Project acronym CATCHIT
Project Coherently Advanced Tissue and Cell Holographic Imaging and Trapping
Researcher (PI) Monika Ritsch-Marte
Host Institution (HI) MEDIZINISCHE UNIVERSITAT INNSBRUCK
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE2, ERC-2009-AdG
Summary We envisage a new generation of dynamic holographic laser tweezers and stretching tools with unprecedented spatial control of gradient and scattering light forces, to unravel functional mysteries of cell biology and genetics: Based on our recently developed, highly successful and widely recognized amplitude and phase shaping techniques with cascaded spatial light modulators (SLM), we will create new holographic optical manipulators consisting of a line-shaped trap with balanced net scattering forces and controllable local phase-gradients. Combining these line stretchers with spiral phase contrast imaging or nonlinear optical microscopy will allow quantitative study of functional shape changes. The novel tool is hugely more versatile than standard optical tweezers, since direction and magnitude of the scattering force can be designed to precisely follow the structure. In combination with conventional multi-spot traps the line stretcher acts as a sensitive and adaptable local force sensor. In collaboration with local experts we want to tackle hot topics in Genetics, e.g. search for force profile signatures in regions with Copy Number Variations. Possibly the approach may shed light on basic physical characteristics such as, for example, chromosomal fragility in Fra(X) syndrome, the most common monogenic cause of mental retardation. The new design intrinsically offers enhanced microscopic resolution, as SLM-synthesized apertures and waveforms can enlarge the number of spatial frequencies forming the image. Ultimately, nonlinear holography can be implemented, sending phase shaped wavefronts to target samples. This can, e.g., be used to push the sensitivity of nonlinear chemical imaging, or for controlled photo-activation of targeted regions in neurons.
Summary
We envisage a new generation of dynamic holographic laser tweezers and stretching tools with unprecedented spatial control of gradient and scattering light forces, to unravel functional mysteries of cell biology and genetics: Based on our recently developed, highly successful and widely recognized amplitude and phase shaping techniques with cascaded spatial light modulators (SLM), we will create new holographic optical manipulators consisting of a line-shaped trap with balanced net scattering forces and controllable local phase-gradients. Combining these line stretchers with spiral phase contrast imaging or nonlinear optical microscopy will allow quantitative study of functional shape changes. The novel tool is hugely more versatile than standard optical tweezers, since direction and magnitude of the scattering force can be designed to precisely follow the structure. In combination with conventional multi-spot traps the line stretcher acts as a sensitive and adaptable local force sensor. In collaboration with local experts we want to tackle hot topics in Genetics, e.g. search for force profile signatures in regions with Copy Number Variations. Possibly the approach may shed light on basic physical characteristics such as, for example, chromosomal fragility in Fra(X) syndrome, the most common monogenic cause of mental retardation. The new design intrinsically offers enhanced microscopic resolution, as SLM-synthesized apertures and waveforms can enlarge the number of spatial frequencies forming the image. Ultimately, nonlinear holography can be implemented, sending phase shaped wavefronts to target samples. This can, e.g., be used to push the sensitivity of nonlinear chemical imaging, or for controlled photo-activation of targeted regions in neurons.
Max ERC Funding
1 987 428 €
Duration
Start date: 2010-05-01, End date: 2015-04-30
Project acronym COHORT
Project The demography of skills and beliefs in Europe with a focus on cohort change
Researcher (PI) Vegard Fykse Skirbekk
Host Institution (HI) INTERNATIONALES INSTITUT FUER ANGEWANDTE SYSTEMANALYSE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2009-StG
Summary The central research theme of this proposal is the study of social change (skills, productivity, attitudes and beliefs) in Europe along cohort lines and as a function of changing age composition. Using demographic methods, age-specific and cohort-specific changes shall be quantitatively disentangled. The impact of migration flows as well as fertility differentials combined with intergenerational transmissions will be taken into account. It is expected that viewed together, these analyses will result in significant new insights and represent frontier research about likely social and economic challenges associated with ageing and demographic change in Europe and the appropriate policies for coping with them. Unlike projections of long-term economic growth or energy use, demographic forecasts tend to have comparatively low margins of error, even for forecasts half a century ahead. Traits that change systematically along age or cohort lines may therefore be projected with some degree of accuracy, which in turn can allow governments and individuals to better foresee and improve policies for predictable social change. The study will investigate two major topics, the first relating to human capital, skills, and work performance; the second relating to beliefs and attitudes in Europe. Understanding age variation in productivity and how to improve senior workers skills and capacities are paramount for ageing countries. Moreover, individual-level demographic behaviour can have aggregate level implications, including changing societal values and belief structures. The binding element is how such projections will improve one s capacity to foresee and hence develop more targeted policies that relate to ageing societies.
