The Science Show in Unterföhring ( https://www.vhs-nord.de/kurssuche/kurs/Die-grosse-Science-Show-im-April/D1301 ) aims to make science accessible to a wide audience in a clear and entertaining way.
Hannes Taubenböck was invited to represent our Earth Observation Research Cluster (EORC) and the Earth Observation Center (EOC) of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) at this Science Show on the 17th of April 2026. Together with the serial winner and co-organiser of the 10hoch1 Science Slam Matthias Mader, the inventor of ‘the physics of failure’ Georg Eggers, Germany’s funniest classical philologist Stefan Merkle and the singer-songwriter duo ‘Mitte Mai’, it was an exciting, informative, funny evening, humorously hosted by Markus Berg.
Hannes tackled a thought-provoking topic in his contribution entitled “Saßen Sie schon mal in einem Zug nach Mumbai? – Forschung im Grenzbereich zwischen Armut, Reichtum und Moral” [engl.: “Have you ever been on a train to Mumbai? – Research on the borderline between poverty, wealth and morality“]. In his presentation, the absurdities of extreme wealth in the reflection absolute poverty are something between dismaying, sad and unbelievable in their contrariness. He uses remote sensing research on slums to expose how official population statistics can undermine human dignity. With it, he demonstrates the balancing act between the demands of our own morals and the complex realities in a humorous way.
