By Jakob Maurer
Hard to believe – the "United by Crisis?"-project has already approached its halfway point. On this occasion, the project team came together for the 2nd official Milestonemeeting in Leoben, where we held intensive discussions. The individual working groups reported on the highlights of the past project year, but above all, we further coordinated the planning for the coming year.
For project members without training in this area, the visit to the laboratory facilities of the Chair of General and Analytical Chemistry of the Montauniversität Leoben was particularly exciting. First, we toured the cleanroom, where project member Michael Schober spends a lot of time carefully preparing and sampling human teeth from the Asparn/Schletz site under clean air conditions in a protective cabin. Protective clothing (lab coat, hairnet, overshoes, safety goggles) is mandatory to avoid contamination of the samples. Afterwards, we admired various types of mass spectrometers. They are used to determine the chemical composition of the samples, from which we expect insights into the origins of the deceased individuals in Schletz. It was impressive not only to see these extremely sophisticated and expensive devices on site, but also to learn details about their functionality and their high degree of specialization. The project meeting continued in a relaxed atmosphere informal manner well into the evening in a historical atmosphere at the main square of Leoben. Once again, many thanks to the Montanuni team (Johanna Irrgeher, Thomas Prohaska, and Michael Schober) for organizing this great meeting.
