Category: Nicht kategorisiert

Mathematics as a magical formula – How we explain the world with models

By Pascal Dinglinger

Figure 1 – The Thwaites (Doomsday) Glacier Tongue in West Antarctica. The extent of its area is more than twice the size of Austria, and it is considered an important indicator of the impacts of climate change. For this reason, The Glacier is the focus of numerous studies using mathematical modeling, such as those conducted by the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITGC).

What do bridges, airplanes, and climate have in common? They can all be described using various mathematical models. But how exactly do these models work, and what role does mathematics play in them? Join us on a short journey through a world full of complex phenomena. Find out here about the role mathematical models play in practice. We’ll show you how they can help us better understand climate change and enable researchers to calculate the impact of gigantic glaciers like Thwaites on global sea levels.

Continue reading

Our Life in Cotton Candy

By Isabell Grothaus

Figure 1 – Source: Dall-E.

Sugar is not only converted into energy in our body, it also protects us from diseases and infections. This is because nearly all of our cells are coated with a dense sugar glaze. However, if parasites start nibbling on these sugars, it can become dangerous for us.

Continue reading

The Rise of Antarctic Ice

Let’s talk about deep time!

By Hanna Knahl

Figure 1 – This is an artistic way of showing Antarctica’s transition from a warm climate with forest to a colder climate with rising ice 34 million years ago. Source: Created with AI Image Generator

Let’s travel back in time again, dig deep into the sediments and see what face Antarctica wants to show us this time! Is it hot and colourful or cool and icy? Or is it both? My “time machine” will bring us back into a climate full of change and mysteries.

Continue reading

Cloud fates and Cocktail parties

by Ronja Gronemeyer

Merge or die – The fate of clouds and (covid restricted) cocktail parties

How the fate of simulated rain cells improves understanding of tropical storms. Stay tuned, as we learn about rain tracking algorithms and analyze the merging or decaying of competing clouds. Finally, we will see why cold pools affect cloud clustering similarly, as covid restrictions affect a cocktail party…

Continue reading

Changing Language Through “Gendering”: A Hand-Picked Selection of Artists Livened up Festival Visitors 

Or where are all the non-cis men again when it gets fun?

by Katharina (‘Kina’) Schmitz, supplemented and translated by Greta Sondej

Fig. 1: Copyright © Ryan McGuire 2014/ Pixabay 

Surely, everyone has wondered how 99 Festivalbesucherinnen (female festival visitors) become 100 Festivalbesucher (male festival visitors) as soon as one man stumbles into the dancing and partying mob. Poof, all the confidently partying women are just gone. 

Continue reading

An integrated approach to improve optical measurement systems

by Jan Yorrick Dietrich

Figure 1: Four dimensions of a nice vehicle. The red volume might be a formula one car while the green volume might represent a rally car.

Have you ever asked yourself why you cannot have a vehicle that is as fast as a rocket, as agile as a formula one car and as robust as a monster truck at the same time? The rocket might be lightning fast, though it will probably fail on tight bends. The formula one car may be quite fast and agile, though it will probably break down quite fast if not carefully driven on asphalt. Well, and a monster truck might be very robust, though it may be slow in comparison. In many fields of research, scientists encounter the same issues as described above. Every new development comes with certain downsides. If you try to satisfy every need, you might get a Jack of all trades, master of none.

Continue reading