Press Releases from FWF - Austrian Science Fund (73 total)
State-of-the-art Visual Analysis Increases Flood Protection Options
The impact of flood barriers during times of flooding can now be assessed in a shorter time and even better than before. This is enabled by the current further development of a sophisticated Visual Analysis System providing emergency systems with important assistance in making decisions at times of severe flooding. The further development – like the Visual Analysis System itself – was made possible by funding from the Austrian Science…
Precisely Off The Mark: Possible Cause Discovered For Failure of Targeted Liver …
The failure of experimental liver cancer therapies directed specifically against the EGFR protein is presumably the result of insufficiently specific patient selection. This is the conclusion that can be drawn from data that were obtained within the framework of a project carried out by an Austrian Science Fund FWF doctoral programme, and that have now been published in NATURE Cell Biology. The data prove that the tumour-promoting effect of EGFR…
The Power of Dizziness: A Resource for Art and Thought
As an ontological state, dizziness can prompt transformation and innovation. This is the central hypothesis of a recent project supported by the Austrian Science Fund FWF. The subject of the research is the experience of states of dizziness and disorientation and a reflection on the phenomenon and its perception in various scientific disciplines and contemporary art production. The collection, generation and analysis of a wide range of text and film…
Phosphate Increases The Concentration of Sodium (!) in The Blood
A previously undiscovered role played by the hormone FGF23 has now been discovered in a project funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF. Scientists were already aware that greater quantities of this hormone are produced when there is too much phosphate in the blood plasma and that it reduces the absorption of this mineral from the urine. The new results now also show an effect on the absorption of sodium.…
Cutting-edge Research Goes Back to School: Prizewinners and Students Experience …
Students at Austria's schools are now directly experiencing the "fascination of research" first hand and up close. This is all thanks to the most highly acclaimed scientists in the country: the Wittgenstein prizewinners. With the support of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), they established the Wittgenstein Academy. Since the end of June, Academy members have, for the first time, been bringing cutting-edge research to Austrian schools in a very personal…
Research That More Than Meets The Eye: New Technique Analyses Blood Flow in Glau …
The link between blood flow in the retina and the development of glaucoma can now be measured accurately for the first time. This was made possible by the further development of an established measurement method, optical coherence tomography (OCT), which enables the visual assessment of the retina and has thus become an important diagnostic tool. It does not, however, provide any information about retinal function. With the support of the…
Communication Instead of Collision: Research Project Focuses on the Interaction …
As an important contribution to traffic safety, the communication between cyclists and motor vehicle drivers is currently being examined by a scientific project under way in Vienna. Both infrastructure and intersection design are being considered as factors contributing to communication. The project, which is funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, uses video recordings and interviews to analyse real communication situations under real-life road-use conditions.
Cyclists are at greater risk of…
A Bright Future For Optoelectronics: A Diode Made From a 2D Material Facilitates …
A special type of diode made from a crystalline material whose layers are just three atoms thick has been successfully realized for the first time. The superior properties of such ultra-thin crystals open up previously unimagined possibilities for solar cells, photodiodes and light-emitting diodes. The paper, now published in Nature Nanotechnology, not only documents the actual functionality of a so-called p-n diode made of tungsten diselenide, it also demonstrates its…
New Research on Byzantium: Adolescence, Polished Language
Two current research projects are dedicated to a detailed analysis of adolescence, on the one hand, and the language of subversion in Byzantium, on the other. The aim of the first project is to gain a better understanding of the adolescent life stage in the Eastern Roman Empire. Initial interim findings were recently presented to an audience of experts at the "Coming of Age – Adolescence and Society in Medieval…
Peter Handke Now Also Online: Unique Access to The Materials And Papers Relating …
Thanks to the website "handkeonline", the materials and papers of one of the most important German-language authors are now directly accessible. Comprehensive data on Peter Handke from public and private collections are cross-referenced and described on the website, and thus provide unique insight into the genesis of his works. With Handke's permission, complete facsimiles of the original versions of some of the author's works and his notebooks are also published…
When "If … Then" Reasoning Begins: Children's Understanding of Alternative Cou …
The capacity to think about how the present would be if an event in the past had taken a different course is referred to by experts as counterfactual reasoning. A research project funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF plans to examine how this kind of thinking develops, and identifies what distinguishes counterfactual reasoning from other types of conditional reasoning. Moreover, it will investigate developmental links between counterfactual reasoning and…
Dynamics of a River Landscape: The Impact of Water, Land & City on The Viennese …
