Complexity Science Hub

25/11/2025

What would happen if our everyday devices, our bodies, and even our thoughts could all be connected? 🤔 What benefits and risks would such a cybernetic society pose? And importantly, who would control how these powerful technologies would be used?

We were happy to welcome back our CSH External Faculty member Dirk Helbing from ETH Zürich, who spoke about how new technologies — from smart devices 📱 to sensors in the human body 🩺 and even brain-computer interfaces 🧩 — could help us live more efficient, healthier, and fulfilling lives. But such an expansive social network would need careful governance.

Dirk highlighted the need for everyday citizens to regain control over their data and take action to determine how and when data-driven technologies are used. With forays into participatory governance ⚖️ and new forms of voting 🗳️ , the talk explored how our collective intelligence can be harnessed to democratize technology for good.

A fascinating visit that definitely sparked interesting conversations about the future of society at the Complexity Science Hub!

25/11/2025

Fresh from receiving the 2025 netidee SCIENCE Award, Frank Neffke joined the discussion at this year’s — an event honoring projects that use the internet to tackle real-world challenges, from advancing cybersecurity to helping deaf children learn to read.

🎙️ On stage, Frank and fellow awardees explored how AI is reshaping software development and the economy. Frank shared insights from his project, which uses digital trace data from millions of developers to understand why software talent and startups tend to concentrate in just a few regions worldwide.

The event brought together researchers, innovators, and practitioners dedicated to turning bold ideas into societal impact. Congratulations to all awardees!

netidee Förderungen | Internet Stiftung | Complexity Science Hub

🖼️ netidee

24/11/2025

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 mostly still revolves around real estate 🏠, savings accounts 💰, and other traditional assets that are meant to be transferred in an orderly manner to the heirs. But what happens to holdings?

Last week, the Complexity Science Hub hosted a workshop on this – an issue touching an ever-growing number of estates, and with them, more and more people. What made it especially interesting was that notaries, estate administrators, and other professionals who deal with these issues on a daily basis joined the discussion alongside the CSH’s scientific crypto experts.

Through real-world cases — from lost access credentials 🔑 to forgotten hardware wallets 💾 — the workshop highlighted the challenges for everyone involved.

“I handle over 100 estates annually, and never has anyone filled in the ‘digital assets’ field in the initial asset survey form,” explained one notary. Yet, conservatively estimated, at least 300,000 people in Austria own cryptocurrency, noted CSH's Bernhard Haslhofer, who organized the workshop.

Typical questions that arise after a death therefore include:
❓ Did the deceased own crypto, and how can we find it?
❓ What was the value of these assets at the date of death?
❓ Did any transactions occur or cryptoassets disappear between the date of death and the time the estate passed to the heirs?

Answering these questions requires new expertise in digital forensics and a legal framework that covers this relatively new situation.

Haslhofer: “The gathering established a foundation for solutions that could inform digital estate procedures in Austria, Europe, and beyond.”

20/11/2025

🏘️🚨 Cities are often seen as hotbeds of violence, with the common assumption that bigger cities are more dangerous. New research by Rafael Prieto-Curiel from the Complexity Science Hub and Ronaldo Menezes from the University of Exeter, published in , challenges this view and highlights that factors beyond population size play a key role.

In particular, the researchers show that 𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 – more isolated cities in Africa tend to experience higher rates of violence against civilians.

“Our analysis shows that the 10% 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐨𝐩𝐮𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 in Africa (216 cities in total) 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 66% 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐫𝐛𝐚𝐧 𝐩𝐨𝐩𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 33% 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 linked to politically-motivated violence over the past 22 years,” explains Prieto-Curiel. “This clearly indicates that size alone cannot explain levels of urban violence.”

The data reveal that cities with only one or two highway connections experienced nearly seven times more violence against civilians per 100,000 residents than cities with seven or more highways. Notably, slightly more than two-thirds of all 2,162 cities are connected by only one or two highways, together housing almost 30% of Africa’s urban population.

Read more about what inspired Rafael to pursue this study and discover further details here 🔗: csh.ac.at/news/people-in-isolated-cities-suffer-more-violence-against-civilians

🖼️ AI generated via Canva

20/11/2025

🏆 Congratulations, Frank Neffke! He received the 2025 𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐞 𝐒𝐂𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐀𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 and will explore why software development concentrates in just a few regions like Silicon Valley or Bangalore.

🌍 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭:
Four of the five largest companies in the world by market value earn their revenue wholly or partly from software products and services. Yet, even though software is distributed digitally and developers often work remotely, the industry remains highly concentrated. Little is known about how regional dynamics and local talent pools shape the success of software startups.

