Category: Feature Stories

An international research team has re-analysed the spread of tiny droplets. Result: Masks and distance are good, but not enoughAnyone who is infected and sneezes, coughs, speaks or even breathes leaves tiny droplets in the air – the so-called aerosols – which contain the virus. They float for a while and can travel greater distances by air currents. If they are inhaled, an infection can take place – according to current study. In order to break the chain of infection, we keep our distance and wear a mouth-nose protection. However,…

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According to a UN report, during the CoV pandemic, women worldwide perform about three times as much unpaid domestic and care work as men. According to the report, men worked an average of 1.7 hours per day in the household or caring for relatives, but women did so for 4.2 hours. The difference is even greater in North Africa and West Asia, where women do seven times more unpaid work than men. According to the report, more unpaid work was done during the pandemic than before. “No country has achieved…

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A study by the WHO has caused confusion: Is the mortality of people infected with corona much lower than assumed? A closer look at the figures reveals a misunderstanding. “New WHO study astonishes even experts – that’s how deadly the virus really is”: Headlines such as these could give the impression in recent days that the World Health Organization (WHO) now considers Covid-19 to be less dangerous. But this is a misconception. What is the study about?The current discussion is prompted by the initial research findings of the renowned epidemiologist…

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Littering is the careless throwing away of garbage in nature, in parks or in public spaces. In a recent report, the Federal Environment Agency takes a close look at the littering situation in Austria. 1,000 tons of garbageIn 2018, about 1,000 tons of waste were collected in Austria in 2,774 corridor cleaning campaigns. More than 163,000 volunteers were motivated to do this throughout the country. While the number of items collected has decreased slightly, the number of volunteers has increased slightly. The decrease in the amount of waste carelessly thrown…

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In the EU and its major European partner countries, more than 200,000 people have now died in connection with Covid-19 disease. As reported on Sunday by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in its daily updated figures, there have been 200,587 reported deaths to date in the European Economic Area (EEA) including the UK, with almost 4.8 million confirmed corona infections. Most of the deaths were registered in the United Kingdom (43,579), Italy (36,474), Spain (33,775), France (33,392), Belgium (10,392) and Germany (9,777). The figure for Austria…

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Researchers have found the amino acid glycine in the atmosphere of Venus. Glycine is part of the genetic code. Venus is often called the “hellish twin of the earth”. Size and mass are similar to our planet, but over 400 degrees Celsius, a poisonous atmosphere, active volcanoes and acid rain make it – at least for us – hostile to life. Nevertheless, researchers believed to have discovered evidence of life in the form of hydrogen phosphide. Now other astronomers are following suit. They have discovered glycine on Venus, which is…

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Austria’s neighboring countries are in crisis mode. The number of new coronavirus infections is increasing everywhere, and in many places there is talk of new record levels. Despite stricter measures, the numbers continue to rise in the Czech Republic, for example. On Wednesday, 9,544 new cases were recorded, as the Ministry of Health in Prague announced on Thursday. This was the highest value on any day since the beginning of the pandemic. The government in Prague announced that it would buy about 4,000 hospital beds in order to be able…

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Europe is now expecting a longer wave in the corona crisis without a major peak. This is the assumption of the European Office of the World Health Organization WHO, as Regional Director Hans Kluge explained in an online statement in Copenhagen on Thursday. He called for targeted, regionally and temporally limited measures to avoid “collateral damage” to health and society. “The pandemic will not stop on its own, but we can do it,” he said. Local lockdownsKluge stressed that local “lockdowns” were still necessary. However, these no longer had anything…

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Emissions of the most serious air pollutants continue to decline in the European Union. In the case of particulate matter, nitrogen oxides and other pollutants, the values fell between 2017 and 2018 – in Austria even more than the EU average. This continues the slow but steady trend in emissions of these pollutants that has persisted since 1990, as the European Environment Agency EEA announced in Copenhagen. Before the coronavirusAccording to the EEA, the EU-wide decrease from 2017 to 2018 for particulate matter (PM2.5) was 3.8 percent, while nitrogen and…

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