Projects

26 July 2021

Enabling blind people to participate in non-verbal communication

Smiling, shaking one’s head or pointing to the flipchart: non-verbal forms of communication are an important part of meetings, but for blind and visually impaired people they are almost impossible to discern. A Linz-based research group is working on technical systems designed to compensate for this information deficit. Continue reading

Fish and crustaceans for sale on a Vietnamese market

Projects

12 July 2021

Toxic arsenic in the brain and in breast milk

In the context of an international research project, a research group from Graz investigated certain arsenic compounds that were previously considered harmless. It was found that they are highly toxic and can spread in the body. Continue reading

Projects

28 June 2021

How to simulate protein recognition

A research group in Innsbruck is striving to obtain a better understanding, in biophysical terms, of biomolecular recognition processes in the body – for instance between enzymes and proteins. The results could lead to new biological therapeutics that can interact with the organism with great specificity. Continue reading

Interview & Opinion

22 June 2021

New algorithms for better privacy protection

Interview: Alois Pumhösel

The computer scientist and Wittgenstein Award winner Monika Henzinger is working on algorithms that allow her to obtain insights from large amounts of data quickly and efficiently. At the same time, she notes, it is important to ensure that there is no way to trace personal data back to the individual concerned. Continue reading

Interview & Opinion

22 June 2021

A gap in Hawking’s theorem

Interview: Reinhard Kleindl

The physicist and 2021 START Award winner Laura Donnay has discovered subtle properties of black holes that had hitherto been overlooked. They could shed new light on something that researchers have long been looking for: the link between quantum physics and gravitational theory. Continue reading

Interview & Opinion

22 June 2021

Taking the antibody taxi right into the cancer cell

Interview: Juliane Fischer

START Award winner Hannes Mikula is a chemist who works at the interface between chemistry and biology and wants to improve cancer therapy. His goal is to steer active substances directly into the tumour cell. In this way, the substances do not attack healthy cells and destroy specifically the cancer cells. Continue reading

Projects

14 June 2021

Blood flows are more turbulent than previously suspected

The physicist Björn Hof and his research group are investigating how turbulence forms in pulsating blood flows. In the process, they came across a previously overlooked type of turbulence that could also be present in veins in the human body. Continue reading

Projects

19 April 2021

Leading edge with secure data

The mathematician Sophie Grünbacher is researching trustworthy algorithms in order to warrant absolute data security. She has already created many tools that are helpful not only during a pandemic. In the long term, this researcher and young entrepreneur intends to propose local alternatives to big data companies. Continue reading

On the road

9 December 2020

The colours of Paris

By Anna Galler

In the context of her Schrödinger Fellowship, physicist Anna Galler is conducting research on the optical properties of new, environmentally friendly colour pigments at the École Polytechnique in Paris. In order to be able in the future to design the pigment colour and other material properties on the computer, Anna Galler is developing sophisticated theoretical […] Continue reading “The colours of Paris”

The colours on the thermal image show the different surface temperatures – the brighter the colour, the warmer. Surfaces are cooler where water is available for plants and can evaporate.

Projects

5 October 2020

Everything flows – but where to?

In the context of an international research project and with funding from the Austrian Science Fund FWF, a research group from Vienna investigated how aerial images taken with thermal imaging cameras can improve our understanding of water flows in the ground. Their analyses are relevant to both agriculture and climate research. Continue reading “Everything flows – but where to?”