment. phenomenon both in the science world and outside it. But writing on Facebook last March, she The reaction of the digital sphere became did make it clear that she doesn’t have a Elise Andrew really disconcerting when Andrew set up a high opinion of journalism. “I’d like to see personal Twitter channel and uploaded her traditional media being bypassed. I’d like 26 years old profile picture. The revelation that one of to see scientists engaging directly with the Midland, Canada the most successful science channels was public”, she wrote. These are not the words facebook.com/IFeakingLoveScience curated by a young, good-looking woman of a mere beginner, but of a highly success- 22 million likes caused plenty of comment. ful businesswoman.

“Not that we recommend it of course.” 56,064 like this 16,538 shares

“Your cat Kiselev Valerevich/Shutterstock Kiselev Andrey PROBABLY doesn’t want to kill you”. 56,064 like this MaxyM/Shutterstock 18,156 shares DigitalGlobe via NASA via DigitalGlobe

“They’re thousands of years old, and we have absolutely no idea who made them”. 21,431 like this 5,014 shares

▸▸▸▸ twitter.com/50NerdsofGrey ▸▸▸▸ www.youtube.com/minutephysics ▸▸▸▸ twitter.com/AcademicsSay ▸▸▸▸ www.youtube.com/numberphile ▸▸▸▸ bit.ly/VintageSpace ▸▸▸▸ www.scicombinator.com ▸▸▸▸ www.facebook.com/EpicLabTime ▸▸▸▸ pnis.co/about.html ▸▸▸▸ www.theonion.com/section/science-technology/ ▸▸▸▸ www.youtube.com/AsapSCIENCE ▸▸▸▸ www.reddit.com/r/science ▸▸▸▸

26 Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 “Everything you need to know about planet Earth”

urzgesagt’ was the name Clicks don’t bring money chosen spontaneously by Even a well-visited Youtube channel hardly ‘KPhilipp Dettmer, Stephan Rether brings in any money – at least not enough and their group of information designers to pay for all the work that goes into one of for their Youtube channel. They didn’t stop their five-minute videos. Dettmer writes the to think about the problems non-German scripts himself – and he’s a non-specialist speakers might have with its pronuncia- too, having studied history before turn- tion, because their original intention was ing instead to information design. Their just to create a private channel for research lasts between several weeks and uploading science videos. But then their several months, and his team invests at click counts went through the roof, and least as much time again in the actual soon there was an immense demand for animation. “There are no scientists in our more from the USA and England. They team”, says Dettmer, but today they can at could hardly have chosen a worse name for least call on the help of a whole network The explainer their site, given that it’s so difficult for of experts. English speakers to pronounce. So they The immense amount of attention they Philipp Dettmer had to choose an English name to match get has other benefits. The ‘Kurzgesagt’ the German: ‘In a nutshell’. Today, most videos are an advertisement for their 29 years old users won’t even notice that these videos office’s commercial activities, and ever Munich, Germany aren’t from one of the big animation film bigger clients are now commissioning work youtube.com/Kurzgesagt studios, but are in fact produced by a small from them – companies such as Dell and 5 million views per month design office in Munich. They deal with all Adidas, and even the EU. kinds of topics and have been watched at But why science? “Out of sheer interest”, least several hundred thousand times – says Dettmer. The videos are a real labour some of them even reach into the millions. of love for everyone in the team. Profes- All the same, “we couldn’t ever live from sionals in the communication sector have

Kurzgesagt this”, says Dettmer. been somewhat non-committal in their reaction to these newcomers, however. Universities, for example, are not very interested in their colourful little films, at least not in the German-speaking countries. “The USA and England have progressed much further in that sense. They’ve understood that it’s a good thing to put across a topic in an engaging way”. In this regard, people in the communication sector in Germany are still very elitist. And inasmuch as things are changing at all, they’re only changing “very slowly”, they say.

“Atoms as big as mountains — neutron stars explained”

“3 reasons why nuclear energy is terrible! 2/3”

“The Ebola virus explained “MEP solar panels” — How your body fights for survival”

Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 27 Knowledge and politics Farbe und das Fluoreszenzmikroskop Veröffentlicht von André Lampe am Juli 7, 2015

ndré Lampe’s e-mail address is a A man with a mission statement in itself: theoneandon- While ‘slamming’ is probably impossible A [email protected]. It makes him unless you’ve got ambition and a dash sound more like an entertainer than a of eccentricity, writing blogs is for Lampe researcher working all alone up in his an activity that is more self-sufficient. “I garret. It smacks of the exaggeration of don’t measure my blogging success by the show business, not of a fidelity to facts. In number of clicks that my texts generate”. other words, it’s reminiscent of everything And he doesn’t earn any money from what that scientists usually want to avoid. And he writes. That probably won’t change in indeed, Lampe has a booming voice well the future either, even if his blog gradually suited to the stage, as is obvious even attracts more readers. when you only have him on the other end of But writing texts regularly is a fantastic a telephone. He’s one of the most way of practising how to communicate successful ‘science slammers’ in the with others. And for this reason alone it’s Blogging German-speaking world, and he knows something he’d recommend to every col- how to use his voice too. For several league. Nor does Lampe mince words when months, this 35-year-old physicist has also he talks about science’s ivory towers: he and slammingErnstbeen Abbe blogging, was running the channel ‘Die thinks it’s “deadly” when scientists only a fascinatingkleinen Dinge’ (‘The person small things’) on the write specialist articles for their peers to André Lampe ‘Scienceblogs’ platform. He is also writing read. Ideally, he says, all research findings Publishedhis doctoral by André thesis – Lampe and doesn’t have a should be offered in a form that’s easily 35 years old permanent job. comprehensible to those on the outside. Berlin, Germany on 2 AugustLampe is2015 one of the increasingly numer- Every researcher ought to make sure that scienceblogs.de/diekleinendinge/ ous young researchers who use third-party his findings are communicated to others, funds to finance their dream of a long-term he thinks – though of course, not everyone research project. They do this because is suited to performing on stage. A blog is a today’s science set-up hardly offers any good alternative. And if this doesn’t appeal jobs “that leave you enough air to com- either, there’s always a communications municate”. He lives from his performances department in everyone’s own institution. as a science slammer and from the fees he charges as a moderator and for giving workshops. He’d like to give more workshops to show other scientists how to communicate scientific content in an easily comprehensible format. His sense of having a mission is obvious when he speaks about it.

Ich hab was gegen Rauschen Veröffentlicht von André Lampe am September 8, 2015 Dinge unter’m Mikroskop VI – Diamant Veröffentlicht von André Lampe am Oktober 12, 2015

Business for all ‘Little Green Bags’, a series ics in a stylish, dynamic ence is mainly students, but it turns out that the created by the University way, says Andri Hinnen, teachers and employees really successful topics are A video on the abstract of St. Gallen with financ- creator of the series and of large companies. “We ‘old-hat’ like innovation and topic of corporate social ing from the SNSF’s Agora founder of the communica- thought niche concepts, entrepreneurship, despite responsibility receiving programme. The aim was tion agency Zense. “We such as ‘digital good life’ having already been cov- 240,000 views? This is a to show that it is possible included a touch of humour or ‘public value’, stood the ered thousands of times”. measure of the success of to present these top- and glamour”. The audi- best chance of being seen,

▸▸▸▸ twitter.com/#fieldworkfail ▸▸▸▸ youtube.com/ERB ▸▸▸▸ www.youtube.com/CGPGrey ▸▸▸▸ phdcomics.com ▸▸▸▸ www.youtube.com/minutephysics ▸▸▸▸ www.youtube.com/thebrainscoop ▸▸▸▸

