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The Guardian
25-06-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Women's Euro 2025: the complete guide to all the stadiums
Capacity: 34,250 Opened: March 2001 Home team: FC Basel Basel trivia: In 1938, the chemist Albert Hofmann discovered LSD in the city. Women's Euros 2025 fixtures: Group A: Switzerland vs Norway, 2 July, 8pm (all times BST) Group C: Germany vs Denmark, 8 July, 5pm Group D: Netherlands vs France, 13 July, 8pm Quarter-final: Winner Group D vs Runner-up Group C, 19 July, 8pm Final: 27 July, 5pm It sits on the site of the Stadion St Jakob (playfully nicknamed Joggeli as a Swiss diminutive of Jakob), which hosted six matches at the men's 1954 World Cup and closed in 1998. St Jakob-Park opened in 2001 and hosted six matches at Euro 2008 (although a torrential downpour during that tournament led to the pitch having to be completely relaid overnight) and also has an in-built shopping mall and even a retirement home with a lounge that has full views of the pitch. If you can't get a ticket for the final at Joggeli on 27 July, Basel, the most northerly host city in Switzerland, is still well worth a visit. Join the locals in stashing valuables in a floating Wickelfisch swim bag (invented in Basel) and float down the Rhine. It's free, fun and a unique way to see the picturesque Old Town. A good place to enter the river is just by Museum Tinguely before a 3km bob on the current down to the Rheinbad Breite and St Johann bathing houses. Capacity: 29,800 Opened: July 2005 Home team: Young Boys Berne trivia: Albert Einstein worked out his theory of relativity while living there, while he was employed as a patent examiner at the patent office. Women's Euros 2025 fixtures: Group B: Spain vs Portugal, 3 July, 8pm Group A: Switzerland vs Iceland, 6 July, 8pm Group B: Italy vs Spain, 11 July, 8pm Quarter-final: Winner Group B vs Runner-up Group A, 18 July, 8pm Originally branded as Stade de Suisse when it was built in 2005, it was renamed in 2020 in an attempt to return to the stadium's roots. The old stadium hosted the men's 1954 World Cup final, 'the Miracle of Berne', in which West Germany came back from 2-0 down to win 3-2, ending a 31-match unbeaten run for the Mighty Magyars, the legendary Hungary team led by Ferenc Puskás. The British band Muse said the stadium's name inspired the Wankdorf Jam, a popular instrumental used in their live shows. The ground has solar panels on its roof which produce a yearly yield of 1.2 million kWh (or 1.20 gigawatts). For reference, that's enough to fully charge more than 10,000 electric cars and is only just shy of the 1.21 gigawatts Doc Brown claims is needed to activate the flux capacitor for his DeLorean time machine in Back to the Future. Capacity: 29,800 Opened: April 2003 Home team: Servette Geneva trivia: Most of the drinking water (80%) in the city is extracted from the lake and no electricity is used from nuclear reactors or fossil fuels. Women's Euros 2025 fixtures: Group C: Denmark v Sweden, 4 July, 5pm Group B: Portugal vs Italy, 7 July, 8pm Group A: Finland vs Switzerland, 10 July, 8pm Quarter-final: Winner Group A vs Runner-up Group B, 16 July, 8pm Semi-final: Winner QF3 vs Winner QF1, 22 July, 8pm Unusually, the Stade de Genève's sole owner is not a club, or a obscure billionaire, but a private foundation, acting alongside support from the state of Geneva. The Fondation du Stade de Genève acted as the project manager for the stadium's construction and inauguration in 2003 and runs the stadium to this day. 'Above all, it is a stadium of the Genevans,' claims the foundation, which means anyone can hire it, from a conference room to a 'VIP corridor' to the entire pitch, assuming you are willing to pay enough Swiss francs. The Stade de Genève's finest game is probably the men's Euro 2008 clash between Czech Republic and Turkey, in which the latter came back from 2-0 down to triumph 3-2 in the closing stages, aided by an uncharacteristic goalkeeping howler from Petr Cech in the Czech goal, spilling an easy cross to allow Nihat Kahveci to score an equaliser in the 87th minute. Nihat scored the winner for Turkey two minutes later, racing through on goal and curling a fine shot off the underside of the bar. Capacity: 22,700 Opened: August 2007 Home team: FC Zürich, Grasshopper Zurich trivia: As well as having a reputation for banking and watches, the city hosts Street Parade, the largest techno party in the world, often attracting more than a million attendees. Women's Euros 2025 fixtures Group C: Denmark v Sweden, 4 July, 5pm Group B: Portugal vs Italy, 7 July, 8pm Group A: Finland vs Switzerland, 10 July, 8pm Quarter-final: Winner Group A vs Runner-up Group B, 16 July, 8pm Semi-final: Winner QF3 vs Winner QF1, 22 July, 8pm Not only is Stadion Letzigrund home to the men and women's sides for two clubs, FC Zürich and Grasshopper, but it also hosts concerts (Metallica and Ed Sheeran are scheduled to play there in the next year) and elite athletics meets, with a running track surrounding the pitch. The distance between the stands and the pitch may not be popular with football fans but this place has serious athletic pedigree: on 21 June 1960, the German sprinter Armin Hary became the first human to run the 100m in 10 seconds flat. The judges were apparently so shocked, they said it must have been a false start, but Hary repeated the feat 35 minutes after his first record-breaking run. Arguably Zurich's most notable footballing structure is not Stadion Letzigrund but the nearby Fifa global headquarters, a zero-emission building which is mostly underground, with the meeting room for the executive committee hermetically sealed. 