Proteins are essential to life, supporting practically all its functions. Yet, the structure of these complex molecules has stood as a grand challenge in biology for the past 50 years. However, with the recent developments in the field of artificial intelligence, it has become possible to predict the three-dimensional structure…

Iain Couzin and his team discovered that there exist fundamental geometrical principles that apply across scales of biological organization, from the scale of neural interactions, to individual and collective decision-making. Specifically, their work revealed that animals’ brains cope with environmental complexity by spontaneously reducing the many options they face in…

For refugees around the world, the options to earn an income are often severely limited. Without a work permit, they are often stuck in limbo, displaced and with little money to spare. Yet they have innate talents within them in the form of their language, their story and culture. Aline…

For millennia, humanity has pondered the origins of our universe. It was only a few decades ago that new inventions in the realm of space science, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, have provided faint, yet valuable insights into this origin story. This year, its successor, the James Webb Space…

Evidence gathered by lay people through forms of citizen science are becoming more and more accurate, reliable and credible as the ‘civic sentinels’ performing environmental monitoring follow scientific protocols, seek advice from experts and confront their results with official measurements. This is a truly constructive form of ordinary people’s engagement…

In the global North, discussions of climate change often carry an undercurrent of fear in terms of anxiety around an “inundation” of rich countries by so-called climate refugees. At the same time, much of the discourse is based on finding financial solutions to the vulnerabilities exposed by climate change, leading…

As a scientist, getting a research grant often feels like an odyssey. It involves a lot of red tape and can take years to be approved. While it is a nuisance to all researchers, the process is especially frustrating for environmental scientists, who rely on grants to perform their research…

Institutions of learning generally approach education vertically, with little integration of knowledge with other disciplines. In the same way, sustainability research until now has mostly been concentrated in the natural sciences or organized in silos. But given the increasing urgency of sustainability in today’s world, this approach may ultimately fall…

A Report from COP 27. The Conference of Parties (COP) is the supreme decision-making forum of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), bringing signatory governments together once a year to discuss and agree on how to jointly address climate change and its impacts. In November 2022, the…

Since its beginnings almost half a century ago, gene sequencing has become indispensable for basic biological research. Thanks to new techniques, tens of thousands of genomes have been sequenced to this day, including the human genome. Traditionally, the process relied on analyzing dozens of DNA fragments in individual reactions. Shankar…

In our connected world, data is all around us. We generate data, we use data and we store data at an ever-increasing rate. This comes at a price: The data storage industry could soon account for 20% of global energy usage while creating more CO2 than the aviation industry. But…

While the process of gene editing is becoming more and more commonplace, editing the human genome raises as yet unresolved questions about the dignity and integrity of human life. This scientific and technological frontier is also a moral frontier, with implications for all life on the planet. Until now, the…

Cystic fibrosis remains one of the most common fatal genetic diseases, as well as the most common fatal hereditary lung disease worldwide. In recent years, medical scientists have made intensified attempts at understanding the disease mechanism at the core of cystic fibrosis, namely the defect in the CFTR protein. In…

How the Study of Ancient DNA Traces Human Origins In the early years of his career as a scientist, Svante Pääbo changed the course of his studies from molecular biology to evolutionary genetics – and at the same time the course of the latter scientific field itself. By drying a…

How a Bacterial Defence System Revolutionizes Biomedical Research Many past scientific revolutions started with basic research, curiosity and a surprise moment. When Emmanuelle Charpentier and her co-workers were busy studying the defence system used by bacteria to shake off attacking viruses, they knew that this discovery was relevant way beyond…

A key driver for all scientific research is humanity’s natural instinct for exploration. We are driven to go where no one has gone before, discover what no one has found, and study what has never been seen. Scientists follow this exploratory instinct in all kinds of directions, whether it’s space,…

How Quantum Physics Questions Our Perception of Reality Plato’s famous Parable of the Cave illustrates the idea that human beings will never be able to see the truth until they leave the cave in which they are held prisoners, forced to watch shadows on the dark walls, and seeing only…

