Despite all warnings, people continue to ruthlessly exploit land resources around the world, planting monocultures and setting up large-scale infrastructure. Social ecologist Anke Schaffartzik analyses the political and economic interests that precede these developments and their impact on society. The snapshots of global material and energy flows, but also the power gradient of which they […] Continue reading “Saving the world with Christmas cookies?”
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?”
In politically sensitive regions of the West Balkans, the mineralogist and crystallographer Tamara Đorđević investigates mining waste contaminated with arsenic and other toxins. In order to understand how these ticking time bombs affect the environment, she examines their crystal structure with cross-disciplinary expertise from crystallography and chemistry. Continue reading “New materials discovered in toxic mining waste”
Under certain circumstances, ant colonies can team up to form huge supercolonies extending across thousands of kilometres and displace native species, if they refrain from aggressive behaviour. A research group from Innsbruck is now investigating how this situation can arise. Continue reading “Non-aggressive behaviour facilitates ant invasion”
Fungi play an important role in the forest ecosystem, for instance as wood-decaying agents. Biotechnology specialist Daniel Kracher is investigating how exactly these processes work. In his host city of Manchester, the Schrödinger Fellow enjoyed the extremely open research culture and reciprocated by sharing samples of traditional Austrian cuisine. Continue reading “Sachertorte in Manchester”