According to the findings of an interdisciplinary research project of the Austrian Science Fund FWF, the transformation of the Viennese Danube was shaped by natural processes in the river, flooding, transport, human settlements, war and excrement. The project analysed the environmental history, social ecology and hydromorphology of the river over four centuries. The project team reconstructed the transformation from a dynamic river landscape into a regulated channelin detail. To this…
Renewable not restricted: Analysing the transition to a sustainable energy indus …
A future changeover to renewable energies is the subject of a new study by a team of economic scientists. Two major problems with our energy supplies make such a transition inevitable: the scarcity of fossil fuels and the global warming we are causing by burning them. A project sponsored by the Austrian Science Fund FWF will analyse this transition in theoretical terms from a number of different perspectives. Researchers will…
Here Today, Gone Tomorrow: Rise and Fall of Technology Hypes a Matter of Associa …
Exaggerated hopes for new technologies arise through associations with other socially relevant expectations. This is the key finding of a study funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF. The study analysed the "rise and fall" of technology hypes based on fuel cell technology as an alternative vehicle propulsion concept. This technology, which was on the brink of being launched in the late 1990s following huge fanfare and investment, was overtaken…
Discursive Politics – Language with a Spin
A project sponsored by the Austrian Science Fund FWF has made a detailed investigation on what viewers understand and how they evaluate the statements of politicians during televised debates. To this effect, software-assisted conversation analysis established how the individual social knowledge of viewers nurtures the interpretations – and reinterpretations – of political statements. For the first time, the roles played by differing interpretive frames in our comprehension of political reality…
Probing Questions & In-Depth Answers
For the first time, a scientist from Austria will be actively involved in an expedition of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP). This multi-national research programme is helping to achieve a new understanding of physical and biological processes of the Earth by intensively exploring the sea-floor. Austria’s annual contribution to this programme is financed by the Austrian Science Fund FWF together with the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The first-time participation…
Ayurveda, “Far East” of the Current Health Culture Boom
For the first time, a seminal scripture of Ayurveda – the most ancient and important system of medicine in India – is being textually analysed and historically explored piece by piece through the existing manuscripts. A project funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF aims to reconstruct a more authentic version of this treatise and its content. Methods from evolutionary biology are also being used in order to assess the…
A Solution That Counts: Long-standing Mathematical Conjecture Finally Proved
A conjecture presented in 1985 – the Andrews and Robbins conjecture – has recently been proved for the first time. It is thus clear that the structure which goes by the name of "totally symmetric plane partitions" can be described using a single formula. Producing the proof required vast computer resources and was only possible after the formula had been prepared for computer-assisted calculation. This finding by a Austrian Science…
Equal Rights for the Classic Perspectives on Gender
In a research project funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, Silvia Stoller has risked a daringly fresh interpretation of the classic approaches to feminist gender research. The results have now been published in her book "Existenz – Differenz – Konstruktion. Phänomenologie der Geschlechtlichkeit bei Beauvoir, Irigaray und Butler", which will be presented on 11 January 2011. In her work, the author shows, for the first time, how views relating…
Flooding is Caused by Multiple Factors – Only Interdisciplinary Research Weath …
Extreme events, such as floods or droughts, are caused by multiple factors – and must therefore be studied from many different perspectives. This is what international experts on water and climate research call for in the current issue of a renowned scientific journal. The Doctoral Program "Water Resource Systems", which is funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, is considered a precursor for interdisciplinary approach in this field. Thanks to…
EU Expansion of a Different Kind: From Economics to Welfare
Can the European Union succeed in creating a stronger social identity? This question lies at the heart of a current project by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). For an alliance between nations that was originally conceived purely at the market economy level, this would be a fundamental step towards political unity. Within the framework of the project, particular emphasis is currently being focused on investigating the legal scope for action…
Measuring Electron Orbitals
For the first time, it has been possible to measure electron density in individual molecular states using what is known as the photoelectric effect. Now published in SCIENCE, this method represents a key building block in the development of organic semiconductor elements. Supported by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, the success of this project rested on the mathematical transformation of the measured data. This made it possible to interpret the…
Aid for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands – how social ecology can help
A year after the tsunami devastated the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, wide-ranging field studies are helping to preserve the last remaining indigenous cultures. The tidal wave not only deprived the tribes of their livelihood, it also threatens to dispossess them of their cultural identity. Now a new Austrian Science Fund (FWF) project is using scientific methods to assist the islanders in opting for a culturally appropriate sustainable future.
Not only…
