Compassionate Science: how empathy and compassion shape research

In future, satellites are set not only to provide internet access to remote homes, but also to communicate directly with ordinary smartphones. Direct-to-Cell could close mobile dead spots and make communication networks more resilient to crises. However, the path from mobile phones to space poses technical challenges – and raises questions about security and digital sovereignty.

Digital surveillance systems raise fundamental medical-ethical and legal questions, particularly where audio and video surveillance is used. In May 2026, the Central Ethics Committee (CEC) of the SAMS published a position statement on this topic. The factsheet «Überwachung von betreuten Personen», published in September, provides more detailed information on the technical and data-protection aspects of digital surveillance, thereby complementing the CEC’s medical-ethical perspective.

When modern biotechnology began to emerge in Switzerland in the late 1970s and early 1980s, no biotech start-up ecosystem existed. However, Switzerland already had something that is difficult to find today: an open pilot facility where biological processes could be taken from the laboratory to the cubic-meter scale. To tackle current scale-up challenges, we thus might learn something from the past.