'Places where people make decisions should only contain indirect light,' said Sepp Blatter after the building's competition in 2006, 'because the light should come from the people themselves who are assembled there.' Sure. Capacity: 16,300 Opened: July 2008 Home team: St Gallen St Gallen trivia: Once the embroidery capital of the world, the first embroidery machines were invented in the city in the early 1900s. Women's Euros 2025 fixtures: Group C: Germany vs Poland, 4 July, 8pm Group D: France vs Wales, 9 July, 8pm Group D: England vs Wales, 13 July, 8pm Arena St Gallen (or Kybunpark as it is normally known) replaced St Gallen's old ground, the Espenmoos Stadion, in 2008. The new stadium is unfortunately a few miles out of town, wedged in a retail park between an Ikea and a Decathlon. There is even a shopping mall underneath the stadium. If that all sounds a bit dystopian and an example of modern football eating itself, FC St Gallen are actually the second oldest football team in continental Europe (after the Danish side Kjøbenhavns Boldklub, founded 1876, who are now known as FC Copenhagen). Despite St Gallen's rich history, the men's side have only won the Swiss top flight on two occasions – in 1904 and 2000 – while the women's side, founded in 2017, are yet to win anything. If you are a meat eater, try the local delicacy, the St Gallen bratwurst. Dating back to the middle ages, it's a veal sausage cooked with bacon, spices and fresh milk, with each butcher and eatery in St Gallen guarding their own secret recipe. Metzgerei Gemperli, a restaurant on Schmiedgasse, is said to be one of the best places to find it. Capacity: 14,350 Opened: 1934 Home team: Luzern Lucerne trivia: The Chapel Bridge, built in 1333, is the oldest covered bridge in Europe and is 204m (669 ft) long, although much of it had to be replaced after a fire in 1993, widely thought to be caused by a discarded cigarette. Women's Euros 2025 fixtures: Group D: Wales vs Netherlands, 5 July, 5pm Group C: Poland vs Sweden, 8 July, 8pm Group C: Poland vs Denmark, 12 July, 8pm Normally known as the Swissporarena for sponsorship reasons, this stadium has adopted the name of the old ground that was demolished in 2009: Allmend Stadion. It's a beautiful spot, overlooked by the huge Mount Pilatus in the Swiss Alps, even if the ground itself is a bit forgettable, although the Welsh and Dutch will surely get stuck in for their tournament opener here on 5 July. The official language is German but most locals speak an Alemannic Swiss-German dialect that is specific to the city: Lucerne German. The city is twinned with Bournemouth in England and Chicago in the US. Capacity: 7,750 Opened: August 1968 Home team: Sion Sion trivia: One of the most important prehistoric sites in Europe, the Alpine town's oldest trace of human settlement comes from 6200BC during the late Mesolithic period. Women's Euros 2025 fixtures: Group B: Belgium vs Italy, 3 July, 5pm Group A: Norway vs Finland, 6 July, 5pm Group B: Portugal vs Belgium 11 July, 8pm The Stade de Tourbillon is the smallest of the tournament stadiums with fewer than 8,000 seats, but is one of the few grounds that has not been rebuilt or redeveloped this century, most recently getting a makeover in 1989. Remarkably, given its size, Sion does occasionally host the men's Swiss national side, most recently for a Euro 2020 qualifier against Gibraltar. Sion is a small town, and the second most southerly of the host cities (after Geneva). At the last count in 2020 it was home to just 35,000 people, so roughly half the size of Loughborough. One might not expect a cosy place beside a placid Alpine lake to have a surfing wave pool but Alaia Bay in Sion was reportedly the first open to the public in mainland Europe. Capacity: 8,100 Opened: July 2011 Home team: Thun Thun trivia: Switzerland is famously neutral, but Thun has one of the biggest army bases in the country and the largest Swiss military barracks. Women's Euros 2025 fixtures: Group A: Iceland vs Finland, 2 July, 5pm Group B: Spain vs Belgium, 7 July, 5pm Group A: Norway vs Iceland, 10 July, 8pm One of the few stadiums on this list to have artificial grass, the elite footballers at Euro 2025 will be wary of knee injuries, particularly on a dry, slow surface that is traditionally designed to protect against the wetter and colder winter Alpine elements. FC Thun's previous stadium, Stadion Lachen, was right on the lake but used to flood, so Arena Thun (or Stockhorn Arena as it is normally known) was built inland and opened in 2011. The town itself is considered one of the most beautiful in Switzerland, with dozens of bridges that link over the Aare as it feeds into Lake Thun. The idyllic Schadaupark is built in the style of an English garden, there is a large castle that looms over the town, while the nearby St Beatus Caves, carved into the mountainside, were created – legend has it – by the wandering Irish monk Beatus, who drove away a a mischievous dragon 1,900 years ago.
