Auf die Uni, fertig, los! Uni Vibes am 23. Mai 2025!

Does JJ have what it takes to win? Musicologists on value and impact of the Song Contest

The final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Basel on 17 May. The Austrian countertenor JJ is considered to have a good chance of winning. Can the public judge the music at all? And how much politics is involved in the assessment? Susanne Kogler and Saskia Jaszoltowski have analysed the ESC phenomenon.

What vision reveals about the seat of consciousness

Researchers at the University of Graz are using vision experiments to investigate how our brain constructs reality. The results offer insights into individual perception, are a piece of the puzzle in the search for the “consciousness” and offer new approaches to understanding neurodiversity.

Cigarette butts endanger insects: Biologists prove high risk for ants

Nicotine consumption is harmful to health. Not only for humans. The poison from carelessly discarded cigarette butts is also absorbed by plants. From there, it enters the food chain of ants, for which the substance can even be fatal. This is especially true when the animals are weakened by a pathogen. Biologists at the University of Graz are drawing attention to the high risk with a new study.

Conclave: rituals, questions of power and cinematic interpretations

With the start of the conclave on 7 May 2025, the eyes of the world will once again be on the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. However, the office of Peter's successor and the head of around 1.4 billion Catholic Christians worldwide requires a great deal of sensitivity, diplomacy and openness to change. Church historian Michaela Sohn-Kronthaler and fundamental theologian Christian Wessely talk about the background to the ritual.