“2020 was a year, in which we had to face many challenges as a society and choose the best possible way forward.  Continue reading Nuno Maulide: Sustainable Chemistry of the Future →

“The arts world and event organisers belong without doubt to those, who suffered most during the last months. Due to many years of experience in the event sector, technical expertise and enthusiasm for research, mathematics and algorithms, we came up with a way to support organisers, musicians, artists, theaters and museums: Continue reading Sophie Grünbacher: What A.I. can do for contact tracing →

“Dance, music and evidence-based entertainment will not be part of the Science Ball 2021. The pandemic is more powerful. A painful message of the year 2020: large-scale crises must be tackled in a broad and quick manner. What became clear as well: Continue reading Franz Essl: Fight every crisis →

“Education is what is left when you have forgotten everything you have learned” – this quote is attributed to many: Werner Heisenberg, Burrhus Skinner and of course Albert Einstein. In these dark times, I – a theoretical (!) physicist – have no choice but to hold on to Humboldt’s ideal of education, i.e. the unity of research and teaching, whereby I define “teaching” in a very general way.

I see it simply this way: Apart from the actual scientific projects on current challenges like climate change or COVID, it is our mission and duty as scientists to contribute to the education of the public and thus also to the education of politicians who make far-reaching decisions on a daily basis. Therefore I find it equally important to explain to mankind the importance of exponential growth as to invest in the development of the COVID vaccine. And it is just as important to explain all measures against climate change as it is for the public to understand the difference between a “theory” and a “hypothesis”. That’s why, as a theoretical physicist, I decided a few months ago to make a practical contribution to public education and set up a YouTube channel. The reactions show me how great the need and interest in such education is. Have a look: https://www.youtube.com/ProfLemeshko

Mikhail Lemeshko is Professor of theoretical physics and head of a research group at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria. The main direction of his current research is understanding the physics of quantum impurities possessing orbital angular momentum. Recently, he has been elected to the Young Academy of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. On his Youtube channel, he shows experiment or explains scientific correlations. 

“In March 2020, more than 1.1 million students in Austria switched to home study basically without warning. Because of that, self-regulated studying has become a necessity. We are researching how this works in a research project at the Faculty of Psychology (University of Vienna), which is sponsored by the Vienna Science and Technology Fund.

Continue reading Christiane Spiel: How to study during a pandemic →

“What for? This is what I often get asked when I tell people that my research group develops instruments for space telescopes which are used to search for planets orbiting other stars or which analyse the composition of far-away worlds to predict their habitability. Continue reading Franz Kerschbaum: Why we shoot tax money into orbit →

Dear friends and guests of the Science Ball!

The role of basic research is immense. Without basic research there is no development of energy alternatives and Covid vaccines to combat climate change and the corona pandemic.

The currently planned cuts of 36 billion euros in the budget of the EU research program “Horizon Europe” are not only short-sighted, but negligent.  The “Rescue Horizon Europe” campaign intends to convince the EU Commission, the EU Parliament and the European Council (in which the Austrian federal government has a seat and a vote) to change their mind at the last minute.

We support  together with 1400 researchers throughout Europe, including 8 Nobel Prize winners, and the umbrella organizations of about 800 universities this campaign and ask you to do the same with your signature: http://www.rescue-horizon-europe.org

By the way: without basic research there is no science ball. It’s as simple as that.

“I contribute to the management of the significant crises of our time (COVID-19 and the climate crisis) by doing research and teaching young people in cross-disciplinary knowledge and competences to tackle the Grand Global Challenges.

Continue reading Katharina Gsöllpointner: Tackling global challenges →

“A crisis brings the really important things to the fore: science and research are part of that.  Who, if not researchers, can generate new knowledge and tools? Who, if not researchers, can point out possible solutions? Continue reading Klement Tockner: Understanding the world →

Dear ball guests,

Tough we have postponed the 7th Science Ball until January 29, 2022 the ball has always been much more than a glittering celebration of inspiring enlightenment and encouraging sensuality: a platform for testing and applying innovative methods of science communication. Continue reading Messages of Confidence →