Judith Benz-Schwarzburg

Have you ever thought about whether animals understand death? Well, they might very well do. This year's “ Science Book of the Year ” award in the science/technology category has been awarded to Spanish philosopher Susana Monsó, who argues in favor of a concept of death in animals by combining philosophical conceptualization with empirical evidence from animal behavior. The prize is awarded annually by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Women, Science, and Research. Susana wrote her book "...

A few years ago, animals crept into the Nuremberg University of Music, settled in, and became an integral part of the university landscape, as they have elsewhere in international academic life. We owe this to Human-Animal Studies, the scientific field of research that examines animals as subjects, but also as active, feeling, and thinking co-creators of a shared world. A whole range of disciplines, from philosophy and animal ethics to biology, from cultural studies to veterinary medicine,...

In August 2025, one of the last summer nights before autumn was set to arrive and I find myself standing with my children in front of the Botanical Garden in Vienna, ready to encounter a species most of us rarely pay attention to and often have ambiguous feelings about: the bat. Rym „Batwoman“ Nouioua, an expert from the University of Vienna, is taking a small group of scholars and their children on a nature walk to listen and learn about bats.