Every week, scilog features an exemplary project funded by the FWF. The presentations shed light on scientific questions and report on recent insights gained in basic research. The projects not only reflect the great variety of scientific disciplines, but also the range of support options offered by the Austrian Science Fund.
A research group led by the physician Christian Dejaco is investigating circumstances under which patients may stop taking medication for rheumatoid arthritis without running the risk of the disease flaring up again. Continue reading “Ultrasound for better therapeutic effects in rheumatism”
At higher education institutions (HEIs), regional commitment that is not profit-oriented often suffers from neglect. At the same time, sustainable regional development is becoming an increasingly important factor. As current studies show, there is still a lot of work to be done if HEIs are to be more of a driving force at regional level. Continue reading “Regional is not banal”
In a 19-volume edition, a research team from Graz led by the German Studies scholar Klaus Kastberger presents a comprehensive and informative picture of Ödön von Horváth. The critical historical edition sheds a more ambivalent light on the writer than in the past. Continue reading “Ödön von Horváth: highly modern and quite ambivalent”
An Austro-Russian team led by geologist Yuri Dublyansky has investigated cryogenic calcite crystals from caves in the Urals. While largely ignored in the past, these crystals provide valuable information about climate fluctuations in northern Eurasia in the course of the past 500,000 years. Continue reading “Frost-produced crystals as permafrost markers”
A team of researchers from Innsbruck has compared the historical development of yodeling as between Switzerland and Tyrol thanks to funding from the Austrian Science Fund FWF. This is the first study of the eventful history of yodeling and yodel songs from the Alps in the 19th century to their urban popularity today. Continue reading “The history of yodeling and how it survived”
A research group from Graz investigated how solar storms can be simulated in order to enable a more accurate prediction of their effects on the Earth. Their work has furnished a more accurate model for simulating solar storms in real time. Continue reading “When the Sun turns the power off”
Social media engender new forms of religious and social life among the Indonesian middle class, a circumstance that particularly benefits Muslim women. Poorer strata, on the other hand, have limited digital access, which creates an “Islamic digital divide”, as is shown by a research project funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF. Continue reading “Social media change religious practice”
Meteorologist Kay Helfricht investigated the accuracy of precipitation measurements during snowfall in a project funded by the Weiss Science Foundation and coordinated by the Austrian Science Fund FWF. He was able to show a way to correct systematic errors at automatic measuring stations. Continue reading “How deep the snow?”
In a European research project backed by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, researchers tested stakeholder approaches to scenarios of future land use in five European model regions. For Austria, the Mostviertel region was taken as an example for discussing and weighing the tensions arising between the poles of uncompensated benefits for the ecosystem, farming productivity […] Continue reading “Scenarios for future land use”
The dominant impression we have of the Byzantine Empire is that it was a rigid, traditional and luxurious culture. A project on marginalization funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF now shows there were also phases of tolerance towards marginalized groups. This throws a new light on the historical development of this culture in terms […] Continue reading “Byzantium: new insights into marginalized groups”