Category: Feature Stories

Astronomers have found a particular black hole in a neighboring galaxy of the Milky Way. The object, located about 160,000 light-years from Earth, is “quiet” – that is, it does not reveal itself through radiation but only through its gravitational pull. According to experts, the quiet black hole in the Large Magellanic Cloud is the first to be discovered outside the Milky Way. Moreover, it was apparently formed by a “direct collapse,” without an accompanying supernova explosion, they write in the journal Nature Astronomy. Different typesExperts suspect that there are…

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Sars-CoV-2 has already held a few surprises in this pandemic. At the beginning of the pandemic, few experts reckoned with the mutability of the virus, i.e., its ability to change. The changes in the spike protein are particularly crucial. This is the site with which the virus attaches to the human cell. Since this protein, in particular, has changed several times in the different variants, it is also difficult for our immune system to provide the correct response in the form of neutralizing antibodies in the long term. For this…

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Austria – Fraud calls are booming; last weekend, the RTR Reporting Office for Number Abuse received more than 500 complaints about so-called robocalls, in which an “Austrian Police Department” reports the call. Later, callers are confronted with real scammers after their data, such as addresses or bank details. “Just hang up” is the only tip in such a case. Criminals want to get hold of personal data.“In these robocalls, a tape-recorded voice initially answers with a request to press a certain key,” says Klaus M. Steinmaurer, Managing Director of RTR’s…

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High-risk individuals and those over 65 recommend a fourth partial vaccination against coronavirus in Austria. Sweden was early for a fourth corona vaccination starting in January 2022 for those over 80 years of age and nursing home residents. According to a new study by Swedish scientists, the result is Temporarily up to 71 percent fewer deaths. 4th Corona vaccination recommended in Austria for over-65sPeter Nordström and his co-authors from Umea University published their results a few days ago in The Lancet Regional Health. They had access to Swedish national registries.…

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The current Covid 19 summer wave is driving primarily the Omicron variant BA.5. The problem: its symptoms are similar to those of the common cold and flu. The shortest known interval between two Sars-CoV-2 infections is 23 days.The omicron variant BA.5 is causing a Covid-19 summer wave in Austria and other countries. For example, 138,213 new cases were registered in the United Kingdom as of July 21. The seven-day average was 39,673 cases, according to British government data. However, the official figures only include cases still detected and reported despite…

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Already every fourth person has a migration background. This is shown in the statistical yearbook on integration, which was presented on Monday, and the integration report. The number of Syrians and Afghans has risen particularly sharply since 2015, as also Romanians, Bulgarians, and Hungarians. Challenges exist in the labor market and health sector, where people with a migration background use preventive care and vaccinations less. Because there are already more than 30,000 asylum applications and 80,000 registrations of displaced persons from Ukraine, Integration Minister Susanne Raab (ÖVP) spoke of a…

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The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global health emergency Saturday because of monkeypox. An overview of critical issues surrounding the disease. Everyone should know this early symptomNearly 16,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported in 72 countries worldwide since early May, according to the latest data. According to the Health Ministry, 99 cases have been reported in Austria. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared an international health emergency on Saturday. What is monkeypox?Monkeypox is an infectious disease transmitted initially primarily by viruses from animals to humans. In Africa, monkeypox…

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A study from Denmark provides new insights into the effectiveness of vaccination against the omicron mutant BA.5.Vaccination alone was long thought to protect against the corona mutant effectively. A study from Denmark provides new insight. Worldwide, it is currently being observed that distinctions are becoming increasingly crucial regarding which variants a population was infected with. This is because not all corona variants protect equally well against waves of new variants: for example, BA.5 has already been the predominant variant in Austria for weeks – 75 percent of all corona infections…

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The Corona mutant BA.2.75, also known as “Centaurus,” feared by experts, has arrived in the country. So far, Corona summers have been a time when case numbers have been stable at (very) low levels and concern in the country has been relatively quiet – but in 2022, everything is different. Corona cases are usually in the five-digit range; on Friday, there were 11,115 (for comparison, precisely one year ago, there were 392 cases). Now comes the next Corona-Watsch’n: The scary “Centaurus” mutant has officially arrived in Austria; in Salzburg, two…

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