Category: Feature Stories

Producing a one-liter plastic bottle takes about a quarter of a liter of petroleum. With around 480 billion plastic bottles produced worldwide yearly, you can calculate the amount of oil that must be used – and that’s just as raw material. If you add the energy required for oil extraction, processing, and production, the sums involved are enormous and result in corresponding greenhouse gas emissions. Recycling can save some of these emissions. Besides climate protection, recycling is also positive for the environment and health. Only 9 percent worldwideCurrently, only 9…

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Even on World Malaria Day, April 25, 2023, nearly half of the world’s population is still at risk of malaria, according to WHO. World Malaria Day again draws attention to the dangerous infectious disease that still threatens nearly half the world’s population today. For example, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated the number of malaria cases worldwide in 2021 at around 247 million in 84 endemic countries. Compared to the previous year, the number of cases had thus increased by about two million. The clear majority of patients were counted…

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Coronavirus vaccines have saved more than one million lives in Europe and countries of the former Soviet Union since the end of 2020. That’s according to a new World Health Organization (WHO) report. This figure was calculated based on death counts and vaccine doses administered in 26 countries. Since the outbreak of the CoV pandemic about three years ago, more than two million people in the WHO Europe region have been confirmed to have died from Covid-19, according to the report presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and…

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As part of NASA’s HARP project, Earth’s magnetic field data has been converted into an audible sound. NASA has published the sound sequence on YouTube. You can hear strange sounds like crunching and hissing. It almost sounds like filling a vessel with water and emptying it again. These sounds occur when plasma waves from the sun interact with Earth’s magnetic field. The field lines vibrate about like the strings of a harp when plucked. When plasma waves hit the magnetosphere, the area around the Earth dominated by its magnetic field…

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The strongest solar storm since 2015 swept across the Earth the night to Monday. In Austria, this led to sporadic sightings of auroras. “How exactly a solar storm affects the Earth depends strongly on its magnetic structure. Intensive research is being conducted in this area worldwide to predict solar storms as early as possible,” said Christian Möstl, head of Geosphere Austria’s space weather office in Graz. The sun constantly sends radiation and charged particles into space. If this particle stream (solar wind) is significantly more vital for a short time…

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What is red meat?Red meat means all kinds of meat from mammals, such as cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, and deer. Due to the composition of their tissues, many nutritious properties are found in red meat, such as proteins, vitamin B12, iron, and zinc. However, saturated fatty acids are also present in this food and can cause health problems if consumed excessively. Effects on healthDespite the favorable nutritional properties of red meat, some health effects could be considered harmful to the body. For example, several studies have shown that eating red…

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Last Saturday, April 22, 2023, was Earth Day. In this regard, the WWF called for a nutritional turnaround to ease the burden on the planet.On the occasion of the worldwide day of action for environmental and climate protection, “Earth Day,” WWF Austria draws attention to the great opportunity of a change in nutrition to relieve the planet. WWF calls for a nutritional turnaround to relieve the planet“Our current food system is responsible for one third of global greenhouse gas emissions and 80 percent of deforestation. This is compounded by massive…

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High levels of air pollution with particulate matter lead to the premature deaths of more than 1,200 children and adolescents in Europe yearly, according to an estimate. It also significantly increases the risk of disease for adolescents later in life, according to reports presented Monday by the European Environment Agency (EEA). According to experts, air pollution leads to more dangerous asthma attacks, among other things. The Copenhagen-based EU agency said that more needs to be done to protect children’s health from the adverse effects of air pollution. Despite improvements in…

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The 7 Wonders of the Modern World are seven architectural works reminiscent of the ancient canonical list of the Seven Wonders of the World (dating back to the third century B.C.).A for-profit Swiss company called New Open World Corporation (NOWC) organized the competition to select the sites. The company launched the competition in 2000 during the Sydney Olympics. The selection lasted seven years and went through several phases. In the final stages of voting (according to the organizers, more than 100 million votes were received), a list of 21 finalists…

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