Keeping cool with colours -- Vienna museum paints asphalt to fight heat
Thanks to his collective's art work covering the black asphalt with a multitude of bright colours, the ground temperature has dropped from 31C to 20C.
Initiated by the museum showing the private collection of late Austrian billionaire Heidi Horten, the project combines creativity, science and urban planning as Europe suffocates under the latest heatwave.
"The childish tones reflect the lightness and inconsistency with which our society addresses this issue" of climate change, Griessler, 25, an artist with the Holla Hoop collective, told AFP.
With more intense, longer and more frequent heatwaves a direct consequence of climate change according to scientists, European cities are trying to change their urban planning.
Many have been opting for more greenery and also lighter paint that reflects solar rays, trying to avoid dark material, which retains heat.
"We wanted to slightly improve the quality" of visitors' stays and "promote awareness," said curator Veronique Abpurg, happy that tourists are "attracted by this visually pleasing palette".
While each coloured surface represents a year, they each contain small dots. Each dot represents a billion tons of CO2 emissions, and the number of dots on each surface are equivalent to the worldwide emissions of that year.
This way one can visualise the increase in emissions due to human activity between 1960 and 2000.
"The blocks gradually fill up," lamented the artist, whose background is in graffiti art.
"It starts with nine dots, and at the end, there are three times more," he said.
"It's a piece of the mosaic for adapting to urban heatwaves," said Hans-Peter Hutter, an environmental health specialist at the Medical University of Vienna, who supports the initiative.
A lower temperature on the asphalt means that buildings surrounding the courtyard will need less cooling, reducing air conditioning usage, Hutter said.
"We need to communicate better on the subject (of climate change) so that people don't lose hope" and see adaptation measures as a fun activity, he added.
bg-anb-jza/dc/tc
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Cat dementia is similar to human Alzheimer's disease ...Tech & Science Daily podcast
Listen here on your chosen podcast platform. Cats develop dementia similarly to humans with Alzheimer's disease. Scientists hope their findings lead to new treatments for both humans and our feline friends. For more, we spoke to the lead author, Dr Robert McGeachan, at the University of Edinburgh's Royal School of Veterinary Studies. A swarm of jellyfish forced the shutdown of France's largest nuclear power plant, Gravelines. But how unusual is this event? And, Reddit blocks the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine from archiving large portions of its site. Also in this episode: -How blowing through a conch shell could alleviate the symptoms of obstructive sleep apnoea -Lola Young urges Keir Starmer to block Rosebank oil and gas development projects -Natalie the Nerd builds a transparent GameBoy Colour
Fox News
12 hours ago
- Fox News
German researchers discover dozens of shipwrecks including possible WWII steamer lost in air raid
German researchers recently announced the discovery of 31 shipwrecks, including a possible steamship that was destroyed in a World War II air raid. The shipwrecks were found in Germany's Lake Constance as part of the "Wrecks and Deep Sea" project. Since the project's launch in 2022, divers and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) have pinpointed more than 250 potential underwater anomalies, according to a Tuesday news release from the State Office for Monument Preservation. Out of the 186 anomalies investigated so far, 31 have been confirmed as shipwrecks — ranging from historic objects to modern sport boats. The other 155 anomalies wound up being natural formations like plant growth or artificial items like fishing gear, as noted in the release. Among the discoveries were two large metal ship hulls. Due to their location and size, researchers believe they could be the hulls of paddle steamers SD Friedrichshafen II and SD Baden, the news release noted. The SD Friedrichshafen II was destroyed during an air raid in World War II, while the SD Baden was taken out of service in 1930 and ultimately sunk, according to news outlet Arkeonews. "Wrecks are far more than just lost vehicles — they are true time capsules that preserve stories and craftsmanship from long ago" Alexandra Ulisch, a project research associate, said in a statement. Researchers also found a nearly completely preserved cargo sailing ship, which had its mast and yard still intact. The ship's resting place deep underwater helped preserve key features, like bow clamps and belaying pins, by limiting the growth of invasive quagga mussels, as noted in the release. At another site with widely scattered debris, researchers found at least 17 wooden barrels, according to the release. The project will continue through summer 2027. Earlier this year, a vintage car was discovered during a similar underwater excavation of the USS Yorktown in the Pacific Ocean, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Gizmodo
15 hours ago
- Gizmodo
In a First, Scientists Capture Human Embryo Implantation in Real Time
A team of scientists has just gotten a closer peek into one of the earliest and most fundamental steps of creating a human life. Research out today highlights how they captured—for the first time—footage of human embryo implantation right as it's happening. Researchers at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), in collaboration with Dexeus University Hospital, detailed their work in a study published Friday in Science Advances. Among other things, the footage shows that human embryos use force to burrow deep into the uterus for implantation. The new method may allow scientists to better understand why embryos so often fail to implant, and someday improve fertility treatment, the researchers say. 'The reason that we want to start studying implantation is because implantation is the main roadblock in human reproduction,' study author Samuel Ojosnegros, lead researcher of IBEC's Bioengineering for Reproductive Health group, told Gizmodo. 'But we know very little about it and we know very little because it happens inside the mother.' New Human-Like Synthetic Embryos Could Uncover Cause of Miscarriages, Scientists Say Scientists have certainly learned a lot over time about how the human embryo develops. But there have been limitations to this research, Ojosnegros notes. We've only been able to study the first few days of the human embryo in real time, prior to implantation. After that, most research looks at snapshots of embryo development, usually taken of other non-human animals. These animal models are an important tool, but they can only tell us so much about how humans develop in the womb. Implantation is the first step of gestation, and it's only after an embryo embeds into the uterus that a pregnancy is considered to have actually begun. The team, additionally led by scientists Amélie Godeau and Anna Seriola, created a material that could mimic the outer uterine tissue that an embryo attaches to for implantation. This gel-like matrix is mostly made out of collagen but is also infused with other proteins important to embryo development. With their creation in hand, they were now able to microscopically record how the human embryo implants itself. They also studied mouse embryos for comparison and noticed some important differences. 'The mouse embryo, if you put it on the matrix, stays superficially, spreads out, but will not invade. It will mainly spread out superficially. While the human, if you put it on the surface, it will dig a hole, penetrate, and it will sort of bury itself inside and then start growing,' Ojosnegros explained. 'So then the human embryo is stronger, it's bigger, and it's way more invasive.' There are many more mysteries left to be solved about the process of implantation, including the exact mechanisms that the embryo uses to so aggressively invade the uterus. But the lessons that Ojosnegros and other scientists can learn from this work could help families in the future. The researchers note that only about 30% of embryos (whether from natural birth or in vitro fertilization) make it all the way to being born, and of those that don't, most are lost during implantation or immediately after. So simply being able to see how the process unfolds could provide vital clues on how to prevent miscarriages or otherwise improve fertility. Simple Drug Combo Could Prevent Repeat Miscarriages, Study Suggests The researchers plan to continue to study the ins and outs of embryo implantation, but they're also hoping to standardize the materials used for this research so that others can conduct their own similar experiments. Ojosnegros also wants to highlight the contributions of the Dexeus University Hospital and the patients whose donated embryos made this work possible in the first place. 'I think it's good to recognize that without the generosity of the patients who donated the embryos for research, we could not study our own species,' he said.