The nominating institution SLAC on the Science Breakthrough: ChEM-H at Stanford brings together Chemistry, Engineering and Medicine to address long-range challenges in Human health. The institute focuses on molecules, allowing researchers to study human biology at a more fundamental level than cells, thereby paving the way for new tools to…

Donna Strickland is one of the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2018 for developing chirped pulse amplification-which is the current state-of-the-art technique used by most of the highest-power lasers in the world. In her talk, Strickland was talking about the relevance of lasers, the relationship between light and…

How Ultracold Atomic Physics is Creating Fundamentally New Materials Physics has a long track record of discovering and studying new forms of matter. Apart from the four states of matter traditionally taught in Physics class – solid, liquid, gas and plasma – there is a whole range of other, more exotic states…

How Insect Science Contributes to Understanding Human Immunity Let us be honest – when reading the words “insect research”, we rather think about killing insects than about learning from them. Luxembourg born immunologist Jules A. Hoffmann has based his multi-awarded career, crowned by the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or…

Improving Global Health is a fundamental challenge, in which science and technology play important roles. Whether it is ultra-fast sequencing of whole genomes, mRNA vaccines or gene editing: Recent innovations could change and improve the life of millions of people around the world. But only if science can make it…

How Climate Science Calls For Radical Changes in Energy Policy On the long and winding road to more sustainable energy and climate policies, the year 2015 saw several unexpected and positive developments – the largest fossil fuel divestment campaign in history reached its peak and led to trillions of dollars…

How Technological Entrepreneurship Saves Economies With Limited Natural Resources When Dan Shechtman became a full professor at Technion in 1986 and initiated a new class on technological entrepreneurship, the word “start up” – which became a mantra after the dot-com boom – was not that fashionable yet. Even today, entrepreneurship education…

Since the Berlin Wall has fallen, the World has made real progress in the fight against extreme poverty: the number of people living in extreme poverty has declined from 1.4 billion then to 800 million today. The number of children dying under the age of 5 every year has been…

How Genetics Provides New Tools for Understanding Innate Immunity Humans and other organisms are under constant threat from deadly invaders – viruses, bacteria and other microbes which infiltrate the body, create dangerous toxins and damage or kill cells. Along the line of evolution, organisms developed sophisticated defence mechanisms to deal…

This Winners Session presents the Top 10 breakthroughs in the Science and Innovation Management category. From Stanford University to the Max Delbrück Center, and from EPFL to CERN – every institution, and with it every society, faces challenges. How to share knowledge? How to improve the Peer Review Process? How…

The invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army on February 24, 2022 marked a turning point in contemporary history. The ongoing war has negatively impacted scientific initiatives in the Ukraine, since many Ukrainian scientists were unable to continue their research or had to flee the country. This session aims to…

Food insecurity exists in more than 1.6 billion people (i.e., over 20% of the global population). The last UN Food Systems Summit emphasised that the world’s food system is irretrievably broken. Recent developments such as the war in Ukraine and State-responses to high food prices, alongside ongoing issues like pandemic-related…

Digitalisation reduces carbon emissions to a great extent in many sectors and therefore helps to protect the environment. Simultaneously, the increasing use of digital technologies requires an immense amount of energy. To promote a resource-efficient economy, we need to consider energy efficiency and sustainability as core elements – not only…

As the global climate crisis worsens and Russia’s war against Ukraine causes significant global impact, a fundamental shift in geopolitics and energy policy is taking place. Developing new materials is a core element in the innovation cycle to accelerate the process of energy transition. Complex data-driven insights can be leveraged…

Restoring Planetary Health with Science and Collaboration? The role of research and applying scientific discovery have proved to be fundamental to both human and planetary health. In many cases, solutions are at hand, but their development and subsequent application must be accelerated to turn evidence into action. This session will…

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming a fundamental part of modern medical research and practises, while the overall standards to regulate the use of AI are still being defined. This session will discuss the benefits of AI for research and healthcare, e.g., diagnostic accuracy, alongside the risks and obstacles related…

