Swiss Review 1/2018

Swiss Review / January 2018 / No.1 31 Five new faces in the National Council Five new National Councillors began work in Berne this winter. Rocco Cattaneo, an FDP politician from Ticino, has taken the place of IgnazioCassis after his election to the Fed- eral Council. The former cyclist attracted attention right from the off by cycling the 250 kilometres from Ticino to the capital. He was seeking to promote better safety for cy- clists and more cycle routes. Irène Kälin of the Green Party has succeeded the retiredNational Councillor Jonas Fricker. The third newNational Councillor is Nik Gugger of the EVP who takes over fromMaja Ingold. Diana Gutjahr arrives in place of SVP National Councillor Hansjörg Walter, and the publishing andprinting entrepreneur Hansjörg Brunner re- places the retired FDP National Councillor Hermann Hess. Nestlé acquires Canadian company The food group Nestlé has pulled off a billion-dollar takeo- ver deal. The company from French-speaking Switzerland has acquired the Canadian firm Atrium Innovations for 2.3 billion dollars. The company headquartered in Quebec operates in the cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and food sec- tors and posted revenues of almost 700million dollars last year. Nestlé indicated that this brings around 1,400newem- ployees into the group. 8.2 % Muslims by 2050? Researchers at the PewResearchCenter inWashington pre- dict that the number of Muslims in Europe is highly likely to rise sharply over the coming decades. Even if further im- migration is excluded, the Muslim population today of around 5% of the total population is estimated to rise to 7.4% by 2050. The researchers outlined three scenarios for Switzerland. The proportion ofMuslims by 2050will stand at 8.2% if no more migrants arrive, at 10.3% in the event of moderate immigration and at 12.9% in the case of high mi- gration, according to the researchers. MPs call for the introduction of e-voting Ten members of the Swiss Abroad parliamentary group have appealed to the governments and chancelleries of all the Swiss cantons at the initiative of National Councillor TimGuldimann. They are calling for the Swiss Abroad reg- istered on an electoral roll to be allowed to exercise their political rights at the next federal elections by voting for their National Councillors via the internet. In their letter, the ten signatories wrote: “The Swiss Abroad often receive their voting documents extremely late and sometimes even so late that they are no longer able to cast their vote in time. Only the rapid and nationwide introduction of e-voting can successfully resolve these issues.” Jacques Dubochet Top pick News One of the signs of an intelligent mind is said to be a sense of humour. Jacques Dubochet from the canton of Vaud, whowas awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry inOctober, is without doubt a witty personality, and summed up his achievement by remarking that all he had done was in- vent coldwater. Coldwater? That’s right, this French-speaking Swiss sci- entist has created amethod tomake it possible to flash freeze liquid solu- tions containing cells. This procedure, which is carried out using liquid ethane,makes itpossible for samples tobeobserved intheirnatural state. A member of staff at the University of Geneva joked to the media that the Vaud-born scientist and his colleague AlasdairMcDowall had succeeded indoingwhat peoplemaking sorbets at home try to achieve: avoiding creating ice crystals. This is because crystallisation kills the cells in the laboratory. In an interviewwith Le Temps , Jacques Dubochet revealed that his invention could be used in particular to “study Tau proteins, which are linked with Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s when they accu- mulate in the brain”. He added that he had a strong personal interest in the field as he is 75 years old! The researcher’s online CV, which delighted the international me- dia, includes some real gems. It says that he was “the first official dys- lexic in the canton of Vaud”, which enabled him “to be poor at everything and to understand those experiencing difficulties”. “One day he offered to take me to the hotel with his suitcase, but when we got to the car park I saw that he only had a bicycle for transportation,” recalled a French researcher with amusement. As a child, he was scared of the dark and this made him go to the li- brary to try tounderstandwhere the sunwas hiding. This fearmayhave stopped him frombecoming a criminal, a pathwhich this Vaud-based future Professor Calculus considered. STÉPHANE HERZOG News