In 2025, Vienna will celebrate the 200th birthday of Johann Strauss II. University of Vienna musicologist Michele Calella and theatre studies scholar Anke Charton discuss the socio-cultural context of Strauss the Younger’s life and work. Quintessentially Viennese, his musical legacy continues to shape the City of Music to this day.

People with intellectual disabilities are legally entitled to the same healthcare as everyone else. In reality, however, inclusion hinges on the commitment of individuals in the healthcare system, says health psychologist Elisabeth Zeilinger.

Pesticides, contaminated food or packaging chemicals – various foreign substances often land on our plates. In the video, food chemist Benedikt Warth from the University of Vienna explains how this affects our health and how we can reduce the impact of these compounds going forward.

From drug development to diagnostics and pain management: Medicine has long catered to the needs of the ‘middle-aged Caucasian man’. How aware is medical research today of gender-based inequality? We asked pain researcher Manuela Schmidt and medical ethicist Magdalena Eitenberger.

No two people are the same. It is therefore no surprise that patients with comparable symptoms may respond differently to the same treatment. The aim of personalised medicine is to increasingly tailor treatments to patients' needs. Rudolphina delves into this topic together with Barbara Prainsack, Professor at the Department of Political Science and Vice President of the Austrian platform for personalised medicine.

In this expert article, Jörg Menche from the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Network Medicine at the University of Vienna sheds light on the challenges and opportunities in dealing with rare diseases. He explains how his research also provides new insights into more common diseases, and shows the role of technologies such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality in making health fairer.

Childbirth is often associated with joy, family, and new beginnings, but what happens if things do not go as planned? In fact, for many birthing persons, the experience can involve moments of harm, neglect, or outright violence. In the video, Elif Gül asks how fair childbirth really is.

Chronic pain is a complex disease that still lacks effective treatment. We visited the lab of Manuela Schmidt and David Gómez Varela from the University of Vienna who aim to change this using cutting-edge technologies and approaches in proteome research.