💡𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐝𝐨:
Neffke and his team at the Complexity Science Hub tackle this by developing a dynamic skill taxonomy based on digital trace data from millions of developers. They link these profiles to software startups to gain insights into how startups assemble their teams and the role of local labor markets in their success.

🚀 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝:
Austria’s highest privately funded prize for excellent online research, granted by the Internet Stiftung through FWF.



Read the press release from FWF about it:
https://www.fwf.ac.at/aktuelles/detail/transformationsforscher-frank-neffke-erhaelt-die-netidee-science-foerderung-2025

Check out a bit more about this and another new FWF project:
https://csh.ac.at/news/two-new-fwf-funded-projects-explore-digital-innovation-and-societal-resilience/

18/11/2025

We're thrilled to welcome Elise Cutts as our FRONTIERS Journalist in Residence!

Starting February, Cutts will spend four months at CSH exploring how researchers develop fundamental theories of complex systems—work that aims at improving our understanding of everything from biological evolution to economic innovation and social change.

This marks the second time CSH has been selected to host a prestigious ERC FRONTIERS fellow, reflecting our commitment to bridging cutting-edge research with public understanding.

Cutts, whose work appears in Quanta, Scientific American, and Science News, will collaborate with Eddie Lee and our Foundations of Complex Systems group.

"Elise is a brilliant and energetic journalist who brings thoughtfulness, genuine curiosity, and excitement to writing about fundamental work. This is exactly the kind of work that is broadly important but whose relevance is challenging to convey, which makes it all the more auspicious to host her at CSH," says Lee.

Welcome, Elise! We look forward to seeing what stories you uncover at CSH!



https://bit.ly/4rl0xxw

17/11/2025

$27 billion in dirty money. Major crypto exchanges. Zero accountability.

A cross-border investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists—featured in The New York Times, Le Monde, Süddeutsche Zeitung, profil, and other media outlets all over the world—reveals how cryptocurrency exchanges profit from criminal proceeds while scam victims are left with nothing.

CSH expert Bernhard Haslhofer spoke with a Süddeutsche Zeitung reporter about a case involving an Austrian investor who lost over €20 million in a fake investment scheme.

"You can imagine a money laundering network like an onion," explained Haslhofer. The outer layer of the onion consists of straw men who give up their identities in exchange for payment or whose personal data has simply been stolen. “These are people who sometimes have no idea that an account has been opened in their name.”

These individuals would then be approached by the authorities. “But to get to the masterminds, you have to get inside the onion,” added Haslhofer.

The investigation tracked hundreds of millions flowing through exchanges like Binance, even after they paid billions in fines for violating anti-money laundering laws.

Read the full profil investigation (in German): https://bit.ly/49ochIV

Alleine in den vergangenen beiden Jahren flossen mehr als 27 Milliarden Dollar an schmutzigem Geld zu Krypto-Börsen – ein Einfallstor für Kriminelle. Nun gewährt eine internationale Recherche, an der auch profil beteiligt ist, tiefe Einblicke.

17/11/2025

Last week, we hosted a very special edition of our Art & Science series — this time, the focus wasn’t on painting or music, but on literature 📚✨

We had the honor of welcoming Peter Rosei, who gave a reading from his new book “Ich bin kein Felsen, ich bin ein Fluss.” The book explores the urgency of big questions and the impossibility of simple answers. It looks at art as research, at the attempt to show the world as it truly is — without relying on theory — and at the constant questioning: But is that true? What should we do? How do we want to live — in what kind of society, and in what kind of world? 🌍❓

It was a wonderful evening! ✨ And we’re already looking forward to the next edition of at the Complexity Science Hub. If you’d like to join us next time, just send us an email, and we’ll be happy to add you to our invitation list 💌

🔗 https://csh.ac.at/events-news/art-science/

17/11/2025

People who belong to multiple marginalized groups often face disproportionately greater challenges in forming social relationships — as shown by a recent study by Samuel Martín Gutiérrez, Fariba Karimi, and Mauritz Cartier van Dissel from the Complexity Science Hub (CSH), published in .

⚖️ 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: When someone belongs to several marginalized groups at once, the effects don’t simply add up — they can multiply in nonlinear and sometimes unexpected ways.

👥 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥-𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚: The researchers developed a mathematical model to predict how marginalization shapes social networks and tested it using friendship data from about 40,000 U.S. students. The model’s predictions aligned with the observed patterns with 92% accuracy.

📈 𝐍𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬: The impact of multiple forms of marginalization often intensifies in unexpected ways. In the study, for instance, Black girls were significantly less connected — even though girls generally had more social contacts — while white girls benefited from multiple structural advantages.

