Where world-class science meets independent journalism: Apply to ISTA’s 2027 Journalist in Residence Program

Application deadline: November 1, 2026

Start: Spring 2027

The Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) is now accepting applications for its 2027 Journalist in Residence program. 

ISTA invites experienced science and technology journalists to spend three to six months on its international campus near Vienna. Meet leading scientists, experience curiosity-driven basic research up close, and discover new ideas across disciplines.

Nanodiamonds are tiny diamond particles that usually measure mere millionths of a millimeter. They are extremely hard, stable, and heat-resistant and highly adaptable for various purposes in medicine, new materials, catalysis, and energy technology. By compressing plastic with lasers, researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and the University of Rostock are now able to systematically produce high-purity, ultra-small diamonds of narrow size distribution. This is impossible to achieve with conventional methods such as explosions. As a scalable technology, laser compression offers great potential for improved, clean and sustainable production of ultra-small nanodiamonds.

Super-resolution microscopy is broadening its focus from resolving smaller structures to making reliable biological measurements. A review in Science Bulletin examines how optical engineering, computational reconstruction and molecular probes are driving this transition, and why calibration, uncertainty assessment and reproducibility will determine its biological impact.

Physicists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have developed a groundbreaking technology that uses quantum sensors to measure biomagnetic signals, such as heart activity. Researchers from the DIAQNOS (DIAmond-based Quantum Sensing for NeurOSurgery) flagship project, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space, and coordinated by Dr. Arne Wickenbrock in Mainz, have demonstrated the potential of quantum technology for future medical applications. To this end, researchers in the group led by Prof. Dr. Dmitry Budker – a member of the PRISMA⁺⁺ Cluster of Excellence and the Helmholtz Institute Mainz – used nitrogen vacancies (NV) in diamonds, as reported in a recent article in the journal Science Advances. Muhib Omar, a doctoral student in Budker’s research group and the coordinating author of the article, developed the new quantum sensor during his doctoral research. Thanks to its compact size and its ability to function at room temperature, this NV-based sensor opens up new avenues for improving the measurement of magnetic signals from the heart or the brain. It could be used for the early detection of conditions such as myocarditis or epilepsy.

Beauty and mystery – it is hard to imagine a more alluring combination, and this is precisely what we encounter when we observe phenomena in the nanoworld. But are we really sure that observations made using modern microscopic techniques do not influence what is happening there? The answers are provided by Cracow scientists. A comparison of images of copper oxide nanoparticles reacting with chloroauric acid, obtained using electron and photon beams, has yielded unexpected results.

A research team at Graz University of Technology has developed a fibre-optic measurement system that detects unwanted direct currents in the high-voltage grid in real time. This helps to prevent damage to transformers at an early stage.

A new hydrogel electrolyte controls water reactivity and stabilizes both electrodes in aqueous zinc-iodine batteries. Laboratory cells operated from minus 40 to 90 °C Celsius, while a 120 mAh pouch cell retained about 83% capacity after 2,300 cycles.

Researchers have developed an orally administered chirality-engineered nanozyme that protects the heart from chemotherapy-induced damage by targeting the gut rather than the heart itself. The nanozyme reshapes gut microbiota and host metabolism through the gut-heart axis, significantly alleviating doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity while preserving the anticancer efficacy of doxorubicin. The study highlights stereochemical engineering as a promising strategy for designing next-generation nanozyme therapeutics.

Researchers at the University of Gothenburg have created a carbon material with a three-dimensional structure. The material, named diamondiyne, can be described as a porous diamond with the same basic shape as a tetrahedron.