Summary
The central research theme of this proposal is the study of social change (skills, productivity, attitudes and beliefs) in Europe along cohort lines and as a function of changing age composition. Using demographic methods, age-specific and cohort-specific changes shall be quantitatively disentangled. The impact of migration flows as well as fertility differentials combined with intergenerational transmissions will be taken into account. It is expected that viewed together, these analyses will result in significant new insights and represent frontier research about likely social and economic challenges associated with ageing and demographic change in Europe and the appropriate policies for coping with them. Unlike projections of long-term economic growth or energy use, demographic forecasts tend to have comparatively low margins of error, even for forecasts half a century ahead. Traits that change systematically along age or cohort lines may therefore be projected with some degree of accuracy, which in turn can allow governments and individuals to better foresee and improve policies for predictable social change. The study will investigate two major topics, the first relating to human capital, skills, and work performance; the second relating to beliefs and attitudes in Europe. Understanding age variation in productivity and how to improve senior workers skills and capacities are paramount for ageing countries. Moreover, individual-level demographic behaviour can have aggregate level implications, including changing societal values and belief structures. The binding element is how such projections will improve one s capacity to foresee and hence develop more targeted policies that relate to ageing societies.
Max ERC Funding
981 415 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-10-01, End date: 2015-03-31
Project acronym COMPLEX REASON
Project The Parameterized Complexity of Reasoning Problems
Researcher (PI) Stefan Szeider
Host Institution (HI) TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET WIEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE6, ERC-2009-StG
Summary Reasoning, to derive conclusions from facts, is a fundamental task in Artificial Intelligence, arising in a wide range of applications from Robotics to Expert Systems. The aim of this project is to devise new efficient algorithms for real-world reasoning problems and to get new insights into the question of what makes a reasoning problem hard, and what makes it easy. As key to novel and groundbreaking results we propose to study reasoning problems within the framework of Parameterized Complexity, a new and rapidly emerging field of Algorithms and Complexity. Parameterized Complexity takes structural aspects of problem instances into account which are most significant for empirically observed problem-hardness. Most of the considered reasoning problems are intractable in general, but the real-world context of their origin provides structural information that can be made accessible to algorithms in form of parameters. This makes Parameterized Complexity an ideal setting for the analysis and efficient solution of these problems. A systematic study of the Parameterized Complexity of reasoning problems that covers theoretical and empirical aspects is so far outstanding. This proposal sets out to do exactly this and has therefore a great potential for groundbreaking new results. The proposed research aims at a significant impact on the research culture by setting the grounds for a closer cooperation between theorists and practitioners.
Summary
Reasoning, to derive conclusions from facts, is a fundamental task in Artificial Intelligence, arising in a wide range of applications from Robotics to Expert Systems. The aim of this project is to devise new efficient algorithms for real-world reasoning problems and to get new insights into the question of what makes a reasoning problem hard, and what makes it easy. As key to novel and groundbreaking results we propose to study reasoning problems within the framework of Parameterized Complexity, a new and rapidly emerging field of Algorithms and Complexity. Parameterized Complexity takes structural aspects of problem instances into account which are most significant for empirically observed problem-hardness. Most of the considered reasoning problems are intractable in general, but the real-world context of their origin provides structural information that can be made accessible to algorithms in form of parameters. This makes Parameterized Complexity an ideal setting for the analysis and efficient solution of these problems. A systematic study of the Parameterized Complexity of reasoning problems that covers theoretical and empirical aspects is so far outstanding. This proposal sets out to do exactly this and has therefore a great potential for groundbreaking new results. The proposed research aims at a significant impact on the research culture by setting the grounds for a closer cooperation between theorists and practitioners.