28 Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 What is holding ID back? It’s mainly a structural issue. Each discipline has its language, concepts and specific methods, added to which they each also have a fixed institutional position within a university. Faculties are hierarchical. Some researchers hold things back because ID brings into question not only their power but also the underlying structure of the university. Scientists are the occupying forces of academic territories, and they In academia there’s little incentive to engage in interdisciplinary work, says Frédéric Darbellay. And: want things to stay that way. The etymol- “It’s still a taboo to question the existence of a specialist field”.Photo: Sedrik Nemeth ogy of ‘discipline’ has the Latin root ‘disci- plina’, a whip used to discipline oneself or others … Is it possible to re-examine the existence of a discipline? That’s still a taboo, because we’re talking about a principal factor in the identity of a researcher. It leads to reactions such as, ‘why would anyone want to question my area of specialisation?’ “Risk must be rewarded” Is it difficult to undertake a career in ID? Yes, a career path in ID is often a mismatch with the current academic system. Some Interdisciplinarity is an entirely separate process that ID researchers tell us that during recruit- brings university structures into question, according to the ment processes, they have to opt for highly expert Frédéric Darbellay. Interview by Daniel Saraga disciplinary profiles. If they are to move forward with their careers, they have to belong to a group of peers, as it’s peers who will judge them, publish them and finance You interviewed 65 researchers active in ‘migrants’ move from one discipline to them. For now, those on the standard aca- 10 interdisciplinary research centres in another, such as physicists who study so- demic trajectory have no incentive to be- Switzerland. What conclusions did you ciology. The ‘thematicians’ are driven by have differently. reach? issues, e.g. gender or cultural studies. And There is dedicated financing for ID, but Let’s start with the good news: Swiss re- the ‘natives’ start out in ID. work needs to be done to ensure universi- searchers are committed to interdiscipli- ties also make ID careers and training at- Dinge unter’m Mikroskop VI – Diamant narity, ‘ID’. That said, the majority of them tractive. Risk-taking needs to be rewarded. think that it fails to garner recognition as a “Disciplines continue It’s worth noting that a researcher nor- Veröffentlicht von André Lampe am Oktober 12, 2015 distinct form of research. to be a principal factor mally has to justify undertaking ID re- What exactly do you mean by that? search. But why not ask the opposite: why ID often emerges as an approach to broad in scientific identity” would they want to restrict themselves to issues or problems that don’t fit neatly into their domain? a single discipline, for example those re- You see ID researchers as hackers, why lated to education, environment or health. ID appears sometimes to be merely a is that? The method therefore usually resembles buzz word, used by researchers to keep A hacker is a handyman, able to combine the problem-solution approach, as opposed management happy. diverse elements in order to change a sys- to more traditional research, which usually There’s always a risk of being trapped in tem from within. The individual disci- sets out from a specific question emanat- multidisciplinarity, in other words simply plines constantly progress by themselves, ing from a specific discipline. juxtaposing disciplines without creating not least as the result of ID research. In The first step in dialogue is being sure anything novel. There’s more to it than fact, ID is a driving force for transforming of your identity. Do ID researchers worry just saying ‘we’re going ID’. First you have the university. about losing their academic credentials? to explain how the theoretical framework Academic communities are very clearly is to be jointly created. Then there are Frédéric Darbellay is a professor at the Centre delimited, and they contribute to the way the objective evaluation criteria: have re- for Children’s Rights Studies of the University we define ourselves. Our study shows that searchers developed federating concepts? of Geneva. He contributes to the position researchers don’t generally feel fenced in. Which tools did they use to organise their on ID of the League of European Research ▸▸▸▸ twitter.com/#fieldworkfail ▸▸▸▸ youtube.com/ERB ▸▸▸▸ www.youtube.com/CGPGrey ▸▸▸▸ phdcomics.com ▸▸▸▸ www.youtube.com/minutephysics ▸▸▸▸ www.youtube.com/thebrainscoop ▸▸▸▸ But they are not all the same either. The joint work? Universities (LERU).

Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 29 Biology and medicine Valérie Chételat Valérie

Reading insects’ minds At work, the biologist Richard Benton is fascinated by the senses of the fruit fly. At home this passionate pianist is responsible for the laundry and the cooking. By Chantal Britt

ost biologists dissect fruit flies at garden, from which I can easily go hiking, some point in their training. But jogging or swimming in the lake”. As an- few are so taken by Drosophila other convenience, Benton points out hav- melanogaster that years later ing in-laws nearby. “With a young family Mtheir eyes still sparkle like a child master- and a career in science you already end up ing a new skill. Richard Benton is one of sacrificing the pursuit of your more inten- those few. This 38-year-old professor at the sive hobbies – at least for some time”. Ben- University of Lausanne investigates the ton is a keen cello player and pianist, and insect’s sense of smell. His curiosity and his wife plays the violin, but neither can desire to understand nature also persist dedicate enough time to practising to be when he leaves the campus. able to join an orchestra as they did in New “I often think about insects and their York. “But that time will come again”, he is behaviour when I’m outside of work”, says convinced. Benton. “Why do fruit flies tend to line up His office – decorated with family pho- on the edge of a cupboard, or why are they tographs and baby T-shirts – prominently more attracted to bananas than apples?” displays pictures drawn by his daughter’s At times he is overly enthusiastic when he schoolmates on a visit to his lab. “I like shares his reasoning at home, as he con- their enthusiasm, fascination and curios- cedes: “I just have to look at my children ity”. Benton himself has preserved a lot rolling their eyes!” But his wife, Sophie of this childlike enthusiasm. Excitedly he Martin, shares his love for research. Inci- picks up an electron microscope image dentally, she’s one of the reasons why he with an oversized head of a fruit fly, and came to Switzerland in the first place. They points out the fly’s nose. first met in Cambridge during their PhD studies. Their science later also took them Protecting vineyards from fruit flies to New York. “They have around a hundred different sensory receptors”, he explains. “Although From New York to Préverenges their nose is simpler than our own, odour Benton says he could have settled any- perception in insects is strikingly similar where – in his native Edinburgh, elsewhere to how humans smell, when we look at in the UK, or in the USA. “But my wife was how their neural circuits are organised”. keen to return to Lausanne”, he recalls. His research group dissects fly brains and “She managed to get a prestigious SNSF uses many different approaches to try to professorship in microbiology, and I was understand this fascinating and complex also lucky to get an assistant professor- sense – from genetics and imaging to re- ship”. Their home village Préverenges ini- cording electrical signals in neurons and tially seemed a little too rural as a place to behavioural experiments. live. “There are still moments when I miss “If we understand how insects detect the buzzing 24/7 life of a fast-paced city”. pheromones and food odours in the lab, “At the same time our life has changed. we can also try to chemically manipu- I really appreciate having a house with a late the mechanisms controlling their

30 Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 “We can try to chemically manipulate the behaviour of insects in the wild”

odour-evoked behaviour in the wild”. Ben- year. I certainly have to get better because I ton picked D. melanogaster, the common will need to keep up with my children on vinegar fly that is attracted to rotten fruit, the slopes”. on the basis that this model organism has Benton’s main frustrations are that he is been studied for over a century and more not able to guarantee his trainees an aca- is known about its biology than almost any demic career in science because of a lack of other animal. positions, as well as the related problem of While D. melanogaster is only mildly an- gender inequality at the professorial level. noying when it feasts upon rotting produce He agrees with his wife that it is challeng- in our kitchen fruit bowls, a more serious ing to juggle child-care and two demand- pest is the closely related Drosophila suzukii, ing full-time positions, and thinks that it which lays its eggs in ripe fruit, damaging is essential to avoid adhering to traditional grape and strawberry crops worldwide, in- family roles. “My wife is the one drilling cluding in Benton’s local Lavaux region. If the holes and filling in the tax forms at researchers can decipher why this species home, while I do most of the laundry and is attracted to fresh fruit instead of rotting the cooking. And when one of our kids falls fruit, it might be possible to ward them off sick, we invoke an action plan of who will crops or to trap them somewhere far from stay at home when”, Benton says. our farms. “At work, I wear different hats through- “So I may do basic research, but it is only out the day: I’m a mentor, a teacher, an ad- a small step to practical applications. Our ministrator, and a colleague”. But above all, findings may not only help us control pests he still considers himself a researcher. Ben- in agriculture, they can also potentially ton’s dream sabbatical would be simply to help us to conquer diseases such as malaria, spend time back at the lab bench – for the dengue fever and sleeping sickness, which pure pleasure of doing science. are transmitted by bloodsucking insects including mosquitoes and tsetse flies”. Chantal Britt is a freelance journalist.

A sabbatical at the lab bench • Video interview with Richard Benton: Benton feels lucky that his job situation bit.ly/Benton_SNF has worked out so well. He sees Switzerland as one of the best places for basic research. He praises not only the funding but also the possibility of getting tenure, which offers scientists a stability that is difficult to find elsewhere in Europe. A successful nose And Lausanne has certainly grown on him. He likes its quality of life and punc- Richard Benton (38) has been studying tual public transport. Benton is consider- sensory perception in fruit flies at the ing applying for Swiss citizenship, and has University of Lausanne since 2007. After his even taken to skiing. “At the moment my PhD at the University of Cambridge, he also skiing is about as proficient as my French”, worked at Rockefeller University in New York. Benton says with a smile. “But I’m con- He has won several awards, most recently stantly improving and I enjoy it more every the National Latsis Prize in 2015.

Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 31 Biology and medicine Fishy tales

Simone Häberle’s work only starts when the ground plan of old castles has been laid open. This archaeozoologist from the University of Basel can use old fish bones to tell us how Swiss lakes and rivers were used in the past. By Florian Fisch

Field work

Filtering Whenever a Roman kitchen is being excavated, the Basel postdoc Simone Häberle is keen to join the dig. The tiniest fish bones and scales are filtered out by washing buckets of sediment through sieves.

Analysis

Species identification Out of roughly 40,000 small fish scales and head and spine bones – in the picture to the right they are less than Isotope analysis a millimetre across – Häberle The more proteins fish eat, the can assign about a third to a greater is their concentration specific species (or at least a of nitrogen-15. This is why a family) within three months. higher proportion of this heavy Growth rings can often even isotope is found in older fish enable her to determine the age and in predatory fish at the top of the fish and the season when of the aquatic food chain. Fur- it was caught. thermore, there are carbon-13 values that are typical of certain habitats.

