In the “Science in Motion” series, scilog opens a window to the many-faceted world of basic research. Internationally renowned researchers from Austria’s world of science report on current projects, insights and questions relating to their disciplines.
Why are women drug addicts considered to be one of the most despised fringe groups in European society? The artist Ulrike Möntmann from the University of Applied Arts Vienna sought the answer to this question in the arts-based research project “THIS BABY DOLL WILL BE A JUNKIE”, funded by the FWF. Möntmann collaborated with female […] Watch video “This baby doll will be a junkie”
Regular insulin monitoring several times a day is an essential and demanding task for diabetics. At night, blood sugar levels can drop and lead to dangerous hypoglycaemia. A research group led by mathematician Sergei Pereverzyev, supported by FWF, has now developed a smartphone app (DIA SafeLife) based on mathematical models to predict night-time hypoglycaemia in […] Watch video “When mathematics saves lives”
Chemist and materials scientist Miriam Unterlass uses nature as a model to produce materials that are particularly stable and temperature-resistant. Instead of toxic solvents, the START prize winner of the Austrian Science Fund FWF uses hot water to produce plastics, hybrid materials or organic dyes for medical applications. – A globally unique and promising method […] Watch video “The plastics revolution”
How did brands shown in Austrian advertising films between 1950 and 2000 become established, and which symbols contributed to the formation of a national identity after WWII? In a project funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, the economic and social historian Franz X. Eder and his team were the first to explore the function […] Watch video “The impact of advertising on national identity”
All over the world, pathogens and parasites introduced from other places represent a major threat to biodiversity. Small indigenous populations, such as Darwin’s finches on the Galapagos Islands, are particularly jeopardized. The Galapagos Islands are one of the few tropical archipelagos with a largely intact birdlife and, thus, an ideal workplace for the evolutionary biologist […] Watch video “Evolution in real time”
A team of researchers from Innsbruck discovered the model for the development of a biological superglue at the Adriatic Sea. The one millimetre small flatworm called Macrostomum lignano can adhere to the sea water several times a second and dissolve again, explains project head and zoologist Peter Ladurner. Such biological adhesives have one major advantage: […] Watch video “A super glue for the body”
In Austria alone there have been 5,000 flash floods due to heavy rainfall since the 1970s. Researchers expect such natural hazards to become more frequent and more severe as a result of climate change. Maria Papathoma-Köhle, supported by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, is developing an index for the physical vulnerability of buildings in order […] Watch video “Climate change and resilient buildings”
In the FWF-funded doctoral programme “Imaging the Mind”, international research teams are pursuing the big question of how the human brain functions. Subdivided into many aspects – such as learning, sleeping, consciousness, mental disorders or social behaviour – scholars at the University of Salzburg use state-of-the-art methods to investigate cognitive processes. They are placing a […] Watch video “Looking into the brain – about thinking, learning, sleeping”
A team led by Fritz Hausjell, media scientist at the University of Vienna, has explored Cold War image policies. The central questions of the project: who were the photographers, how did the Allies approach the topic, and what images of Austria were conveyed at that time? The results of the three-year basic research project supported […] Watch video “The language of images: press photography in Austria between 1945 and 1955”
“DNA is the hard disk, RNA the software”, explains biochemist Andrea Barta from the Medical University of Vienna. Her research focuses on the functioning of RNA and, thus, the fundamental question of how genetic information is passed on. In a doctoral programme funded by the FWF, 14 interdisciplinary research groups are exploring the complex networks […] Watch video “The discovery of the gene scissors”