Max ERC Funding
1 421 130 €
Duration
Start date: 2010-01-01, End date: 2014-12-31
Project acronym DBF
Project Development and Verification of a Bibliometric model for the Identification of Frontier Research
Host Institution (HI) AIT AUSTRIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY GMBH
Call Details Support Actions (SA), ERC-2009-SUPPORT
Summary The goal of the proposed work is to provide a bibliometric monitoring for the peer review process of the ERC grant schemes. Particular interest will be devoted to the extent the grant applications fulfil attributes of frontier research and the influence of these attributes on the decision of the panels. For this purpose, bibliometric parameters corresponding to what was defined as frontier research by the EC’s High Level Expert Group (HLEG) in 2005 will be elaborated and applied on the relevant information available in the grant applications as well as in the relevant publications authored by the applicants prior to their submission of their grant application. By doing so, a bibliometric ranking of the submitted applications will be obtained which can be compared to the ranking/selection made by the peer review process. By comparing the two rankings, it shall be found out whether the peer review process shows a systematic bias in one or more categories of researchers or projects. A per case analysis for the most evident deviations will be carried out under the involvement of experts in the respective field in order to identify either the need for adaptations in the bibliometric model or the need for drafting suggestions for the improvement of the peer review process. The work shall result in a methodology that allows the ERC to monitor the operation of the peer review process from a bibliometric perspective and potentially shall yield additional elements in the future execution of the peer review process. Such elements could be periodic monitoring activities for each call or a methodology for the pre-evaluation of future grant applications in order to support the reviewers or the panel members with an additional input and orientation for the assessment of such applications.
Summary
The goal of the proposed work is to provide a bibliometric monitoring for the peer review process of the ERC grant schemes. Particular interest will be devoted to the extent the grant applications fulfil attributes of frontier research and the influence of these attributes on the decision of the panels. For this purpose, bibliometric parameters corresponding to what was defined as frontier research by the EC’s High Level Expert Group (HLEG) in 2005 will be elaborated and applied on the relevant information available in the grant applications as well as in the relevant publications authored by the applicants prior to their submission of their grant application. By doing so, a bibliometric ranking of the submitted applications will be obtained which can be compared to the ranking/selection made by the peer review process. By comparing the two rankings, it shall be found out whether the peer review process shows a systematic bias in one or more categories of researchers or projects. A per case analysis for the most evident deviations will be carried out under the involvement of experts in the respective field in order to identify either the need for adaptations in the bibliometric model or the need for drafting suggestions for the improvement of the peer review process. The work shall result in a methodology that allows the ERC to monitor the operation of the peer review process from a bibliometric perspective and potentially shall yield additional elements in the future execution of the peer review process. Such elements could be periodic monitoring activities for each call or a methodology for the pre-evaluation of future grant applications in order to support the reviewers or the panel members with an additional input and orientation for the assessment of such applications.
Max ERC Funding
333 416 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-09-01, End date: 2013-02-28
Project acronym HIPPOCHRONOCIRCUITRY
Project The chronocircuitry of the hippocampus during cognitive behaviour
Researcher (PI) Thomas Klausberger
Host Institution (HI) MEDIZINISCHE UNIVERSITAET WIEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS5, ERC-2009-StG
Summary Neuronal activity of pyramidal cells in the CA1 area of the hippocampus enables spatial navigation, learning and memory and their firing is tightly controlled by GABAergic interneurons. Both, pyramidal cells and interneurons are highly heterogeneous cell types. Different CA1 pyramidal cells project to distinct brain areas including the subiculum, entorhinal, retrosplenial, prefrontal cortex, olfactory bulb, striatum and/or hypothalamus. Distinct classes of interneurons innervate different subcellular domains of pyramidal cells and operate with different molecular machineries. However, how the different types of pyramidal cells and interneurons contribute to cognitive behaviour remains unknown. In the present proposal we will use novel techniques to test the hypothesis that different types of pyramidal cells and interneurons define spatio-temporal circuitries in the hippocampus of freely-moving rodents underlying cognitive processing. We will test if pyramidal cells projecting to different brain areas make different contribution to spatial information coding, prospective coding for future choices and memory consolidation during sleep. Also, we will determine how identified classes of GABAergic interneurons control pyramidal cell activity and network oscillations during cognitive tasks in freely-moving rats. In addition, we will use transgenic mice in order to up- or down-regulate quickly and reversibly the activity of specific classes of neurons and determine their causal contribution to network operations and cognitive behaviour. Our experiments will determine spatio-temporal codes in and beyond the hippocampal circuit by defining simultaneously the neuronal activity and synaptic connectivity of identified neurons during cognitive behaviours, learning and memory.