Interpretations

Nutritional habits The fish trade By comparing her findings with Overfishing Water pollution A pike found in a Basel latrine of historical documents, Häberle Fish stocks were presumably Did tanneries flush large quanti- the 15th or 16th century displays can prove that pike were farmed already endangered in the ties of organic material into an atypical carbon value that and eaten at Altenberg Castle, Middle Ages on account of the the Rhine even before the days corresponds to that of brackish the ruins of which sit today in intensive fishing of juvenile of industrialisation? Häberle water – which Häberle inter- the canton of Basel-Landschaft. fish. The proof is found in would now like to find out prets as proof of trade along the the high density of young whether historical sources can banks of the Rhine. fish in mediaeval latrines in be verified by means of isotope

Winterthur. analysis. Simone Häberle Plogmann, Heide Hüster Photos:

32 Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 Biology and medicine

Measuring soil pollutants erbicides are used on many farms to help ensure crop yields. They Valérie Chételat Valérie Michael Halassa Michael are also pollutants and a danger to Hthe environment. But because it’s difficult to determine the degree of their adsorp- tion and degradation on soil particles, we can’t measure if they are broken down in the subsoil, or if instead they reach water catchment areas and enter into the ecosystem. Now researchers from the University Methane emissions from cows could be reduced of Neuchâtel, the research institutes by selective breeding. Eawag and Agroscope and the Helmholtz Centre in Munich, Germany, are working Environmentally friendly on a new method to measure the specific digestion biodegradation of herbicides. The method Whether we look at the road ahead or at our gauges the relationships between differ- fifth of the world’s methane emis- smartphone is decided deep in our brains. ent concentrations of element variants, sions come from the stomachs of called isotopes. Molecules with light animals. Wild animals and live- Our focus of attention isotopes (such as carbon-12) are broken stockA all emit this powerful greenhouse down quicker than molecules with heavy gas into the atmosphere, both through he brain constantly has to blank isotopes (such as carbon-13), so measuring their breath and through flatulence. out unimportant sensory informa- isotopes can help determine the degree Now a study has shown how these tion so it can devote its resources to of degradation. The greater the degree of methane emissions can be reduced. The Tthings of relevance. Researchers at New degradation, the higher the proportion of team is led by Marcus Clauss, a veterinar- York University have found out how this heavy elements in the samples. ian at the Clinic for Zoo Animals, Exotic filter function works by experimenting on These isotope analyses have already Pets and Wildlife of the University of Zu- mice. One structure in the centre of the been successful in laboratory tests to rich, and Michael Kreuzer of the Institute brain plays a decisive role in all of this: the measure the important elements car- of Agricultural Sciences at ETH Zurich, so-called thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN), bon, nitrogen and chlorine. A recently who have been investigating the meth- which has long been regarded as a ‘control published study has also shown that the ane emissions of different animal species. centre’ for sensory impressions. Individual researchers were able to analyse four These include livestock such as sheep, neurone groups in it are responsible for herbicides in a soil sample that they took cows and horses but also wild animals turning down each of the senses at any to their lab. such as turtles, camels, sloths, kangaroos, one time. The project’s goal is to refine this meth- pygmy hippopotami and ostriches. The researchers exposed the mice to a od so that it can be used in situ in the field, Their results demonstrate that spe- sound signal and a light signal at the same under natural conditions. Environmental cies that eat a lot and digest their food time. But only one of the signals showed authorities and assessors could then be quickly produce a small amount of the path to a food reward. This meant that able to predict the risk of groundwater methane per kilo of food. Species produce individual neurones in the TRN of the contamination, or develop appropriate more methane when they eat little and mice brains activated in order to blank monitoring programmes. Simon Koechlin digest their food slowly and methodi- out the irrelevant sensory impression in cally. However, overall methane produc- each case. If the researchers deactivated C. Torrento et al.: Fate of four herbicides in an tion remains the same across all species these nerve cells, it became more difficult irrigated field cropped with corn: lysimeter because the animals with the quicker for the animals to find the food. The same experiments. Procedia Earth and Planetary digestion also eat more. thing happened when they inhibited the Science, 2015. Nevertheless, the researchers did dis- prefrontal cortex, which is the part of the cover differences within single species. brain responsible for making decisions. Thus there are individual animals whose “Until now, people thought that con- methane production per calorie ingested centration was purely a matter for the is lower than is the case in others of their cerebral cortex”, explains Ralf Wimmer, species. This is presumably a result of

who is currently in New York on a postdoc Torrentó Clara genetic differences, which opens up the funded by the SNSF. “And indeed, it does possibility of curbing methane production seem to decide where we should focus among livestock. “Here, selective breeding our attention. But it’s the TRN that shifts could offer us the possibility of reducing that focus”. emissions”, says Clauss. He and Kreuzer The researchers are now investigating estimate that this reduction could be as whether flaws in the TRN could be the high as 20 percent. Atlant Bieri origin of attention deficit disorders such as those related to ADHD, autism and S. Frei et al.: Comparative methane emission schizophrenia. Angelika Jacobs The pollutants seep through the piece of soil, are by ratites: Differences in food intake and di- intercepted and analysed. gesta retention level out methane production. R. D. Wimmer et al.: Thalamic control of sensory Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology (2015). selection in divided attention. Nature, 2015.

Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 33 Fieldwork

In the world’s biggest democracy

Hans-Christian Baumann spent twelve months working on his doctoral thesis in Delhi. He was investigating the elections there and was surprised by more than just his findings.

I hadn’t expected conducting research tre for Culture, Media and Governance of in Delhi to be so physically strenuous. Jamia Millia Islamia University is situated I went there in 2014 both to investigate in a pretty poor district. There were regu- the election campaigns of the biggest lar power cuts on account of the heat – and “Indian parties, and to see how the two most that meant the air-con and the computers important Indian daily papers reported on also stopped working. That really got on my the election. I was interested in the ‘hot’ nerves. I sometimes felt like the archetypal phase of the campaign. But the weather at Swiss philistine who gets annoyed at small the time was even hotter still. April to June things. I didn’t just suffer from the heat, is the hottest period in Delhi, and it was but from the air pollution too. I rode to never less than 40 degrees Celsius. The Cen- work in the back of a three-wheel tuk-tuk

34 Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 On 27 April 2014, Hindustan reported on Sonia Gandhi of the Congress Party and on the opposi- tion presidential candidate Nar- endra Modi (photo, left). The two coders (right) helped Hans-Chris- tian Baumann (top) to analyse the content of the newspaper articles. The university is in a relatively poor part of the city. Commuting to work meant navigating traffic jams and streets sodden with rain. Photos: Hans-Christian Baumann

taxi, and often had to wear a face mask. The plus the Hindi-language newspaper Hin- India was the newspaper of the former journey took 40 minutes on average, but dustan and the English-language Times British colonial masters. During the elec- there were days when it took up to three of India reported on the two leading can- tion, however, these roots were no longer hours. If I hadn’t been living in an air-con- didates: Rahul Gandhi from the Congress visible at all. Both newspapers reported ditioned apartment, I really don’t know if Party and Narendra Modi from the oppos- very independently and very critically I’d have been able to stick it out. ing Bharatiya Janata Party. about both candidates, influencing each “The fact that I was able to come back other in the process. What is noteworthy Fighting bureaucracy with good data was thanks most of all to two is that the two parties did not succeed in “The field work in Delhi was only success- Indian Master students whom I employed steering the direction of the media cover- ful because I’d already built up a good local as coders. I can read Hindi pretty well, but age. This actually wouldn’t have been so network on an earlier visit. If you haven’t I’m a long way from being able to speak the unusual in India, because politicians and got serious contacts, then there’s a real language fluently. And it wouldn’t have suf- private sponsors often try to influence the danger you’ll be thwarted by the notori- ficed for me to be able to analyse the con- media there. On the World Press Freedom ous Indian bureaucracy. I also had my fair tent of the newspapers and of the election Index run by Reporters Without Borders, share of it. In order to register as a resident, campaigns of the two parties. These two India is very far down the list in 136th I had to report to various offices across the students worked up to eight hours every place. However, my results are of an ex- whole town, queueing for hours in the sun. day for ten weeks in the burning heat, and ploratory nature and are restricted to the At some point, an official came past my never let themselves be unsettled by our most significant national newspapers and apartment on his motor cycle and brought technical problems. The deal was good for the two biggest national parties. We would me my residence permit. both sides: they were able to earn money need to conduct a lot more research “In democracies, the media play a deci- and got insights into the scholarly working in India in order to be able to under- sive role in an election, especially the key practices of the West, and I in turn received stand these effects on regional and media. They influence the way the other linguistic and cultural support from them. local levels too”. media report things. In the West, these ” agenda-setting effects have been well in- An independent press Recorded by Pascale Hofmeier vestigated, but not in India, which is the “I’m astonished at the results I got. Tradi- biggest democracy in the world. I wanted to tionally, Hindustan was the instrument know how the two biggest Indian parties, of the Congress Party, while the Times of

Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 35 Culture and society Art ennobles its owners and art lovers alike: the installation ‘Untitled’ (1969/2013) by the US artist Doug Wheeler was exhibited at Art Unlimited 2014. Photo: Keystone/Georgios Kefalas The struggle for art At Art Basel, sociologists have been investigating how the booming art market is turning the art world upside-down – and at the same time sparking off a competition for social power. By Daniel Di Falco

amien Hirst? Yes, him – the English by means of a consensus on not referring superstar artist. In 2007 he studded to them publically as ‘commodities’. a skull with diamonds and called it ‘For the Love of God’. It is said to The face of capital Dhave cost 14 million pounds to make and But the sociologists have observed just was offered on the market for 50 million. how difficult it has become to maintain But no one wanted to buy it. And in fact, that consensus. For the past three years it was precisely this point that made it a they have been engaging in fieldwork at success for Hirst – for he was offering the Art Basel – it is at this trade fair that they buyer something that actually possessed have seen the ‘mercantile character’ of art an intrinsic value, and in the process he show its face more openly than anywhere quite wilfully drove all the magic out of art. else. And this has also brought out into the When a car mechanic draws up an in- open the fundamental contradiction that voice, he lists the cost of his materials and has dominated the whole art world since that of his work time. Art, on the other Édouard Manet’s club of Impressionist art- the fair; and even the art itself is carefully hand, is precious because it is far removed ists in the late 19th century. Their declared calibrated. What you see most is what sells from any such profanely mercantile cri- belief was adopted as the prime ethos of art the best. teria. Expenses are indeed incurred in the as a whole: that art exists in a quite sepa- There has long been an economics of making of it, but this has no real impact on rate sphere of its own, standing apart from art. But in years gone by, says Schultheis, the actual value of the artwork itself. all laws of economics and society. it was easier to maintain a ‘collective pre- Franz Schultheis, a sociologist at the At Art Basel, however, capital certainly tence’. Claims about having a ‘passion for University of St. Gallen, has also written shows its face. There we find champagne art’ were used as a fig leaf to hide the close about the magic of art and its demystifica- stalls, sponsors’ events, and all the feverish relationship between art and capital. In tion. But the case of Hirst is of mere anec- excitement of making a sale. The research- Basel, however, business is centre stage, dotal value compared to the findings of his ers have been documenting the hype and and when the sociologists start asking research group. For over two decades now, the bustle at this ‘carnival’ of art with the questions of the participants, an immense the art market has been veritably erupting, meticulousness of ethnographers. And feeling of unease bubbles up. The gallery says Schultheis, and it is endangering “the they’ve been investigating its house rules owners are unhappy because they’ve been traditional institutions of the art world”. with equal rigour. The VIPs are sorted into displaced by the big auction houses; the Collectors, dealers, exhibitors and agents different classes and treated according to collectors are uneasy because they mis- have until now guaranteed the ‘charismat- their economic and social clout; the most trust the new clientele who are competing ic impact’ of their commodities precisely potent galleries get the best locations at for their status; and the artists themselves

36 Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 are unhappy, with many refusing even to has caused the potential losers to turn competitive struggle going on among the show their faces at Art Basel “because it has against the big galleries, against the ‘nou- ‘ruling classes’. At stake is the symbolic nothing to do with art”. veau riche’ and against the whole process capital that art has long provided: its ability of commercialisation. both to add beauty to our walls and to le- Market reactions gitimise the societal position of its owners. Of course, this trade fair actually has a lot Art, says Franz Schultheis, is so valuable to do with art. But just not that exclusive, “There’s an immense feeling because it ennobles the art lover. And it’s social arrangement where the participants of unease among those still more than just merchandise. For this used to set the price tag on a work of art. reason, it’s unlikely that the market will This is now endangered by the market it- involved” want to destroy its own magic. The ques- self, which is calling into question the Franz Schultheis tion is rather who is going to control this very rules of the art world. Where exclu- magic in future. sivity used to dominate, the market now wants to open up, and – like every mar- These are the deeper-lying conflicts, Daniel Di Falco is a historian and a culture ket – it no longer makes concessions to any and the sociologists are interpreting them journalist at the Bund newspaper in Bern. ‘passion’ for the thing in itself. Instead, all by means of the social theories of Pierre that counts is economic potency. It is this Bourdieu. And behind this altercation in Kunst und Kapital. Begegnungen auf der Art Basel. “reallocation of power relationships” that the name of ‘loving art’ there is indeed a Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2015

Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 37 38 Culture and society Swiss National ScienceFoundation –Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 “The idea of a symbolic way” works ina Great Kurdistan

By Benjamin Keller By Benjamin the historianJordi Tejel. momentarily, accordingto the Kurds together only State groupmay bring The war againsttheIslamic

Valérie Chételat Valérie Chételat Valérie ome label them “terrorists”, others So what was the European motivation war heroes against the Islamic for a Kurdish state? State. At any rate, the stateless Between 1918 and 1922 the British were Kurds are fighting a century-old seeking to weaken the Turks and did so by Sbattle for recognition. This summer, the supporting the Kurds, on the basis that they Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) took up would be easily dominated thereafter. The arms in Turkey against the regime of 1917 Bolshevik revolution had also raised Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which had start- the spectre of a Russian threat, hence the ed bombing them alongside the Islamic need to create buffer zones. State fighters. Jordi Tejel is a professor of internation- So finally, neither the Kurds, al history at the Graduate Institute of In- the Europeans nor the Turks ternational and Development Studies in achieved anything. Geneva, where he specialises in the history No. Once Kemal had negotiated the Treaty of the Kurds and other minorities in the of Lausanne, he turned his back on the Middle East. In his view, it was at the outset Kurds. All of his promises of Turco-Kurd- that the PKK aimed to unite the Kurdish ish fraternity were forgotten. A new pro- regions of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. To- gramme appeared in its place, based on a day, however, the idea of a Great Kurdistan united and centralised Turkey. This assimi- is principally a justification of the claims lation plan kicked in as of 1923, becoming made by the Kurds in each country. the core element for founding the Repub- lic. It was clearly unsuccessful, and things Referring to the title of your latest turned out differently. book, how long has the “Kurdish issue” existed? Since the fall of the Ottoman Empire and “Few European countries the signing of international treaties after look forward to the emergence the First World War. In 1920, the Treaty of Sèvres set out the creation of a Kurdish of a Kurdish state” state in the south-east of what is today Tur- key, encompassing only a small part of the Kurdish territories. The plan was that the What do you mean? Kurds in the north of Iraq, who were under The Turkey of 1923 was weak. It needed to British trusteeship, would later be able to be built from the ground up. When Ankara, join an independent Kurdistan if they so having recently replaced Istanbul as the wished. But the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne capital, decided to impose Turkish as the superseded the Treaty of Sèvres and put an only official language, the policy couldn’t end to the idea of Kurdistan. be applied in the majority of the Kurdish regions. In fact, in many Kurdish zones, the What happened? Turkish state was almost or entirely ab- On the one hand, there were divisions sent. Up until the Second World War, this among the European powers. The United acculturation policy only really had any ef- Kingdom had notably fallen into competi- fect in the cities. tion with France over the Middle East. At the same time, Turkey had led a war of in- Then what happened? dependence against the occupying forces, Starting in the 1940s and 50s, the policy and on the back of recent victories, Mustafa was applied much more globally, particu- Kemal (a rebel leader and soon-to-be Presi- larly on the basis of the growing number of dent ‘Atatürk’) demanded that negotiations schools, including in rural regions. Military be reopened. On the other hand, divisions service was also used as a means of integra- had also been growing among the Kurds, tion. It was also at this time, however, that and not only tribesmen but also their el- Kurdish nationalism started to re-emerge. ders began to align with Kemal against the Up until then it had all but disappeared fol- Europeans. lowing the very forceful repression of the revolutions of the 1920s and 30s, which Why did they do that? had pushed Kurdish intellectuals to leave Kemal had promised them autonomy and the country. recognition in the future Turkish state. They were also all united around the prac- What was the basis for this renewed tice of Islam and the view of Western pow- nationalism? ers as infidels. Yet another reason related The young Kurds who had studied in Is- to the widespread Kurdish participation in tanbul and Ankara became aware of their the massacre of Armenians during the First culture, particularly their gradually fading World War. Because the elders had encour- language. These intellectuals hailed from aged exactions and land grabbing, they had rural south-eastern regions and so were started to fear being judged – and therefore also struck by Western Turkey being much being obliged to surrender territory – under more well-developed. Although Marxism the Treaty of Sèvres, which had provided was permeating through the Middle East for an Armenian state. at this time, the Kurdish discourse didn't

Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 39 Culture and society

become politicised immediately; instead question current borders. It does, however, it mixed cultural claims with Marxist-like seek the position of regional actor, i.e., ex- statements on development. In fact, many erting influence on all Kurdish regions so Kurds would first join Turkey’s communist as to gain resources for use in Turkey. and socialist parties. How are the relations between the So when did the breakaway happen? PKK and the government of the It was at the end of the 1960s and 70s. The Kurdish region of Iraq? new generation, who felt marginalised, They are in competition. And one sign of wanted to create their own Kurdish and the PKK’s edge is the presence of its mili- left-wing parties. This movement was the tary bases in the north of Iraq, which are genesis of the PKK. At the end of the 1970s, out of bounds to the Iraqi Peshmerga fight- they separated entirely from the Turkish ers. left with the idea of creating a united Kurd- istan to include all Kurdish regions and Could the Kurds join in the fight adopting a Marxist-Leninist agenda. against the Islamic State group? It may reunite them, but only momentarily. In fact, we already saw this happen “The PKK states that it when the Peshmergas helped the Syrian does not want to question Kurds defend the city of Kobane, and when the PKK fought the Islamic State to protect current borders. It does, Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. After however, seek the position each event, the foreign party withdrew to its own trenches. of regional actor” Can the Kurds expect recognition from the West? So is independence still on the cards? They don't really have any choice: they Officially, the PKK isn’t currently push- have to fight the Islamic State group being for a Kurdish state. They’re framing cause it considers them an enemy. They their claims on the basis of today’s borders. are trying to sell their fight, but they know For some years, the PKK leader Abdullah all too well that the West will turn its back Öcalan, who is still imprisoned in Turkey, on them as soon as the situation starts to The world’s largest stateless population talked of what he called democratic con- change. For now, there’s a lot of sympathy federalism: a blend of anarchic and demo- for the Kurds, but few European countries Some 40 million people call themselves cratic principles, based on the decentrali- look forward to the emergence of a Kurd- ‘Kurds’ and therefore comprise the world’s sation of power and self-rule, with some ish state. Nor do we know to what extent largest stateless population. ‘Kurdistan’ feminist and green ideas mixed in. the United States is ready to upset Turkey, straddles parts of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and given its strategic value. Syria, covering more than 500,000 km², What are the links between the PKK and (i.e., an area 12 times larger than the Syrian, Iraqi and Iranian Kurds? Benjamin Keller is a graduate of international Switzerland). This territory is not unified, The PKK underwent reorganisation when relations and a freelance journalist based in and the degree of autonomy given to Kurds it was listed a terrorist organisation by Tur- Geneva and Tunis, Tunisia. varies according to the country. There is key, the United States and the European also a huge diaspora outside of the region: Union among others. Rather than unite in between 1.5 and 1.7 million Kurds can be action on all fronts, the PKK decided to take found in Europe, including around three- different names according to the country. quarters of a million in Germany, according In Syria it became the Democratic Union to figures from the Kurdish Institute in Paris, Party (PYD). In November 2013, after troops France. Kurds speak their own dialects and from Damascus partially withdrew from are 80% Sunni Muslims. the Kurdish region of Rojava in the north of Syria, the PYD unilaterally declared the zone to be autonomous and started applying democratic confederalism. The PYD From Spain to the Middle East therefore has a privileged position relative to its less-well known counterparts in Iraq, Jordi Tejel is 44 years old and an SNSF- the PÇKD, and Iran, the PJAK. sponsored professor at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Does the PKK want to unify Studies in Geneva. He works in the the four regions? international history department where his I don’t think so. The idea of a Great Kurdis- research covers the history of the Middle tan only has symbolic meaning. That goes East, its minorities and its borders, with a for all Kurds, and not just the PKK. In each particular focus on the Kurdish issue. He country, they use it to legitimise their indi- was born in Barcelona and in 1996 moved vidual claims. Proof of this can be seen in to Switzerland, where he still lives with his Iraq; the Kurds autonomously control a re- wife and two children. He has published a gion in the north of the country where talk number of books including Irak, chronique of ‘Kurdistan’ refers to that region alone. d’un chaos annoncé (2006) and La question The PKK states that it does not want to kurde: passé et présent (2014).

40 Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 Culture and society

Successful comeback after Dutch violence in Indonesia a baby break he Netherlands sees itself as a land

ow many new mothers succeed Eckhardt Oscar of tolerance and humanity. For this in getting swiftly back into the reason, the Dutch tend to assume swing of working life, and how Tthat they behaved in a more civilised Hmany are happy with it? This has been fashion in their colonies than did the investigated in a longitudinal project by French, Portuguese, Germans and British Bettina S. Wiese, a psychologist at RWTH in theirs. But that was not the case, as has Aachen University, in which she gathered now been shown in the doctoral thesis of together the opinions of some 300 women Rémy Limpach, a military historian at the from Switzerland, Austria and Germany. University of Bern, to be published next They confirm the role played by external Whether on the left or right bank of the Rhine: year in both Dutch and German. circumstances – such as working hours from Chur to Malans, the same dialect is spoken. From 1945 to 1949, the Dutch colony and work-related stress. But at the same of Indonesia fought a guerrilla war to time, it’s a woman’s personal character A new dialect in Grisons gain its independence. During this war, traits and abilities that are truly decisive the Dutch army behaved with extreme in whether she enjoys a successful return anguages die out and others are brutality towards the civilian population, to her job. “Women who believe they can born – though this happens much especially on the island of Celebes (which master difficulties successfully, and who slower than it does with the peo- today belongs to Indonesia under the show initiative at the workplace, are those Lple who actually speak them. In recent name of Sulawesi). They engaged in mass who reintegrate quicker”, says Wiese. decades, almost unnoticed by anyone, a violence – killing farmers, raping women, But some women regret returning new Grisons dialect has emerged in the torturing prisoners and burning down to work, as is proven by diary data pro- Rhine Valley near Chur. It has been dis- entire villages. These were by no means vided by the women interviewed. This is covered and described by Oscar Eckhardt, isolated cases of excess, and the colonial somewhat more the case with women a linguist who is himself from Chur. He authorities justified their soldiers’ actions who return very soon after giving birth. has conducted oral and written interviews by declaring them legitimate on account Women are also vulnerable if they easily with 150 young people and young adults of ‘martial law’, ‘states of emergency’ or feel overwhelmed by stress in general. who live in the region, and has analysed ‘counter-terrorism’. Limpach offers three This emotional frailty is one of those their comments from a linguistic stand- principal reasons for this mass violence: character traits that are difficult to keep point. A non-native of the Grisons would the lack of discipline and training among under control. simply identify this new local ‘language’ the soldiers themselves, the fragmenta- It’s also clear that young mothers can as a Grisons dialect; but a native linguist tion and overburdening of the army, and facilitate their successful reintegration if can discern that it has replaced three the escalating cycle of violence that was they prepare their return to work in good dialect groups: one from the right bank further fuelled by acts of cruelty on the time. For example, it’s advantageous if of the Rhine that is also spoken in Chur, part of their opponents. On top of this, they keep up contact with their work col- one from the left bank of the Rhine, and the Dutch also had a racist image of their leagues during their baby break, and make one from the enclave of Thusis. This new enemy, says Limpach. The mass violence an effort to stay up-to-date in their field. dialect can be proven to exist on the basis of those times remains a taboo topic in the A woman’s partner also plays a complex of phonetic, syntactical and lexicographic Netherlands to this day. Urs Hafner role in this process. A follow-up study is evidence. The fact that these three groups currently underway in which couples are – which are hundreds of years old – have Rémy Limpach: Business as usual: Dutch mass being investigated to determine just how made way for a new regional dialect is violence in the Indonesian war of independence much partners influence the length of the largely a result of increased mobility, says 1945–49, in: B. Luttikhuis et al (eds.): Colonial baby break and the mother’s workload. Eckhardt. It is consistent with his results Counterinsurgency as Mass Violence. The Dutch Anne-Careen Stoltze that only a third of those interviewed Empire in Indonesia. Routledge, New York 2014. responded by stating their place of resi- Bettina S. Wiese & Michaela Knecht: Socialisation dence – such as ‘Malans’ – when asked to into Organizations and Balancing Work and describe their dialect. The others simply Family. In J. Vuori, R. Blonk & R. H. Price (eds.), called it a ‘Chur dialect’, a ‘Grisons dialect’, Sustainable working lives. Managing work or even just ‘Swiss German’. Urs Hafner Historie (NIMH) transitions and health throughout the life course (pp. 87–105). 2015, Springer. Oscar Eckhardt: Alemannisch im Churer Rheintal. Von der lokalen Variante zum Regionaldialekt (ZDL-Beiheft). Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2016. 430 pp. (in press). Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Militaire voor Instituut Nederlands Valérie Chételat Valérie Dutch soldiers on Java pose with a group of Indo- nesian prisoners of war.

The return to work is more successful for a woman who believes she’ll cope.

Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 41 Environment and technology

Researchers are excited about the properties of perovskites (black). In 2014 alone, this crystal was the subject of 3,500 publications. Photo: Keystone/Science Photo Library/UIG/Dorling Kindersley

42 Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 The stuff of dreams After the bluster around graphene, now we have perovskites. In research and industry alike, people are getting excited about this new class of materials. By Fabien Goubet

or some years now, growing num- tures. And not only are the new structures subtly altering the crystal structure of the bers of physicists, chemists and perfect, because the crystal components perovskite. This in turn modifies the ther- engineers have been lulled into a are all identical, but they also take on dif- mal properties of the material. The result is trance by the sirens of a new, ex- ferent properties from the parents”. an ‘intelligent’ insulator that can actively Fotically named family of materials: the Physicists harbour the crazy desire of compensate for the significant tempera- perovskites. This group of oxides is to be being able to create a 100% bespoke mate- ture changes suffered by microprocessors found at the heart of a wide range of re- rial that can be built on a needs basis. In and components of satellites and motor search projects in fields as diverse as they Geneva, for example, Triscone is trying vehicles. Nevertheless, “for now the effect are promising, including solar energy, to assemble different perovskites into an has only been observed at very low temper- microelectronics and lasers. ambient-temperature superconductor (a atures of around 80 kelvins [Ed: -193° C]”, The first mention of this class of com- material though which electric current says Christian Monachon, a Swiss physi- pounds dates back to 1839. At that time passes without any wasteful resistance). cist working at the University of California, ‘perovskite' referred to the rock calcium Others are hoping to fit the particle ac- Berkeley, USA. This is not an insurmount- titanate (CaTiO3), taking the name of the celerators at CERN with new magnets able obstacle, however, “my research leads Russian mineralogist Lev Perovski. The based on the superconductive oxides that me to believe that we can obtain materials term now covers a wide range of materials won Georg Bednorz and Alex Müller of with variable thermal conductivity, by us- containing two groups of oxidised atoms IBM Zurich the Nobel Prize for Physics in ing barium titanate, for example, which and featuring the same cubic crystalline 1987. These oxides look much like a stack I’m currently studying”. structure. of perovskites. The sun is shining on perovskites Bespoke material The greatest interest of perovskites lies Its crystalline structure is actually very “Researchers can modulate in photovoltaic applications. In the space common. “It’s probably the most widely of five years, the performance of perovs- found crystal structure on earth”, says and compile materials as kite solar cells has quadrupled, almost Jean-Marc Triscone, a physicist at the Uni- if they were Lego” reaching that of silicon cells and therefore versity of Geneva. But it’s here that things heralding change. start to become interesting. “By minutely Jean-Marc Triscone But scientists haven’t always felt per- adjusting the base elements, a radical suaded by this application. “Since the change can be brought to every property of 1980s, researchers have focused on design- the material”, he continues. It’s as simple And these are just some of the multi- ing lasers”, says the expert Jacky Even of as taking a magnetic perovskite and sub- tudinous examples of potential applica- the National Applied Sciences Institute in stituting one of its elements for another. tions ranging from the design of lasers and Rennes, France. It was only in 2009 that The result is a completely different mate- LEDs to new types of computer memory. the marriage of perovskites and sunshine rial, one that in the process may, for exam- Another promising field of application is occurred to a team at Toin University in ple, have lost in magnetism but gained in centred on ferroelectric perovskites, the Yokohama, Japan, which then tried to in- conductivity. Perovskites can even be com- crystals of which are composed of ions, giv- tegrate perovskites into a photovoltaic bined, giving rise to new materials with ing them natural electric polarisation. By cell. “It was not an idea well-suited to the unforeseen properties. “It’s like Lego: you applying an electric field, the orientation exceptional properties of these materials”, can stack them up and create new struc- of ferroelectric domains can be changed, Even says. “They wanted to promote the

Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 43 Environment and technology

as Even says, “a car battery contains 8 kg of lead, whereas a square metre of solar panels only has half a gram”! Perovskites are indeed the stuff that a scientist’s dreams are made of, but not all applications will be successful. For every advantage there are at least as many problems. “Perovskites are opening up a fascinating path”, says Triscone. “And it doesn’t matter if many research projects lead nowhere; it will perhaps only take one to revolutionise physics”.

Fabien Goubet is a science journalist for Le Temps.

This new generation of solar cells based on perovskites was developed at EPFL and achieves a performance of more than 20 percent. Photo: Alain Herzog/EPFL

light-absorbing properties of the coloured can transport electric charges more effec- solar cells, but the results were weak and tively than classic colours. “This was a real the article went unnoticed for years”. conceptual leap that’s led to a new branch This all changed in 2012, when the of photovoltaics”, says Even. idea was taken up independently by two specialists in photovoltaics, Henry Snaith Competing with silicon at the University of Oxford and his for- Since then, a battle has been raging between mer mentor Michael Grätzel at EPFL. They the teams, and their ranks have swelled as Hydrogen, fuel cells and memristors both started from the concept of a coloured others join them. At the end of Septem- cell developed by Grätzel in the 1990s and ber 2015, Grätzel announced at a congress Here are five researchers studying perovs- entered into competition to design a new in Lausanne that his team had achieved a kites in Switzerland: type of solar cell based on a perovskite performance of 20.8%. This compares with whose oxygen atoms are replaced by iodine the 25.6% of silicon cells which have been Aldo Steinfeld (PSI) is working on ‘solar or bromine. under development for more than 50 years. reactors’ to transform CO2 into hydrogen. “Competition is stiff and there is a lot at stake”, says Joël Teuscher, a researcher in Fabbri Emiliana (PSI) is working on “Perovskites have the Photochemical Dynamics Group at perovskite catalysers in fuel cells. created a new branch EPFL. “But it is also healthy”. Today, the performance race seems to Jennifer Rupp (ETH Zurich) is working on of photovoltaics” be on the home straight. Specialists are perovskite-based memristors: a potentially Jacky Even now asking more fundamental questions. faster and more energy-efficient resistive “We are still looking to understand how computer memory. this works exactly”, says Teuscher. “This is Just as with silicon in classic solar cells, a very passionate period in which work is Christian Bernhard (University of Fribourg) the perovskite absorbs light and transports becoming interdisciplinary”. These ques- is studying the magnetic and electric electric charges between electrodes. Once tions will also help researchers resolve in- properties of metallic oxides, particularly more the key here is in the way perovskites herent problems of these materials such at the interface of two materials. form modules. A hybrid perovskite combin- as their instability (they are fragile and ing organic and inorganic groups becomes soluble) and also the presence of lead in the Michael Lee (PSI) is developing analysis a photovoltaic material able to absorb crystals, something which may hamper and processing techniques for ultra-thin 10 times more light than silicon and that future commercial applications. Although, hybrid-perovskite films.

44 Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 conditions of extreme salinity, high pressure and high temperatures. The ones we discovered live in slow motion”. A detailed analysis of the samples extracted from the core has convinced Ariztegui that these extremophilic microbes did not migrate into the sediment after it had settled. He thinks that they were trapped there when it formed – and therefore that they are rep- resentative of the chemical and physical conditions prevalent in the lake as far back as 80,000 years ago.

“These microorganisms live in slow motion” Daniel Ariztegui

In addition, the fact that they are still alive tens of thousands of years later and that they have changed their environment may have a significant impact on These sediment structures from the drill core have just been cut open, and provide proof of earth- the geological archives of lake beds. “These quakes that took place tens of thousands of years ago. Photo: Daniel Ariztegui are very important results”, says Gilbert Camoin, Director of the European Consor- tium for Ocean Research Drilling, the oce- anic arm of the ICDP. A seismic archive The core of sediment has also allowed for new findings in the field of geological history. Researchers have been able to iden- Survivors tify and date samples left by earthquakes that affected the region over the Dead Sea Transform fault system that separates the of the Dead Sea Arabian and African tectonic plates. Scien- tists have also been able to establish a stra- tigraphy of earthquakes and estimate their Microbial extremophiles have been found in frequency. Another spectacular finding of this the highly salty sediment of the Dead Sea. This 450-metre drill was wide variations in the discovery bears witness to the climatic conditions level of the lake, particularly between the prevalent there for tens of thousands of years. cold and wet, glacial periods and hot and dry, interglacial periods. According to these By Anton Vos researchers, the Dead Sea was completely dry some 120,000 years ago, but this argument is still very much debated.

magine being buried alive for 80,000 represented a huge biomass, possibly as Anton Vos is a science journalist, working princi- years beneath 200 metres of very salty large as all the vegetation on the surface. pally for the University of Geneva. sediment. Well, drilling expeditions in They play a potentially very important role Dead Sea deposits have shown that mi- in the climate and the carbon cycle. We Icrobes, pretty hard-headed ones at that, can therefore need to improve our understand- remain very much alive in such conditions. ing of how they are spread throughout the Furthermore, they may shine light on the Earth’s crust”. climatic conditions present when they fell to the bottom of the sea. This research was 400 metres below the sea carried out by the doctoral student Camille The Dead Sea project was set up under a Thomas and led by Daniel Ariztegui, a pro- consortium called the International Con- fessor at the Earth Sciences Department of tinental Scientific Drilling Programme the University of Geneva. (ICDP). Drilling in the sea – actually a salt- “Studying the underground biosphere – water lake which sits between Jordan, Isra- the bacteria and archaea [Ed: bacteria-like el and Palestine – took place in the winter unicellular organisms without nuclei] liv- of 2010–11 and resulted in the extraction of ing below the earth’s surface – started in a 450-metre core containing 230,000 years’ the 1990s when we discovered microor- worth of deposits. ganisms living 1.5 km below the seabed”, “We used genetic sequencing to detect explains Ariztegui. “It was then that we re- microbial presence”, explains Ariztegui. alised the microbes stuck in the sediment “It’s above all archaea that live in such

Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 45 Environment and technology

The English botanist and photographer Anna Atkins produced this cyanotype in circa 1854. She placed a dried fern on a paper impregnated with iron salts that turned into Prussian blue when subjected to ultraviolet rays. Image: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, © Wikime- dia Commons

46 Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 Prussian blue and X-rays To understand how paint pigment deteriorates, researchers must focus on its infinitely small characteristics. By Philippe Morel