Finding and harnessing sources of energy has been a major task in the history of humankind. Similar to the resourceful nature of the sun, man-made nuclear power can produce large amounts of energy from few resources. It includes fusion and fission processes and the pros and cons of fission processes…

Grand societal challenges can no longer be solved in ivory towers and back rooms. Diverse expertise and multidirectional knowledge exchange are increasingly important. But how can such collaboration work without compromising the autonomy of individual fields? Focusing on Science & Politics, this round table will explore how scientific knowledge can…

Isaac Newton is credited with the famous saying: “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” But how did he know which shoulders to stand on? This Falling Walls Circle Round Table examines scientific credibility in two ways: first, by looking at how public…

Incubators and accelerators are a great way to support early stage startups (and often also first time founders) through education programs, matchmaking, mentorship and financing. With the overwhelming success of programs like Y-Combinator, we saw a surge in programs that are helping founders succeed with their startups. We are discussing…

Our transport system needs to be transformed due to its devastating effects on the environment and the climate. But this change needs to be discussed also within its wider social repercussions. Fiscal instruments and targeted policies can contribute to a mobility transformation that not only addresses the ecological challenges but…

Environmental sustainability is essential for improving health system functions, delivering better outcomes for patients, and contributing to larger social and economic benefits. Reducing both the carbon footprint and waste generation in the healthcare sector are examples of methods to achieve environmental sustainability – this escalating issue requires attention and action.…

To attain the full potential promised by quantum technologies, joint efforts to cross borders between countries, continents, science and industry is an absolute necessity. In this Round Table talk, the status, future development and the applications of quantum technologies will be discussed with scientists, managers and international officials. The event…

Particle accelerators are often thought of as large, expensive facilities or instruments. Typically, these machines have a variety of uses from fundamental science and medical applications to manufacturing semiconductors. How can particle accelerators be reinvented and downsized by the use of advanced nano fabrication and laser technologies? Additionally, what significance…

How a new Technology in the field of Optoelectronics is changing the Future of Data The ever-increasing amount of data raises an important question: How can information be transmitted at high speed yet at low cost? The current technology, based on copper wires, is reaching its ceiling due to the…

How the use of optogenetics can restore vision to the visually impaired Seeing is not, as the proverb goes, merely believing, rather it is a literal window to the world. Losing our eye-sight means a major loss of personal freedom and, in most cases, implies an irreversible condition. While there…

How tiny wireless robots can be used for non-invasive, precise, and safe medical diagnosis and treatment Robot technology is already abundant in the medical domain, ranging from assistance in surgery to complex prosthetics. However, using tiny robots inside the body is still a fairly novel thing to do. Inspired by…

How fast-charging batteries work and why they matter In order for the European Union to achieve its goal of zero net emissions by 2050, the speed at which devices can be charged needs to increase significantly. Clare Grey, Professor of Chemistry at Cambridge University, sees her work as an important…

Computer-Generated Decision Making: How new drug candidates can be identified faster through automated molecular design The discovery of new drugs and their development as medicines is a long, arduous, costly, and to some extent serendipitous process. Up to 90% of drug candidates fail during clinical development because they lack efficacy…

Distance Learning: How low-tech solutions help to make education accessible for everyone Education is key for economic advancement as well as social stability. However, providing quality education is especially challenging in countries that lack infrastructure, learning materials and trained teachers. UNESCO estimates that 617 million school-age children around the world…

Power Asymmetries: How big platforms change the organization of society Our society is increasingly defined by big platforms and their algorithms. Google is already an integral part of education and the workspace, while Facebook, Amazon and Spotify heavily influence how we communicate, what we buy and what music we listen…

Rewriting Social Sciences: How humanity’s destiny can be framed by shared heritages through oceanic connections How can we think of the world as composed of categories derived from particular spaces and lifeworlds, rather than a space with categories seen as universal? How do we move beyond contingent formations, like nations…