Summary
Neuronal activity of pyramidal cells in the CA1 area of the hippocampus enables spatial navigation, learning and memory and their firing is tightly controlled by GABAergic interneurons. Both, pyramidal cells and interneurons are highly heterogeneous cell types. Different CA1 pyramidal cells project to distinct brain areas including the subiculum, entorhinal, retrosplenial, prefrontal cortex, olfactory bulb, striatum and/or hypothalamus. Distinct classes of interneurons innervate different subcellular domains of pyramidal cells and operate with different molecular machineries. However, how the different types of pyramidal cells and interneurons contribute to cognitive behaviour remains unknown. In the present proposal we will use novel techniques to test the hypothesis that different types of pyramidal cells and interneurons define spatio-temporal circuitries in the hippocampus of freely-moving rodents underlying cognitive processing. We will test if pyramidal cells projecting to different brain areas make different contribution to spatial information coding, prospective coding for future choices and memory consolidation during sleep. Also, we will determine how identified classes of GABAergic interneurons control pyramidal cell activity and network oscillations during cognitive tasks in freely-moving rats. In addition, we will use transgenic mice in order to up- or down-regulate quickly and reversibly the activity of specific classes of neurons and determine their causal contribution to network operations and cognitive behaviour. Our experiments will determine spatio-temporal codes in and beyond the hippocampal circuit by defining simultaneously the neuronal activity and synaptic connectivity of identified neurons during cognitive behaviours, learning and memory.
Max ERC Funding
1 760 911 €
Duration
Start date: 2010-01-01, End date: 2014-12-31
Project acronym I-FIVE
Project Interferon-focused Innate Immunity Interactome and Inhibitome
Researcher (PI) Giulio Gino Maria Superti Furga
Host Institution (HI) CEMM - FORSCHUNGSZENTRUM FUER MOLEKULARE MEDIZIN GMBH
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), LS2, ERC-2009-AdG
Summary After a decade of development in model organisms and later in mammalian cells, mass spectrometry-based functional proteomics approaches have come of age and are ready to enable a systematic study of the innate immune system. We propose to cross the large-scale proteomics and innate immunity disciplines to obtain a functionally annotated map of the molecular machinery involved in viral recognition and leading to the hallmark interferon response, through a three-pronged approach: 1. Map the interactome of innate immunity proteins in macrophages to establish the network of components leading to interferon production; 2. Chart the interactions of molecular patterns, mostly nucleic acids, to identify the receptors and sensors at the non-self/self interface; 3. Study viral pathogenicity factors as molecular jammers of the anti-viral response and elucidate their mode of action to uncover critical nodes (inhibitome). Datasets are integrated and released at regular intervals with embargoed windows allowing a network of collaborators/own laboratory to do in-depth validation. New components at data intersections will be tested through loss-of-function experiments and standardized read-outs for the interferon pathway as well as genetic association with autoimmune diseases. Because of its unbiased/large scope and its cross-validating approaches, wherein the newly mapped circuitry is modeled, challenged by inducers and perturbed by viral agents, i-FIVE has the potential to promote a systems-level understanding of the interferon branch of molecular innate immunity. This insight may in turn create medical opportunities for the treatment of autoimmune disorders, septic shoc, arthritis as well as in boosting anti-viral responses.
Summary
After a decade of development in model organisms and later in mammalian cells, mass spectrometry-based functional proteomics approaches have come of age and are ready to enable a systematic study of the innate immune system. We propose to cross the large-scale proteomics and innate immunity disciplines to obtain a functionally annotated map of the molecular machinery involved in viral recognition and leading to the hallmark interferon response, through a three-pronged approach: 1. Map the interactome of innate immunity proteins in macrophages to establish the network of components leading to interferon production; 2. Chart the interactions of molecular patterns, mostly nucleic acids, to identify the receptors and sensors at the non-self/self interface; 3. Study viral pathogenicity factors as molecular jammers of the anti-viral response and elucidate their mode of action to uncover critical nodes (inhibitome). Datasets are integrated and released at regular intervals with embargoed windows allowing a network of collaborators/own laboratory to do in-depth validation. New components at data intersections will be tested through loss-of-function experiments and standardized read-outs for the interferon pathway as well as genetic association with autoimmune diseases. Because of its unbiased/large scope and its cross-validating approaches, wherein the newly mapped circuitry is modeled, challenged by inducers and perturbed by viral agents, i-FIVE has the potential to promote a systems-level understanding of the interferon branch of molecular innate immunity. This insight may in turn create medical opportunities for the treatment of autoimmune disorders, septic shoc, arthritis as well as in boosting anti-viral responses.