russian blue can be found on Hoku- in other words to take X-rays. “X-ray ab- because of the material to which it is ap- sai’s famous print The Wave as well sorption spectroscopy allows us to see the plied. Anoxia, humidity and potassium as in the paintings of van Gogh and atomic signature of iron atoms in the pig- ions in surface fibres all cause the degrada- Picasso. The colour was discovered ment, as well as their state of oxidation and tion of Prussian blue to accelerate rapidly, Pat the beginning of the 18th century and the direct environment within the struc- whereas acids slow it down. This conclu- rapidly became commonplace in artists’ ture”, explains Gervais, who specialises in sion is somewhat of a headache for muse- workshops. Until that point blue had been crystallography. “This way we can moni- um curators, as anoxia is used to slow the difficult to produce, with painters habitu- tor both the changes in iron atoms during degradation of paper, but it now appears ally using ultramarine, a pigment of great photoreduction and the subsequent loss of that it accelerates the degradation of Prus- expense created from lapis lazuli, or smalt, colour”. sian blue at the same time. a fine powder made from cobalt which In the outskirts of Paris, the team uses a At any rate, the laboratory and the mu- quickly lost its colour. synchrotron – a ring-shaped particle accel- seum remain very distinct environments. It was actually a chance contamination erator which fires electrons along a curved Gervais’s work has not yielded any miracle that led the paint manufacturer Johann Ja- path. The equipment can emit a powerful, recipes for conserving or restoring works of cob Diesbach of Berlin to discover Prussian stable and highly-focused electromagnetic art. What it can do, however, is to help iden- blue. It also turned out to be a very deli- array at a range of frequencies between in- tify works in need of specific conservation cate paint. Although some artists did find frared and X-ray. strategies because of the materials used or it highly stable, others noted that it lost its the conditions to which they have been ex- colour very quickly when exposed to light. posed. For Verena Villiger, the Director of “Heritage materials generate the Museum of Art and History of Fribourg, A reversible degradation there is great interest in this kind of re- Understanding why Prussian blue degrades surprising knowledge” search. “Even without working directly became the focus of the work of Claire Ger- Claire Gervais within fundamental research projects, we vais, a professor at the Bern University of can keep up to speed with developments the Arts. “These heritage materials are in- through conferences and publications, al- triguing and lead to surprising knowledge”, Prussian blue is sensitive to visible light, though it’s not always as close as we’d like she explains. “They are heterogeneous and and also to higher frequencies. “We knew to be. It’s essential for scientists working in composite, and the mixture of organic and we’d have difficulty analysing it without applied research to convert their new un- inorganic materials gives rise to sometimes damaging it”, says Gervais. “But the precau- derstanding of materials into preservation unexpected properties. We still don’t know tions taken were not enough: the pigment tools that we can then apply to our work”. how to recreate the production methods, lost its colour in the beam”. Yet upon ana- which are often complex and the result of lysing the damage caused by the irradia- Philippe Morel is a science journalist who works long development processes. In fact, these tion, the researchers realised it was also the for the magazine Tracés. materials have a long history of ageing that result of photoreduction. Useful indeed: X- we cannot find anywhere else”. rays were therefore not only of help in the The chemist in Gervais sees Prussian analysis, but also in the methodology. blue as a ferric ferrocyanide, more precisely The Franco-Swiss team was naturally Fe7(CN)18·xH2O. It’s the transfer of electrons not working on samples from works of between the two ions FeII and FeIII that, by art, but rather systematically examining absorbing the red, gives rise to the blue- the influence of different artistic materi- coloured pigment. But prolonged exposure als (paper, canvas, sizing, etc.) and the en- to light subjects the pigment to the trans- vironment. They made sure to integrate formative process of photoreduction: the variations of preservation strategies such FeIII atoms gain an electron to become FeII. as humidification, anoxia (reducing levels Blue for biology When the FeIII ions have all transformed, of ambient oxygen) and even applying acid the transfer is no longer possible and the to the paper. Prussian blue is not the preserve of great pigment loses its colour. This phenomenon painters. Researchers use it as a biosensor is, however, partially reversible by exposing Paper or pigment to study redox processes in living tissue. Prussian blue to oxygen in dark conditions. The findings of these X-ray experiments Light also modifies the magnetic proper- cannot be directly translated to visible ties of certain related materials, opening Radiography of blue light, but they do demonstrate that Prus- up interesting research paths in the field of To better understand what’s happening, it’s sian blue degrades not only as a result preserving digital information in the form of necessary to delve underneath the surface, of environmental factors but above all magnetic bytes.

Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 47 Environment and technology

Breathalyser diagnosis ost car drivers know about the alcohol tests that the police Heather Bischel Heather carry out using a breathalyser. MYou blow once into a little tube, and the meter tells you how much alcohol you’ve drunk. The medical world now wants to make use of the principle behind it. “Our breath is a window into our bodies”, says Renato Zenobi of ETH Zurich. He and his colleague Malcolm Kohler from the Zurich University Hospital can diagnose illnesses using just exhaled breath. This is possible because our breath

contains numerous volatile substances Inc. Imaging, Molecular and Medicine Nuclear of Society © that are connected to the body’s me- tabolism. They are constituted differently This reactor changes urine into the solid, safe from one person to another, but also from On this scan of a mouse, the isotope scandi- fertiliser struvite. one illness to another. For their research, um-44 shows up tumours (Tu). Zenobi and Kohler get groups of healthy Problematic residues in urine and sick test subjects to blow into a mass Diagnosis accelerator spectrometer. The machine then analyses ry toilets in which urine and faeces the breath of both groups in real time. he particle accelerator at the Paul are processed separately could help This breath test is already being used Scherrer Institute (PSI) has pro- to alleviate sewage problems in at the University Hospital to carry out duced scandium-44. This isotope Ddeveloping countries (see Horizons 106, reliable tests to diagnose chronic obstruc- Tcan be used in positron emission tomog- p. 49). If urine could also be used to pro- tive pulmonary disease and sleep apnoea raphy to screen for cancer and has the duce fertiliser, then we could kill two birds syndrome. “The advantages are that it’s advantage of a longer half-life than the with one stone. absolutely non-invasive and the patients mere hour of gallium-68. A longer half-life But here we must be careful: urine get their diagnosis within seconds instead gives the body enough time to eliminate could quite possibly contain pathogens of having to wait several days for blood the isotope from the blood, as it other- and drug residues. Researchers from EPFL test results”, says Zenobi. At present, he wise hampers imaging and prevents and the water research institute Eawag and Kohler are also trying to use this doctors from excluding the presence of have been investigating just what these method to diagnose lung cancer and small areas of cancerous tissue. Another might be. Their study has raised doubts as pulmonary fibrosis. advantage, compared to short-lived to whether we could use urine in this way Gert Printzen sees great potential in isotopes, is that it can better survive the without doing harm to human health and this new technology. He’s a member of the bench-to- bedside journey. the environment. Central Committee of the Swiss Medical Scandium, on the other hand, “takes Tamar Kohn’s team at EPFL examined Association (FMH), the umbrella organisa- on average 12 hours to disintegrate urine samples from dry toilets in South tion for doctors in Switzerland. However, completely”, explains the study’s Africa from 2010 to 2013. The pathogens he does point out the following problem: co-author Roger Schibli of the PSI. “The they found included rotaviruses that cause “At present, mass spectrometers are too body can therefore completely eliminate diarrhoea, and adenoviruses that cause big, and at half a million francs each, it from the blood, allowing a clearer image inflammations of the eye. A risk analy- they’re too expensive for use in doctors’ in which the tumorous cells that we are sis is now intended to clarify whether surgeries”. Atlant Bieri targeting can be distinguished easily. these pathogens could be a health risk It even means we can detect second- to producers of fertiliser and to those P. Martinez-Lozano Sinues et al.: Breath Analysis ary metastases that normally would be who collect the urine. Furthermore, the in Real Time by Mass Spectrometry in Chronic imperceptible”. The researchers managed researchers discovered several pathogenic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Respiration, 2014. to produce scandium using the PSI’s bacteria. The drug residues included two cyclotron, an electron accelerator, and antibiotics used for HIV prophylaxis, and have verified its quality and the ability to a drug used to help prevent the spread of produce it quickly. HIV infection. Working alongside the Laue-Langevin Technology does exist that might Institute in Grenoble, the PSI team be used to eliminate these residues. By has also produced another, even adding magnesium compounds you can more radioactive scandium isotope. precipitate the mineral struvite, which “Scandium-47 can be used in radiotherapy, is harmless when used as a fertiliser. whereby a patient ingests small doses Another option for making fertiliser is of the radioactive material, which then ‘nitrification’ followed by distillation. accumulate within the tumour and Filtering through activated carbon can Zürich Khammash/ETH Li/Christine Xue destroy it”, says Schibli. So scandium can then purify the rest. But this technology actually be used for both diagnosis and still has to be optimised. Only then can dry The breath test with the mass spectrometer ena- treatment. And as the chemical properties toilets be used to their full advantage in bles lung diseases to be recognised. of the two isotopes are identical, there’s the production of fertiliser. Sven Titz no need to conduct separate safety tests. Daniel Saraga H. Bischel et al.: Pathogens and pharmaceuticals in source-separated urine in eThekwini, South N. P. van der Meulen et al.: Cyclotron production Africa. Water Research, 2015. of 44Sc: From bench to bedside. Nuclear Medicine and Biology (2015).

48 Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 How does it work? More real than virtual?

In 2016, we will see the arrival of improved virtual reality (VR) headsets. A Geneva- based start-up is increasing the sense of immersion by making it possible to interact with real objects. By Daniel Saraga Illustrations by ikonaut

1. 3D headset Oculus Rift glasses create a three-dimensional experience by displaying slightly different viewpoints to each eye. The unit also tracks head movements using accelerometers – similar those found in smartphones. 2. Sensory combinations The new headset from Artanim is also able to track other parts of the user’s body, introducing the possibility of interacting with physical objects and considerably increasing the feeling of immersion.

4. Unifying two visions All of the information coming from the headset and the cameras is processed by a laptop in the user’s backpack. Interestingly, headset data has very low latency, negatively impacting precision; whereas camera data is very precise, but not so responsive. 3. Capturing movement The system comprises a dozen infra-red (IR) cameras, which track reflectors attached to the user’s hands, feet and 5. First applications head by sending and receiving IR light. There are a number of potential VR applications, It then triangulates the position of each such as health (e.g., physiotherapy, treating phobias, reflector, superimposing it into a virtual training surgeons), culture (e.g., virtual museum 3D environment. The user’s avatar can visits) and architecture, although it’s most likely then move within the virtual world that the first applications will be video-gaming and alongside the avatars of other users. entertainment (e.g., haunted houses, rollercoasters By simply adding extra IR reflectors to and “augmented” shooting games). “We’ve entered real-world objects (such as a torch), they into talks with amusement parks in Asia and the Mid- too can become part of the simulation. dle East”, says Caecilia Charbonnier, co-founder of Artanim, the company set up in Geneva in early 2015.

Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 49 Access all areas

16 February 2016 Knowledge under attack The impact of synthetic biology By Thierry Courvoisier Young scientists in discussion at Bio.Fiction@Lausanne In recent months, the political debate has mechanism. Despite not sharing this Amphipôle, University of Lausanne broadened to encompass hostile positions opinion, I would have at least thought that against the humanities, and more gener- those who move in free-market circles ally against university knowledge. We are would also encourage the free choice of Until 28 February 2016 now hearing an argument based on the what to learn and study. Natural resources for life assumption that holders of social sci- If we are to solve society’s current ence degrees can only contribute feebly to problems – energy, public health, biodi- Earth’s Treasures: an exhibition about the country’s economic development. As versity and climate change, to name but a how we use natural resources the press has quite few emerging challenges – knowledge will Focus Terra, ETH Zurich rightly pointed out, have to come from all domains, including SCNAT however, the relevant the human and social sciences. Of course, statistics do not the solutions will be based on principles 12–17 March 2016 show any particu- emanating from physics, chemistry, geol- To whom does nature belong? lar difficulty suf- ogy, biology, medicine and engineering, fered by such recent but at the same time there will equally be The theatre production Naturzwei takes a graduates. the need to radically transform the way in look at the issue These attacks which our societies work. These transfor- Kaserne, Basel leave a bitter taste. mations will only be harmonious if they By targeting knowl- are conducted on the basis of an in-depth edge in a specific knowledge of the psychological reactions 14–18 March 2016 domain – in particu- of the inhabitants of our planet, as well Understanding the mind better lar the human and as of economic mechanisms and social social sciences – they phenomena. Should we want to progress Activities during Brain Awareness Week easily portray the towards solutions that allow for the un- Several Swiss cities impression that troubled survival of our civilisations – if knowledge is disruptive and that we’re such a goal can be achieved at all – then we better off ignoring these topics than we must ensure that the debate encompasses Until 20 March 2016 are mastering them. But there lies a dan- more contributions from the human and Images of the body from Vesalius ger within any society that prohibits or social sciences. to virtual reality cloisters knowledge: that it falls into the hands of people who decide what can and Thierry Courvoisier is a professor in astrophysics 500 years of anatomical history can’t be studied. History speaks volumes of at the University of Geneva and the outgoing Kulturama, Zurich how abysmal our judgement can be when President of the Swiss Academies. it comes to predicting the relevance of a discovery to future developments. Nobody Until 10 July 2016 in the 1930s, for example, thought that the Salt – from the mines to your plate theory of general relativity would do any more than tidy up the incoherent world Exhibition about an unusual mineral of physics, yet it went on to underpin the Museum of Natural History, Fribourg geolocation system that we call GPS. What’s all the more surprising is that the authors of these attacks are often the same who argue that every person is their own free arbiter and that the ‘market’ decides better than any regulatory

Letters to the Editor questions, and to support young scientists to the and not to promote individual careers. Creating benefit of patient-oriented academic research a scientific article of quality requires time, rigour Answering the relevant questions and the medicine of tomorrow. and sacrifice. These are the values that we should It was with great interest that we read the article be instilling in our students. on the SNSF’s special programme ‘Investiga- Swiss Clinical Trial Organisation, Prof. Gregor tor Initiated Clinical Trials (IICT)’ (Horizons, Zünd, President, and Annette Magnin, Jean-Christophe Leroux, Institute of September 2015, p. 30). As an SNSF-supported Managing Director Pharmaceutical Sciences, ETH Zurich organisation that is dedicated to patient-oriented clinical research, we find this initiative to be Values to be handed down very attractive and forward-looking … With IICT, I completely agree with the gist of your recent a programme has been initiated that secures article ‘Yearning for slow science’ (Horizons 106, the complete financing of such projects. At the September 2015, page 21). An end has to be same time, another programme has been set up, brought to both publishing at all costs and pub- entitled ‘Protected Research Time for Clinicians’. lishing results of little or no interest. Neither is This overall package could in future make it allowing science to progress. When all’s said and possible to answer relevant scientific and societal done, publication serves to announce discoveries

50 Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 Inside the SNSF and SA

Horizons Director of SNSF moves Ambizione: grants for The Swiss magazine for scientific research is published quarterly in German, French and to CURAVIVA 67 young researchers English. Volume 27, No. 107, December 2015. After ten years as The SNSF has awarded 67 grants to young www.snf.ch/horizonte Director of the Ad- researchers following this year’s call for Publisher ministrative Offices, its Ambizione funding scheme. A total of Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Daniel Höchli has 360 researchers applied. Ambizione is a Communication Department decided to leave the funding initiative of the SNSF that enables Wildhainweg 3 SNSF/Markus Senn SNSF/Markus Postfach 8232 Swiss National Sci- young researchers in all disciplines to CH-3001 Bern ence Foundation. As start conducting independent research. Tel. 031 308 22 22 of April 2016, he will [email protected] be the new Director Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences of CURAVIVA, the A guide for research Haus der Akademien national umbrella association represent- Laupenstrasse 7 with human subjects PO Box ing the interests of over 2,500 Swiss homes CH-3001 Bern and institutions in the area of social and The Swiss Academy of Medical Sci- Tel. 031 306 92 20 health care. ences (SAMS) has updated its manual [email protected] on “Research with human subjects”. It Editors provides practical advice for the design, Daniel Saraga (dsa), Chief Editor conduct and ethical assessment of studies Florian Fisch (ff) New President for Pascale Hofmeier (hpa) the Academies of this nature. The new version takes into Marcel Falk (mf) account the legal changes that came into Valentin Amrhein (va) Maurice Campagna is force on 1 January 2014. ▸ www.samw.ch/ Graphic design, photography the new President of en/Publications/Compendia.html 2. stock süd netthoevel & gaberthüel, the Swiss Academies Valérie Chételat of Arts and Sciences. Illustration: Gregory Gilbert-Lodge He has been elected SNSF Research Councillor Translation and proofreading © All rights reserved rights © All for four years and Laurent Keller receives Max Crisp, Chris Walton, Interpreters’ and will succeed Thierry Marcel Benoist Prize Translators’ Association, Zurich Courvoisier on 1 Printer and lithographer January 2016. Since The Marcel Benoist Stämpfli AG, Bern and Zurich 2003, Campagna has Prize for 2015 has Climate neutral, myclimate.org Paper: Refutura FSC, Recycling, matt been the managing director of Enterprise been awarded to Typography: FF Meta, Greta Text Std Consulting (technology and mediation) in Laurent Keller,

Ennetbaden and Lugano. For many years Devenes Beatrice Professor of Distribution 36,500 copies in German, he was a member of the Swiss Science and Evolutionary Biol- 15,500 copies in French. Technology Council and has been a Mem- ogy and Director ber of Economiesuisse’s Commission for of the Department © All rights reserved. Please obtain the approval of the Editor prior Science and Research since 1989. From 2017, of Ecology and to reproducing any part of this publication. Thierry Courvoisier will chair the Europe- Evolution at the ISSN 1663 2710 an Academies Science Advisory Council. University of Lausanne. He has already Subscription is free. Distribution of the paper been given several international awards version is usually restricted to Switzerland for his research into ants. In the year 2000, and foreign organisations. he received the National Latsis Prize and Ten new Research The opinions in the articles are those of their Councillors elected in 2010 secured an Advanced Grant of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those European Research Council. In line with of the SNSF and/or SA. Research presented At the general election of the National its statutes, the Benoist Prize has been is generally supported by the SNSF. Research Council for the 2016-19 period, awarded every year since 1920 in honour The SNSF 85 Research Councillors were confirmed of “the most useful scientific discovery or The SNSF is the principal body for the promo- in office. Ten new Councillors were also study, in particular in disciplines which tion of scientific research in Switzerland. It is mandated by the Confederation to promote elected, namely: Humanities and Social are of significance for human life”. basic research in all fields and disciplines Sciences division: Roberto Caldara (Fri- and each year distributes some 755 million bourg, psychology), Jürg Rössel (Zurich, Swiss francs amongst more than 3,500 pro- social research) and Peter Auer (Fribourg, jects involving about 8,750 scholars. linguistics); Mathematics, Natural and The Swiss Academies Engineering Sciences division: Rémi Also mandated by the Confederation, the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences are Abgrall (Zurich, applied mathematics) and committed to an open dialogue between Paul Dyson (EPFL, chemistry); Biology and science and society. They are on the side of Medicine division: Mathias Peter (ETH science, each specialising in a respective domain, yet also acting in an interdiscipli- Zurich, biochemistry), Cem Gabay (Geneva, nary way. Being anchored to the scientific immunology), Adrian Ochsenbein (Bern, community rewards them with access to the clinician) and Dominique de Quervain expertise of around 100,000 researchers. (Basel, psychiatry); and in the Programmes division: Anna Fontcuberta i Morral (EPFL, material sciences).

Swiss National Science Foundation – Swiss Academies: Horizons No. 107 51 “Like Brad Pitt with spectacles” Corinna Virchow page 24

“I don’t know if I’d have been able to stick it out” Hans-Christian Baumann page 35

□ Male (M) □ Female (F) □X Intersex/Indeterminate/Unspecified (X)

Since 2011, when you apply for a passport in Australia you can choose between three genders.

“These microorganisms live in slow motion” Daniel Ariztegui page 45