Our Stories

The OECD (Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development) has published a new test guideline for the risk assessment of nanomaterials designed to determine the solubility and dissolution rate of nanomaterials under realistic environmental conditions.

High interest greeted the event “Understanding Microplastics - What we know today and why panic is not the answer” organized by ECH, AGES and BfR, with many following via live stream. The discussions highlighted the complexity of the topic – spanning environmental, health and risk perception issues, with many questions still open. Experts agreed: only inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration can provide a thorough understanding of microplastics.

Alice Vadrot, political scientist at the University of Vienna and member of the ECH, has been elected as a domestic corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) – a recognition of her outstanding academic achievements. Domestic corresponding members are recognised researchers from Austria who are appointed to the Academy on the basis of their excellent expertise and who contribute to academic work and interdisciplinary exchange within the Academy.

Our members, meteorologist Andreas Stohl and pharmaceutical scientist Lea Ann Dailey, are part of the new FWF-funded project AERIAL. The team investigates how micro- and nanoplastics move from oceans into the atmosphere, how they spread globally, and what potential health impact they have. The €4.8m project aims to reshape understanding of airborne plastic pollution.

On 25 February, Social Economist Valentina Ausserladscheider and Biodiversity Researcher Stefan Dullinger (both University of Vienna), discussed climate change, winter tourism, and biodiversity in the Alpine region with media representatives from several countries. We take a closer look at their research in our article “Melting Certainties”.

A recent Nature study led by the University of Texas at Austin, with participation from the University of Vienna (Valerie De Anda), sheds new light on the emergence of complex life. By reconstructing the metabolism of Asgard archaea, researchers show that oxygen-based energy metabolism likely evolved before the acquisition of mitochondria, suggesting an earlier origin of bioenergetic complexity.