Max ERC Funding
1 974 022 €
Duration
Start date: 2010-04-01, End date: 2015-03-31
Project acronym MOSILSPIN
Project Modeling Silicon Spintronics
Researcher (PI) Siegfried Selberherr
Host Institution (HI) TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET WIEN
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE7, ERC-2009-AdG
Summary The breath taking increase in performance of integrated circuits became possible by continuous miniaturization of CMOS devices. On this exciting path many tough problems were resolved; however, growing technological challenges and soaring costs will gradually bring scaling to an end. This puts foreseeable limitations to the future performance increase, and research on alternative technologies and computational principles becomes important. Spin attracts attention as alternative to the charge degree of freedom for computations and non-volatile memory applications. Silicon as main material of microelectronics is characterized by negligible spin-orbit interaction and zero-spin nuclei and should display long spin coherence times. Combined with the potentially easy integration with CMOS, long spin coherence makes silicon perfectly suited for spin-driven applications, as confirmed by recent impressive demonstrations of spin injection, coherent propagation, and detection. The success of microelectronics technology has been well assisted by smart Technology Computer-Aided Design tools; however, support for spin applications is entirely absent. The objective here is to create, test, and apply a simulation environment for spin-based devices in silicon. Microscopic models describing the physical properties relevant to the spin degree of freedom are developed. Special attention will be paid to investigate, how to increase the spin coherence time. One option is based on completely removing the valley degeneracy in the conduction band by [110] uniaxial stress. Understanding spin-polarized transport in silicon and in compatible hysteretic materials allows using the spin-torque effect to invent, model, and optimize prototypes of switches and memory cells for the 21st century.
Summary
The breath taking increase in performance of integrated circuits became possible by continuous miniaturization of CMOS devices. On this exciting path many tough problems were resolved; however, growing technological challenges and soaring costs will gradually bring scaling to an end. This puts foreseeable limitations to the future performance increase, and research on alternative technologies and computational principles becomes important. Spin attracts attention as alternative to the charge degree of freedom for computations and non-volatile memory applications. Silicon as main material of microelectronics is characterized by negligible spin-orbit interaction and zero-spin nuclei and should display long spin coherence times. Combined with the potentially easy integration with CMOS, long spin coherence makes silicon perfectly suited for spin-driven applications, as confirmed by recent impressive demonstrations of spin injection, coherent propagation, and detection. The success of microelectronics technology has been well assisted by smart Technology Computer-Aided Design tools; however, support for spin applications is entirely absent. The objective here is to create, test, and apply a simulation environment for spin-based devices in silicon. Microscopic models describing the physical properties relevant to the spin degree of freedom are developed. Special attention will be paid to investigate, how to increase the spin coherence time. One option is based on completely removing the valley degeneracy in the conduction band by [110] uniaxial stress. Understanding spin-polarized transport in silicon and in compatible hysteretic materials allows using the spin-torque effect to invent, model, and optimize prototypes of switches and memory cells for the 21st century.
