One of the central demands of the animal activists is to abolish animal testing and to use alternative testing methods instead. In this context, the European Union has taken a huge step forward at the beginning of this year: On March 11 a full ban on the marketing of cosmetics and hygiene products tested on animals entered into force in the EU.

The projected substantial increase in Alzheimer's disease due to the higher life expectancy in modern societies is one of the great future challenges of health care systems worldwide. Alzheimer's disease leads to significant changes in the temporal structure of activities that impair everyday activities. Abnormal motion behavior and degeneration of the sleep-waking cycle are among the most severe behavioral symptoms.

Does psychotherapy via the Internet work? For the first time, clinical researchers from the University of Zurich have studied whether online psychotherapy and conventional face-to-face therapy are equally effective in experiments. Based on earlier studies, the Zurich team assumed that the two forms of therapy were on a par. Not only was their theory confirmed, the results for online therapy even exceeded their expectations.

Scientists in Switzerland, Germany, and France explored how the insect eye works and designed and built the first fully-functional miniature curved artificial compound eyes. The "CURVACE" project received €2 million in EU funding to develop the miniature "insect" eyes, which have high industrial potential in mobile robotics, smart clothing and medical applications.

MyHealthAvatar project aims to proof the concept of the digital representation of your health status. Your health status will be designed as a lifetime companion (Avatar). Your Health Avatar will facilitate the collection of, and access to, long-term health-status information. This will be extremely valuable for healthcare decisions and offer a promising approach to support health research.

MyHealthAvatar project aims to proof the concept of the digital representation of your health status. Your health status will be designed as a lifetime companion (Avatar). Your Health Avatar will facilitate the collection of, and access to, long-term health-status information. This will be extremely valuable for healthcare decisions and offer a promising approach to support health research.

To help fight childhood obesity and other child diseases, the European Commission has awarded 12 million euros to a medical research project that will use mathematical models to improve the treatment of children. According to recent data from the World Health Organisation (WHO), the number of overweight infants and children in Europe has steadily risen from 1990 to 2008.