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Scientists Finally Found the Psychedelic Source of LSD
Here's what you'll learn when you read this story: The fungus from which LSD was first synthesized has finally been observed and described by researchers who suspected a fuzz inside the seed coats of morning glory plants. Now known as Periglandula clandestina, this fungal symbiote that coexists with morning glories was so difficult to find because it lives inside the plant as opposed to its Periglandula relatives which live on the outsides of plants and are more easily observable. In the future, P. clandestine could lead to new and more powerful pharmaceuticals that treat migraines and neurodegenerative conditions. In 1963, Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann discovered what gave morning glories psychoactive properties, the lysergic acid amides that would later lead him to (accidentally) create LSD. Hofmann already knew about a mind-altering hallucinogen in morning glories that had been used in Mesoamerican religious rituals since ancient times. Seeing these chemicals in a plant was unexpected, since they are usually associated with fungi. The morning glory fungus eluded him. Finding it would prove to be a trip. Morning glories (Convolvulaceae) are known for having symbiotic relationships with fungi that produce ergot alkaloids. These are the mycotoxins from which some hallucinogens, along with powerful medications for conditions such as dementia and migraines are derived. Many of the fungi that produce these substances belong to the family Clavicipitaceae. While many species of morning glories have been found to contain ergot alkaloids, their fungal symbionts have not always been observed easily. Clavicipitaceae are often detected through DNA or their disappearance when a plant is treated with fungicide. Researchers Corinne Hazel and Daniel Panaccione of West Virginia University knew of evidence for a psychotropic fungus in morning glories. The seed-borne fungus is a Clavicipitaceous genus known as Periglandula, and lives in symbiosis with the morning glory species Ipomoea tricolor, but had never been described further. 'The presence of ergot alkaloids in I. tricolor was associated with [genetic] sequences of an undescribed fungus of the family Clavicipitaceae,' Hazel and Panaccione said in a study recently published in Mycologia. 'Further evidence of a fungal symbiont of I. tricolor included suppression of ergot alkaloid synthesis through treatment with [a] fungicide.' The researchers sought to isolate the fungus and sequence its genome so they could finally describe it. Plant tissues were magnified up to 200 times to search for visible signs of mycelium. Hyphae are the filaments in mycelium which branch out and connect networks of mushrooms underground and make up that dreaded white fuzz seen on moldy bread. Some of morning glory tissues were stained so the mycelium would be easier to identify, and other tissues were given nutrients to promote fungal growth. Because Clavicipitaceae live in seeds, DNA from was also extracted from morning glory seed coats. Hazel knew she was onto something when she spotted white fuzz growing insides of sed coats and suspected fungi. When scientists sequenced the genome of the fungus was sequenced, they found a previously undescribed species of Periglandula. Hazel named it Periglandula clandestina because of how it hides itself within the morning glory plant, which separates it from the other known Periglandula species that grow on the outside of the plant and are not as secretive. Ergot alkaloids were found throughout the plants. They are even present in the roots, where there was no evidence of P. clandestina DNA. The most common alkaloid found in the plants was lysergic acid alpha-hydroxyethylamide (LAH). This alkaloid is one of the lysergic acid amides Hofman identified in his studies. LSD aside, the discovery of the fungus it is synthesized from could open opportunities for significant pharmaceutical discoveries in the future. 'Because P. clandestina produces exceptionally high quantities of ergot alkaloids, the genes in its ergot alkaloid biosynthesis pathway may be a resource for engineering model organisms to overproduce pharmaceutically relevant ergot alkaloids,' said Hazel and Panaccione. The discovery that flowered from a suspicion about fuzz on a seed coat is almost as accidental as the discovery of a substance that will forever be associated with the undulating rainbows of '60s psychedelia, the Beatles' iconic 'Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,' and even cult pop culture icons like Futurama's Hypnotoad. Even Hoffman himself is quoted as saying, 'I did not choose LSD. LSD found and called me.' You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