Max ERC Funding
1 678 500 €
Duration
Start date: 2010-03-01, End date: 2016-02-29
Project acronym NEUROSYSTEM
Project A Systems Level Approach to Proliferation and Differentiation Control in Neural Stem Cell Lineages
Researcher (PI) Juergen Knoblich
Host Institution (HI) INSTITUT FUER MOLEKULARE BIOTECHNOLOGIE GMBH
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), LS3, ERC-2009-AdG
Summary The aim of this proposal is to understand how self-renewal is controlled in neural stem cell lineages and how defects in this process can lead to the formation of brain tumors in model organisms. The system we use are Drosophila neuroblasts, stem cell like progenitors in the developing fly brain that undergo repeated rounds of asymmetric cell division. During each division, protein determinants called Numb, Prospero and Brat are segregated into one of the daughter cells where they stop self-renewal and ultimately trigger neuronal differentiation. Mutations in those proteins or their segregation machinery lead to the formation of tumor neuroblasts, which proliferate indefinitely leading to the formation of a deadly brain tumor. The approach we take is to determine the transcriptional network that acts in neuroblasts to control self-renewal. We will use time-resolved transcriptional profiling to determine, how this network changes in the differentiating daughter cell and develop tools for medium-throughput functional analysis of the key network players. We will develop methodology for tissue-specific chromatin immunoprecipitation to determine, how the asymmetrically segregating determinants feed into this network. Using this data set, we will determine the pathological state of the network in the tumorigenic situation. We will determine, how wild type neural stem cells limit their proliferation capacity and how those control mechanisms are affected in the tumor situation. Ultimately, we will expand this analysis to other stem cell systems inside and outside the fly nervous system to determine how modifications of stem cell systems like transit amplifying pools or perpetual adult proliferation are reflected in network architecture.
Summary
The aim of this proposal is to understand how self-renewal is controlled in neural stem cell lineages and how defects in this process can lead to the formation of brain tumors in model organisms. The system we use are Drosophila neuroblasts, stem cell like progenitors in the developing fly brain that undergo repeated rounds of asymmetric cell division. During each division, protein determinants called Numb, Prospero and Brat are segregated into one of the daughter cells where they stop self-renewal and ultimately trigger neuronal differentiation. Mutations in those proteins or their segregation machinery lead to the formation of tumor neuroblasts, which proliferate indefinitely leading to the formation of a deadly brain tumor. The approach we take is to determine the transcriptional network that acts in neuroblasts to control self-renewal. We will use time-resolved transcriptional profiling to determine, how this network changes in the differentiating daughter cell and develop tools for medium-throughput functional analysis of the key network players. We will develop methodology for tissue-specific chromatin immunoprecipitation to determine, how the asymmetrically segregating determinants feed into this network. Using this data set, we will determine the pathological state of the network in the tumorigenic situation. We will determine, how wild type neural stem cells limit their proliferation capacity and how those control mechanisms are affected in the tumor situation. Ultimately, we will expand this analysis to other stem cell systems inside and outside the fly nervous system to determine how modifications of stem cell systems like transit amplifying pools or perpetual adult proliferation are reflected in network architecture.
Max ERC Funding
2 499 875 €
Duration
Start date: 2010-04-01, End date: 2015-03-31
Project acronym NS-MORALITY
Project Distortions of Normativity: The NS-System and Morality
Researcher (PI) Herlinde Pauer-Studer
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAT WIEN
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2009-AdG
Summary The Nazi system was not amoralism in the classical textbook sense but a specific, though contorted normative order. The basic argument was that political emergency conditions made it necessary to replace the unstable liberal-democratic framework of the Weimar Republic by a 'new source of law : the authority and political will of the Führer. The claim to correctly interpret the Führer s will and intentions became the new foundation of legitimate political action . Consequently emergency decrees, political initiatives, and party agitation replaced the rule of law. The Nazis worked, however, with a highly moralized conception of social reality, based on perverted notions of duty, honor, loyalty, fidelity, and sincerity. The Nazi regime provided people with justifications of policies and measures that for many followers amounted to a 'meaningful story . They managed to set a normative framework within which even fulfilling killing orders 'made sense . A perverted model of practical reasoning was propagated by the highest authorities according to which immediate reactions of resistance and revulsion counted as 'natural temptations' which had to be overcome. The aim of the project is to: - provide a detailed account of the normative order of the Nazi system and the transformations of the key political and legal institutions that it brought about; - analyze in detail the distorted notions of duty, obedience, and decency and the corresponding self-conceptions the Nazi regime encouraged; - explore the implications of our findings for the following broader questions: * How should we assess conceptions of normativity under non-ideal conditions? * What is the relationship between legality and legitimacy under non-ideal conditions? * What exactly are the standards for acting morally under non-ideal conditions?
