Send us a link
Malaria 'completely Stopped' by Microbe
Scientists say the microbe - found in the wild near Lake Victoria - has enormous potential.
Op-ed: Covering Science at Dangerous Speeds
Pandemics like COVID-19 call into question the benefit of news embargoes, but do reporters use the additional time to digest findings and consult experts unrelated to the study?
OpenAI's Jukebox Opens the Pandora's Box of AI-Generated Music
OpenAI released Jukebox, a state-of-the-art AI model capable of generating music with vocals in the style of various artists and genres. I highlight some of my favorite samples and discuss the legality of it all.
Flattening the Truth on Coronavirus
All your questions about the pandemic, answered. Sort of.
What the Proponents of 'Natural' Herd Immunity Don't Say
Try to reach it without a vaccine, and millions will die.
The World is on Lockdown. So Where Are All the Carbon Emissions Coming From?
The air is clear, the roads are clear, and dammit greenhouse gases are stubborn.
Coronavirus Means Science is Suddenly Being Done Differently - and So is Politics
No-deal Brexit Could Wreck UK's Chance of Leading Covid-19 Global Research
What Happens Next? COVID-19 Futures, Explained With Playable Simulations
An interactive guide
Google Scholar, Microsoft Academic, Scopus, Dimensions, Web of Science, and OpenCitations' COCI: a Multidisciplinary Comparison of Coverage Via Citations
Google Scholar, Microsoft Academic, Scopus, Dimensions, Web of Science, and OpenCitations' COCI: a Multidisciplinary Comparison of Coverage Via Citations
New sources of citation data have recently become available. Although these have been compared to the Web of Science (WoS), Scopus, or Google Scholar, there is no systematic evidence of their differences across subject categories. In response, this paper investigates citations found by these data sources to English-language highly-cited documents published in 2006 from 252 subject categories, expanding and updating the largest previous study.
Oxford University Press Launches a New Open Access Journal Series
Oxford University Press (OUP) announces the first two titles in the new flagship open access journal series. The Oxford Open series launches with Oxford Open Immunology and Oxford Open Materials Science. This is an important step forward in OUP’s open access publishing programme.
NIH's Axing of Bat Coronavirus Grant a 'horrible Precedent' and Might Break Rules, Critics Say
NIH's Axing of Bat Coronavirus Grant a 'horrible Precedent' and Might Break Rules, Critics Say
The research community is reacting with alarm and anger to the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH’s) abrupt and unusual termination of a grant supporting research in China on how coronaviruses move from bats to humans. The agency axed the grant last week, after conservative U.S. politicians and media repeatedly suggested—without evidence—that the pandemic severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, that employs a Chinese virologist who had been receiving funding from the grant.
Call for Transparency of COVID-19 Models
At this time of crisis, it is more important than ever for scientists around the world to openly share their knowledge, expertise, tools, and technology. Scientists must also openly share their model code so that the results can be replicated and evaluated.
Between Fast Science and Fake News: Preprint Servers Are Political
Preprints servers have become a vital medium for the rapid sharing of scientific findings. However, this speed and openness has also contributed to the ability of low quality preprints to derail public debate and feed conspiracy theories.
DORA's First Funder Discussion: Updates from Swiss National Science Foundation, Wellcome Trust, and the Dutch Research Council
DORA's First Funder Discussion: Updates from Swiss National Science Foundation, Wellcome Trust, and the Dutch Research Council
DORA launched a new virtual discussion series for public and private research funders. The goal of the series is to increase communication about research assessment reform by providing a space for funders to share and discuss new initiatives, with the hope that this will ultimately serve as a platform to accelerate the spread of good research assessment policies and practices.
The Limitations to Our Understanding of Peer Review
Peer review is embedded in the core of our knowledge generation systems. Despite its critical importance, it curiously remains poorly understood in a number of dimensions. In order to address this, this paper assesses where the major gaps in the theoretical and empirical understanding of peer review lie.
Retracted Coronavirus (COVID-19) Papers
Retraction Watch has been tracking retractions of papers about COVID-19 as part of their database. Here's a running list, which will be updated as needed.
Policy Briefs of the Swiss National COVID-19 Science Task Force
The Policy Briefs of the Swiss National COVID-19 Science Task Force are now available on its website. They reflect the Task Force thinking on a topic at that time and will be updated in the light of new studies or other data.
We Need Open Science - Crisis or No Crisis
For years, the Swiss National Science Foundation and other organisations have been demanding open science as the new normal. The corona crisis drastically confirms the validity of this demand.
Covid-19 Shows Up UK Universities' Shameful Employment Practices
Instead of supporting the 54% of staff on insecure contracts, many managers are using the pandemic to sack them.
Platform for Citizen Science Launched
This is an online platform for sharing knowledge, tools, training and resources for citizen science – by the community, for the community.
CERN Contributes Computers to Combatting COVID-19
CERN is contributing computing resources to a volunteer-computing initiative that aims to better understand the virus behind COVID-19.
India takes to homegrown tech to fight COVID-19
When India’s 1.3 billion people come out of a 40-day lockdown on 3 May, imposed to contain the spread of COVID-19, they can hope that a battery of technologies that the government is readying to deploy against the contagious virus could offer them some protection.
The Global Research Council's Compilation on National Responses: Confronting COVID-19
The Global Research Council (GRC) is calling on its participating organisations and the global research community to collaborate in the fight against the virus and encourages openness in sharing research findings and data which will help ensure diagnostics, vaccines and prevention measures are developed rapidly for the benefit of every nation.
How the Coronavirus Pandemic Has Shattered the Myth of College in America
How the Coronavirus Pandemic Has Shattered the Myth of College in America
Young people think of college as an investment in their future. Now that future is changing in ways they can't apprehend.
Science Has an Ugly, Complicated Dark Side. And the Coronavirus is Bringing It Out.
Science Has an Ugly, Complicated Dark Side. And the Coronavirus is Bringing It Out.
Experts say the pandemic is letting bad science slip through the cracks.