Whether someone lives next to greenery or an industrial smokestack is not simply a matter of chance, but neither does it depend merely on income. Having investigated the factors contributing to “environmental inequality” in the EU, a research project is now pointing out the “co-benefits” of climate protection.
Continue reading “Environmental quality is not the same for everyone”
Comparing ourselves with others makes us … unhappy. That is especially true, if we set the bar too high. Economist Jaroslava Hlouskova has derived formulas that can give a better picture of how this behavior influences decisions about consumption and investment. Her research is in the field of prospect theory that sees households as being driven not exclusively by rationality, but also by reference dependence and loss aversion.
Continue reading “The curse of comparison”
The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) was a dialogue and negotiating forum during the Cold War. An international research project with Austrian involvement is now investigating the details of this process and what its significance came to be in the second half of the 1980s.
Continue reading “Where Cold War warriors talked to one another”Donating money to research used to be a marginal phenomenon in Austria. Now there is some new impetus. As a new board member of the FWF’s alpha+ Foundation, Susanne Müller-Taborsky wants to inspire more donors to support science. Investments in research would secure our future, says the banking expert.
Continue reading “Sponsoring knowledge for the planet”
The historian Barbara Stelzl-Marx has been studying the repercussions of the Second World War for decades. Unresolved traumas from the war still play out across generations to this day. The war in Ukraine has now imbued what is otherwise a historical perspective with great topicality. Once again, we see a generation of children of war growing up. Stelzl-Marx also attributes Putin’s motivation for starting this war to a past trauma that is forged into a narrative and disseminated as propaganda. Once again, the power of this narrative will have repercussions for several generations.
Continue reading “The power of stories untold”
Scientists are increasingly taking their lead from nature when it comes to finding suitable models for sustainable solutions. The mathematician Michael Kniely from Graz is one of the researchers trying to describe the complex processes that take place in our environment. At the renowned Weierstrass Institute in Berlin, Schrödinger Fellow Kniely is conducting basic research into pioneering technological solutions.
Continue reading “Computing for the future in Berlin”