Summary
The Nazi system was not amoralism in the classical textbook sense but a specific, though contorted normative order. The basic argument was that political emergency conditions made it necessary to replace the unstable liberal-democratic framework of the Weimar Republic by a 'new source of law : the authority and political will of the Führer. The claim to correctly interpret the Führer s will and intentions became the new foundation of legitimate political action . Consequently emergency decrees, political initiatives, and party agitation replaced the rule of law. The Nazis worked, however, with a highly moralized conception of social reality, based on perverted notions of duty, honor, loyalty, fidelity, and sincerity. The Nazi regime provided people with justifications of policies and measures that for many followers amounted to a 'meaningful story . They managed to set a normative framework within which even fulfilling killing orders 'made sense . A perverted model of practical reasoning was propagated by the highest authorities according to which immediate reactions of resistance and revulsion counted as 'natural temptations' which had to be overcome. The aim of the project is to: - provide a detailed account of the normative order of the Nazi system and the transformations of the key political and legal institutions that it brought about; - analyze in detail the distorted notions of duty, obedience, and decency and the corresponding self-conceptions the Nazi regime encouraged; - explore the implications of our findings for the following broader questions: * How should we assess conceptions of normativity under non-ideal conditions? * What is the relationship between legality and legitimacy under non-ideal conditions? * What exactly are the standards for acting morally under non-ideal conditions?
Max ERC Funding
1 261 004 €
Duration
Start date: 2010-07-01, End date: 2015-06-30
Project acronym QOM
Project Quantum Optomechanics: quantum foundations and quantum information on the micro- and nanoscale
Researcher (PI) Markus Aspelmeyer
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAT WIEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE2, ERC-2009-StG
Summary Quantum states of mechanical resonators promise access to completely new experimental regimes of physics: from unprecedented levels of force sensitivity to the generation of macroscopic quantum superpositions of massive objects containing up to 10^20 atoms. This opens up not only exciting possibilities for novel applications but also allows to (re)address fundamental questions of quantum physics, in particular its relation to the classical world. For this reason the preparation and control of mechanical quantum states has long been an enticing but far fetched goal of breakthrough character. With the advent of micro- and nano-mechanics this goal is at the verge of becoming an experimental reality. The last few years have witnessed unprecedented global progress in pushing mechanical systems towards the quantum regime. A thriving interdisciplinary field has emerged that aims to exploit the tremendous potential that lies in the control of mechanical quantum states. The main idea of this proposal is to combine the tools and concepts of quantum optics with micro- and nano-mechanical systems. Such combination provides a unique and powerful approach that allows, with a minimal set of experimental interactions, universal quantum control over mechanical systems via opto-mechanical interactions. The feasibility of the approach has recently been verified by us and by several other groups worldwide in a series of experimental demonstrations of mechanical laser cooling. The main objective of the proposed research is to go significantly beyond the current state-of-the-art and to develop the field of quantum-opto-mechanics to its full extent, both in experiment and theory. This will also increase the European visibility in this highly topical area of research. My professional background in both solid-state physics and quantum optics and quantum information will be of additional help in this highly interdisciplinary endeavour.
Summary
Quantum states of mechanical resonators promise access to completely new experimental regimes of physics: from unprecedented levels of force sensitivity to the generation of macroscopic quantum superpositions of massive objects containing up to 10^20 atoms. This opens up not only exciting possibilities for novel applications but also allows to (re)address fundamental questions of quantum physics, in particular its relation to the classical world. For this reason the preparation and control of mechanical quantum states has long been an enticing but far fetched goal of breakthrough character. With the advent of micro- and nano-mechanics this goal is at the verge of becoming an experimental reality. The last few years have witnessed unprecedented global progress in pushing mechanical systems towards the quantum regime. A thriving interdisciplinary field has emerged that aims to exploit the tremendous potential that lies in the control of mechanical quantum states. The main idea of this proposal is to combine the tools and concepts of quantum optics with micro- and nano-mechanical systems. Such combination provides a unique and powerful approach that allows, with a minimal set of experimental interactions, universal quantum control over mechanical systems via opto-mechanical interactions. The feasibility of the approach has recently been verified by us and by several other groups worldwide in a series of experimental demonstrations of mechanical laser cooling. The main objective of the proposed research is to go significantly beyond the current state-of-the-art and to develop the field of quantum-opto-mechanics to its full extent, both in experiment and theory. This will also increase the European visibility in this highly topical area of research. My professional background in both solid-state physics and quantum optics and quantum information will be of additional help in this highly interdisciplinary endeavour.
Max ERC Funding
1 670 904 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-11-01, End date: 2014-10-31