How an artificial intelligence can become a truly musical companion Music has long been hailed as one of the last frontiers of human creativity; and music is not just composition, but also, and equally important, expressive performance. It is the performers and the musicians who bring a piece to life,…

Neuroprosthetics: How electronics can be used to mimic the biology in our brain The human brain is made up of anything between 80 and 100 billion neurons. How exactly these basic working units communicate with each other and transmit information through electrical impulses at the synapses, is a crucial matter…

Combating the Pandemic: How a novel approach helps combat the COVID-19 pandemic With almost five million suspected deaths worldwide and counting, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the deadliest disasters in human history. Once its global spread and destructive force became clear at the beginning of 2020, scientists…

Astrophysics: How space exploration can answer one of the most pressing questions of all time There is no planet in our solar system quite as fascinating as Mars. For centuries, the red planet has fascinated scientists and the public alike, ultimately leading to one question: Has there ever been life…

How chirped pulse amplification helped to revolutionize the science of lasers Lasers are cool – this is a fact that both children and scientists can confirm. Laser physics has become an increasingly important area, with a plethora of applications in both basic and applied research ranging from space exploration to…

Destigmatization: How marginalized groups can achieve greater inclusivity In our post-Covid age of extreme inequality, dreams of upward mobility are more unrealistic than ever. Many people ask where to turn for new sources of hope. Agents of change and the non-profit sector are promoting new narratives of diversity, sustainability, and…

Combating the Pandemic: How a novel approach helps combat the COVID-19 pandemic With almost five million suspected deaths worldwide and counting, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the deadliest disasters in human history. Once its global spread and destructive force became clear at the beginning of 2020, scientists…

How the use of optogenetics can restore vision to the visually impaired Seeing is not, as the proverb goes, merely believing, rather it is a literal window to the world. Losing our eye-sight means a major loss of personal freedom and, in most cases, implies an irreversible condition. While there…

Wiping out a widespread disease is a notoriously difficult challenge on a global scale and malaria is one of the oldest and deadliest diseases to affect humanity. Malaria exacts a huge toll on human health and imposes a heavy social and economic burden, particularly on countries in sub-Saharan African and…

Improving Global Health is a fundamental challenge, in which science and technology play important roles. Whether it is ultra-fast sequencing of whole genomes, mRNA vaccines or gene editing: Recent innovations could change and improve the life of millions of people around the world. But only if science can make it…

The nominating institution FMP on the breakthrough: Christian Hackenberger has pioneered contributions to the development of protein-based therapeutics, based on the chemical modification and cellular delivery of antibodies to target cancer and viral infections. Highlights include the engineering of an inhibitor against human and avian influenza, and safer next-gen antibody…

Protein Analytics: To understand how a biological system works, monitor the structures of the thousands of proteins within it. My laboratory has developed a technology that generates a new type of molecular data with which we can look at the structures (or shapes) of the proteins in living systems. We…

Mental Health: Do we Need a New Super Science? Falling Walls Circle Tables are lending the spotlight to world-leading scientists, science strategists and policy-makers from academia, business and politics discuss how we can apply science, research and innovation to get the world moving again. While stigma around mental health may…

The two most common mental health issues, depression and anxiety, are also the leading cause of disability globally. The economic impact and societal ramifications are increasingly being recognised and a cultural and policy shift in the way mental health disorders are perceived and tackled is already underway. However, much remains…

How a new Technology in the field of Optoelectronics is changing the Future of Data The ever-increasing amount of data raises an important question: How can information be transmitted at high speed yet at low cost? The current technology, based on copper wires, is reaching its ceiling due to the…

What are black holes? Where do they lead and are they a threat? Questions such as these have captivated the imaginations of scientists and the public for decades. Up until recently, only simulations and illustrations could help to envisage what black holes might look like – which is why the…

How fast-charging batteries work and why they matter In order for the European Union to achieve its goal of zero net emissions by 2050, the speed at which devices can be charged needs to increase significantly. Clare Grey, Professor of Chemistry at Cambridge University, sees her work as an important…