🤝 𝐇𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲: We tend to form connections with people who are similar to us. As a result, majority groups tend to be better connected and have greater access to information and mutual support, while minority groups have fewer links to central parts of the network.

These mechanisms can be explored in an interactive developed by CSH data visualization expert Liuhuaying Yang:
👉 https://vis.csh.ac.at/planets-of-disparity-two/

More information:
🔗 https://csh.ac.at/news/double-disadvantage-hurts-more-than-twice-as-much/
🔗 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adu9025
Part of the MAMMOth Project. 🐘

14/11/2025

🎡 Vienna? Vienna!
Between 1850 and 1910 the population of Vienna almost quadrupled, from about half a million, to two million. During this Viennese Golden Age of Science and Culture, more than half of the Viennese population came from outside Vienna, and a significant share came from outside what today constitutes Austria.

𝐆𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐕𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐕𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐚?

𝐀 | Sigmund Freud (psychologist)
𝐁 | Lise Meitner (physicist)
𝐂 | Ludwig von Mises (economist and philosopher)
𝐃 | Erwin Schrödinger (physicist)
𝐄 | Bertha von Suttner (writer and peace activist)
𝐅 | Ludwig van Beethoven (composer and pianist)

If you're a researcher passionate about complexity, the Complexity Science Hub is a truly unique place to be.

Check out our open , , and roles — or learn more about our programs:
👉 Jobs: https://csh.ac.at/engage/jobs/
👉 Internships: https://csh.ac.at/education/internships/
👉 Research Visits: https://csh.ac.at/engage/research-visits/

💡 𝘍𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴!

__
✍ by Ljubica Nedelkoska, CSH Senior Scientist
🖼 Wikimedia Commons (Wiener Bilder, ANNO; museos)
Stadt Wien

11/11/2025

This is her year. Liuhuaying Yang, CSH visualization expert, received the City of Vienna last night at the City Hall. The prize is a recognition of her outstanding work "changing the way we see and understand the world with the help of science".

We were honored to celebrate Yang's latest accomplishment -- she received two gold medals this year at the Information is Beautiful Awards, and her work is now on display at the Wien Museum. What makes Yang truly special isn't just her talent—it's her generosity. She's a collaborator who elevates everyone around her, always ready to share insights and support others -- even including us at her award ceremony last night!

Congratulations -- and thank you, Liu. We're proud to celebrate this moment with you.

With Veronica Kaup-Hasler

© Stadt Wien / Markus Wache

11/11/2025

How can car traffic 🚗 in cities be reduced? And what role do and play? A new study by Rafael Prieto-Curiel at the Complexity Science Hub, published in 𝘕𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘊𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴, analyzed commuting patterns in 𝐚𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 400 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 – and finds:

🚇 𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞: The analysis of commuting patterns in 378 European cities shows that while subway systems reduce car traffic, this effect cannot be observed for trams.

📊 𝐍𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 1.5 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐫 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐬: On average, cars make up 37% of all commutes in cities with a subway, 50% in those with only trams, and 54% in cities with neither.

🏙 𝐄𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐬𝐢𝐳𝐞: In large cities with more than 750,000 inhabitants, car traffic rises to 63% if no subway exists, regardless of whether trams are present.

🇦🇹 𝐈𝐧 𝐀𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐚: Vienna is the only city with a metro and has the lowest share of car trips (25%) and the highest public transport share (34%) compared to other Austrian cities in the dataset.
𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝𝐰𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: https://vis.csh.ac.at/citiesmoving/

“There are naturally city-level deviations from this average. For example, 🇳🇱 Utrecht (Netherlands), 🇭🇺 Szeged (Hungary), and 🇨🇭 Bern (Switzerland) all lack metro systems but still have car shares of only around 20% thanks to high levels of active mobility. Conversely, 🇮🇹 Rome (Italy), despite having a metro, or 🇫🇷 Toulouse (France) with over 60%, both show relatively high car shares,” Rafael Prieto-Curiel says.

“On average, however, there is a noticeable effect: Suppose a city has one million inhabitants. According to the calculations, about 370 million car trips per year occur if there is a metro. In a city of the same size with a tram but no metro, that number rises to 700 million, so almost twice as many.”

🔗 Read the full story: https://csh.ac.at/news/metros-cut-car-use-in-european-cities-trams-fall-short/
🔗 Read the paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44284-025-00342-7

This study has been made possible through the CSH Postdoc Program, funded by Bundesministerium für Innovation, Mobilität und Infrastruktur (BMIMI)
🖼️ Unsplash/Nadler/Petrushkevich