Viktor Orbán 1989: a master of metaphor in the making / YouTube screenshot
Invited speech at the panel on „Communication of Infectious Diseases“ given at the second European Conference of Science Journalists in Budapest on 3 November 2015 at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The conference was part of the World Science Forum held in Budapest from 4 to 7 November 2015, hosted by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in partnership with UNESCO, ICSU, AAAS, TWAS and EASAC. Weiterlesen
Jan and I with (in my case) an undeserved halo. Photo: M. Holl
Yesterday I had the honour to host Jan Velterop at IST Austria. Jan is a pioneer of the open access movement which he initiated with others in the late 1990s. In his talk at IST Austria Jan focussed on the value of peer review which, according to Jan, as practiced by the publishing industry today is a slow, expensive, unreliable, high variable, ineffective, arbitrary, anonymous process that undermines scientific skepticism, puts careerism before science, and is confirmation-biased. In order to make it more reliable and transparent and much cheaper to the scientific community, Jan proposed “peer review by endorsement”, arguing for a strict separation of the reviewing and publishing processes. While scientists should do the reviewing under their own names in the pre-publish phase using archives, the publishers should restrict themselves to the production phase, publishing scientific literature found worthwhile by the scientists. Weiterlesen
Am Dienstag, den 19. Mai, moderiere ich im Hauptgebäude der Uni Wien die Eröffnung der Ausstellung „Der Wiener Kreis“. Der Untertitel der von Friedrich Stadler und Karl Sigmund kuratierten Schau fasst den Ungeist der Epoche und die Ambition der Runde treffend zusammen: „Exaktes Denken am Rand des Untergangs“. Weiterlesen
AIDS verläuft in unseren Breiten nicht mehr tödlich und die Therapie ist aus medizinischer Sicht mit der Diabetes-Behandlung vergleichbar. Diese Entwicklung ist der AIDS-Forschung zu danken. Eine Impfung oder gar Heilung sind trotzdem nicht in greifbarer Nähe. Woran das liegt, erklärte mir die Wiener Dermatologin Dr. Katharina Grabmeier-Pfistershammer in dem Interview, das ich für das Life Ball Magazin 2015 geführt habe. Die Fotos stammen von Stefan Knittel, Sonja Burger hat mich bei dem Interview unterstützt. Hier entlang zum Interview im Layout: Life Ball Magazin 2015 Weiterlesen
On March 27 I had the pleasure to host the first LogicLounge of 2015: Google’s research director Peter Norvig and Gerhard Widmer, AI professor at Linz university, discussed „How artificial is intelligence?“, splendidly mceed by Elke Ziegler (Ö1). As a souvenir Nadja Meister took this fine picture of us at the location of the LogicLounge, the Cafe Heuer on Karlsplatz. For more see https://www.facebook.com/groups/AustrianComputerScience/
Hosting a round table on „Gender Matters in Research Funding“ on September 4, 13.30-15.00, in the spectacular Kuppelsaal of the TU Wien (Karlsplatz 13). The event is part of the 8th European Conference on Gender Equality in Higher Education, hosted by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy and organised by the Vienna University of Technology. My panelists are Lise Christensen (Research Council of Norway), Sabine Haubenwallner (FWF), Sabine Mayer (FFG), Maya Widmer (Swiss National Science Foundation), Alison Woodward (Institute for European Studies, Free University of Brussels).
Das war ein ausgesprochen spannender Arbeitskreis zum Thema Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft, den ich da am 22. August im Rahmen des Europäischen Forums Alpbach 2014 moderieren durfte. Die Beiträge der ReferentInnen sowie die Zusammenfassung der Diskussion finden sich auf der Homepage des FWF, ein paar illustrative Eindrücke hier, inklusive der fabelhaften Aufforderung von Erinma Ochu doch einmal die Perspektive zu wechseln, indem man seineN NachbarIn mit der „anderen“ Hand zeichnen möge und des Kommentars der an dem Klassenzimmer in der Hauptschule Alpbach vorbei watschelnden Entenfamilie. Weiterlesen
Preparing for the profil cover shooting at the Theseus temple in Vienna / Photographer: Phliip Horak / Click to enlarge
A brief reflection on the Vienna Summer of Logic 2014. Communicating the science of 2500 logicians did not sound like an easy task in the first discussions with Helmut Veith in the summer of 2013. Logic does not lend itself to easy comprehension as it deals with a truly complex challenge: the science of correct reasoning. There are no impressive images, no flashy videos, no witty one-liners to attract a general audience and journalists in particular. The reasons why this task turned out to be a fantastic experience are basically the following: Weiterlesen
Am kommenden Freitag (22.8.2014) leite ich beim Europäischen Forum in Alpbach den Arbeitskreis „Wissenschaft in der Gesellschaft – Wie man Barrieren überwinden kann“. Das Thema ist mir nicht völlig fremd, wie sich bei einem Blick ins Archiv heraus gestellt hat. Bei Interesse: Hauptschule Alpbach, 09.00-15.00 Uhr
Alpbach 670, 6236 Alpbach, Österreich
Preparing for a working group on „Science in Society – How to Overcome a Disjuncture“ which I am going to chair at this year’s European Forum Alpbach (in case of interest: August 22, 09.00-15.00, at the Hauptschule Alpbach) I came across the following text I had drafted for a working group I participated nine years ago. The title was „From scientific journal to breaking news: science and the media“. Among the panelists were Philip Campbell, then and now Editor-in-Chief of Nature, Rainer Esser, CEO of the Zeit Publishing House in Hamburg, and (for some reason not mentioned in the programme) Richard Dawkins as himself. The draft remains relevant and will offer a nice starting point for this year’s discussion. Weiterlesen