The basic motivation for the project was the curiosity of how the environment looked like near the South Pole during the last time the planet underwent extreme greenhouse climate conditions ~90 million years ago. Can we define extreme potencies of atmospheric carbon dioxide contents but also underline how significant the…

Donna Strickland is one of the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2018 for developing chirped pulse amplification-which is the current state-of-the-art technique used by most of the highest-power lasers in the world. In her talk, Strickland was talking about the relevance of lasers, the relationship between light and…

Astrophysics: How space exploration can answer one of the most pressing questions of all time There is no planet in our solar system quite as fascinating as Mars. For centuries, the red planet has fascinated scientists and the public alike, ultimately leading to one question: Has there ever been life…

Quantum Computing arguably presents the biggest shift in computer science since its inception. After 25 years of fundamental theoretical and experimental research, the top leaders in the field worldwide have committed themselves to the development of quantum computers as a real technology, solving real computational problems. The panelists of this…

Future of Forests – Dramatic Impacts of Climate Change Falling Walls Circle Tables are lending the spotlight to world-leading scientists, science strategists and policy-makers from academia, business and politics discuss how we can apply science, research and innovation to get the world moving again. In this Falling Walls Circle Table,…

How tiny wireless robots can be used for non-invasive, precise, and safe medical diagnosis and treatment Robot technology is already abundant in the medical domain, ranging from assistance in surgery to complex prosthetics. However, using tiny robots inside the body is still a fairly novel thing to do. Inspired by…

The rapid integration of AI into all aspects of society raises urgent questions and presents significant dangers. AI technologies have been introduced in a range of sectors, with claims that automating sensitive social decisions improves outcomes and increases efficiency. From facial recognition and predictive policing data to automated HR –…

Hydrogen is the most abundant chemical substance in the universe. In this regard it is almost the exact opposite of fossil fuels, which are incredibly rare and hard to extract. So wouldn’t it be great if we could swap fossil fuels for renewable sources such as hydrogen? This Falling Walls…

Neuroprosthetics: How electronics can be used to mimic the biology in our brain The human brain is made up of anything between 80 and 100 billion neurons. How exactly these basic working units communicate with each other and transmit information through electrical impulses at the synapses, is a crucial matter…

The nominating institution EPFL on the breakthrough: Safe and affordable housing and infrastructure are key to sustainable global development and rely on construction materials such as cement. Cement production is responsible for ~8% of global CO2 emission. Limestone calcined clay cement (LC3) allows up to 50% reduction of CO2 emission…

For a variety of reasons ranging from our heightened awareness of climate change and concerns for our health to an increased sensitivity to animal welfare issues, the popularity of alternatives to meat has been gaining unprecedented momentum in recent years. Mark Post, who trained as a medical doctor and is…

Semiconductor Technology: How nanosheets can help humanity keep up with Moore’s law Ever since its inception, Moore’s law has been an integral part of technological advancement. In the past five decades, the semiconductor industry has been following Moore’s trend line to approximately double the number of transistors on a chip…

Destigmatization: How marginalized groups can achieve greater inclusivity In our post-Covid age of extreme inequality, dreams of upward mobility are more unrealistic than ever. Many people ask where to turn for new sources of hope. Agents of change and the non-profit sector are promoting new narratives of diversity, sustainability, and…

Rewriting Social Sciences: How humanity’s destiny can be framed by shared heritages through oceanic connections How can we think of the world as composed of categories derived from particular spaces and lifeworlds, rather than a space with categories seen as universal? How do we move beyond contingent formations, like nations…

The negative effects of our digital habits, our propensity to skim-read texts and our lack of mental focus have been widely reported. However, the real impact on our reading abilities, which extends to the impairment of crucial structures in the functioning of our brain, has consequences far greater than we…

We used to plan cities according to a master plan, building separate areas with different functions and reconnecting them by car. This approach shapes our cities until today, even though our ways of life and needs for the city have changed. The panelists at this Falling Walls Circle Plenary Table discuss which shifts are needed…