Phys.org January 11, 2022 To affirm that evidence-based decision-making—informed by vigorous science and unimpeded by political interference—would be a pillar of his administration President Biden directed ambitious actions to implement that goal, including the creation of an interagency Scientific Integrity Task Force which included 48 scientists, statisticians, engineers, lawyers, and policymakers with a diversity of experiences from 29 federal agencies. It received input from hundreds of outside experts from academia, the nonprofit sector, industry, and the public. The group found that although federal agency science is generally sound—that is, reported violations of scientific integrity policies are small in number compared […]
Category Archives: Science without borders
An Omicron investigator, a Mars explorer and an AI ethics pioneer are some of the people behind the year’s big research stories. (video)
Nature December 15, 2021 The Nature’s 10 list explores key developments in science this year and some of the people who played important parts in these milestones. Along with their colleagues, these individuals helped to make amazing discoveries and brought attention to crucial issues. Nature’s 10 is not an award or a ranking. The selection is compiled by Nature’s editors to highlight key events in science through the compelling stories of those involved…. read more.
Q&A: Are we on the brink of a new age of scientific discovery?
Phys.org April 27, 2021 In 2001 at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, a facility used for research in nuclear and high-energy physics, scientists experimenting with a subatomic a muon encountered something unexpected. According to relativistic quantum mechanics, the strength of the muon’s magnetic moment should be two in appropriate dimensionless units. The Standard Model states, however, that it is not two, it is a little bit bigger, and that difference is the magnetic anomaly. Brookhaven experiment challenges the Standard Model with increasing levels of precision, it signifies that there is something else. We know that the Standard […]
Not-for-profit publisher makes big move toward open access science
EurekAlert March 10, 2021 Canadian Science Publishing (CSP)–a not-for-profit publisher of peer-reviewed STEM journals announced a new open access publishing agreement with the University of California (UC) that will offer unlimited open access publication for UC researchers publishing with its journals. CSP is exploring how to shift from subscription-based business models to models that make it easier and more affordable for researchers to publish their work as open access. Under the cost sharing model, the UC libraries will automatically pay the first $1,000 of the article processing charge (APC) for all UC authors who choose to publish in a CSP journal. […]
Dresden scientists help setting new standards for cutting-edge genetic research
Science Daily February 24, 2021 Over the course of the next five years, a team of researchers in Germany are working on a project funded by the German Research Foundation to shape international standards for the exchange of human omics data. The initial focus is on developing, harmonizing, and optimizing processes of data collection. To address the legal and ethical questions researchers are working closely with lawyers who specialize in national and international privacy regulations. They will use state-of-the-art HPC, Cloud and storage technologies to build a distributed infrastructure accessible for all interested researchers and clinicians. The platform will integrate […]
The Earth has been spinning faster lately
Phys.org January 7, 2021 The atomic clocks make it possible to measure the length of a given day down to the millisecond. Since such measurements began, scientists have found that the Earth was slowing its spin very gradually (compensated by the insertion of a leap second now and then) until this past year, when it began spinning faster so much so that some in the field have begun to wonder if a negative leap negative second might be needed this year. Scientists also noted that this past summer, on July 19, the shortest day ever was recorded—it was 1.4602 milliseconds […]
Top MIT research stories of 2020
MIT News December 22, 2020 The year’s popular research stories include astronomical firsts, scientific breakthroughs, and engineering milestones addressing Covid-19 and other global problems. Despite the new challenges brought on by Covid-19 — and sometimes because of them — MIT’s community achieved important milestones on the frontiers of science and engineering. 10 research-related stories published in the previous 12 months received top views on MIT News…read more.
Nature Podcast highlights of 2020 (47 min)
Nature December 23, 2020 The Nature Podcast team select some of their favourite stories from the past 12 months. The following are covered in this this episode: Following the Viking footprint across Europe, Mars hopes, Disaster in San Quentin, Communicating complex data, ‘Stick to the science’: when science gets political…read more.
Nobel Prize ceremonies go virtual for Doudna, Genzel
UC Berkeley December 8, 2020 For the first time since World War II, winners of this year’s Nobel Prizes will not be receiving their medals and diplomas from the King of Sweden in Stockholm. The pandemic has forced the Nobel Committees to deliver the medals to recipients at their homes, with just immediate family and consular or embassy officials in attendance. The downside is that winners and their families and colleagues will forego the pomp and ceremony, including concerts and a banquet — the dress code is white tie and tails for men, evening gowns for women — that have […]
How France overcame the odds to build a research mega-campus
Nature News October 27, 2020 A decade in the making, Paris-Saclay University, officially formed this year, is one of Europe’s biggest research universities. The behemoth merged 14 institutions. Planners envisioned fostering an innovation hub, similar to Silicon Valley in California. The focus is instead on promoting French higher education and research globally. Although some researchers are still settling into their environment, many say that Saclay seems to be on the right track to achieve its other goals. It hosts more than 300 labs and advanced research equipment, such as the SOLEIL synchrotron. About 100 companies and 6 of France’s public […]