Subscribe to our newsletter

Send us a link

Why Meta-regulation Matters for Public Health: the Case of the EU Better Regulation Agenda

Why Meta-regulation Matters for Public Health: the Case of the EU Better Regulation Agenda

Meta-regulation - the rules that govern how individual policies are developed and reviewed - has not received much attention in the study of health policy. Far from value-free and objective, they have however significant potential to shape policy outputs and, as such, health outcomes.

The World's Goals to Save Humanity Are Hugely Ambitious - but They Are Still the Best Option

The World's Goals to Save Humanity Are Hugely Ambitious - but They Are Still the Best Option

Not one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals looks set to be achieved by 2030. But deadlines can help focus the mind, and scientists should double down on their work to support the goals.

The Home Science Labs of English Noblewomen

The Home Science Labs of English Noblewomen

In the eighteenth century, elite women with a scientific bent often turned to distilling medicines, a craft that helped them participate in experimentation.

Scientists Are Trying to Teach AI How to Smell

Scientists Are Trying to Teach AI How to Smell

A team from the US taught a neural network how to map and describe popular smells, with the hopes of digitizing them someday.

How Science Bolstered a Key European Climate-change Case

How Science Bolstered a Key European Climate-change Case

A group of older women in Switzerland has taken the government to court over its inaction on climate change. Our experience of preparing evidence for the case offers six lessons for researchers.

Riding the Whirlwind: BMJ's Policy on Artificial Intelligence in Scientific Publishing

Riding the Whirlwind: BMJ's Policy on Artificial Intelligence in Scientific Publishing

BMJ will consider content created with artificial intelligence only if the use is clearly described and reasonable Artificial intelligence (AI) can rival human knowledge, accuracy, speed, and choices when carrying out tasks. The latest generative AI tools are trained on large quantities of data and use machine learning techniques such as logical reasoning, knowledge representation, planning, and natural language processing. They can produce text, code, and other media such as graphics, images, audio, or video. Large language models (LLMs), which are a form of AI, are able to search, extract, generate, summarise, translate, and rewrite text or code rapidly. They can answer complex questions (called prompts) at search engine speeds that the human mind cannot match. AI is transforming our world, and we are not yet fully able to comprehend or harness its power. It is a whirlwind sweeping up all before it. Availability of LLMs such as ChatGPT, and growing awareness of their capabilities, is challenging many industries, including academic publishing. The potential benefits for content creation are clear, such as the …

"Just Get the Admin to Do It." Why Research Managers Are Feeling Misunderstood

"Just Get the Admin to Do It." Why Research Managers Are Feeling Misunderstood

Science benefits when there is mutual respect between academics and research managers. Team Science, a six-part series, begins by examining a key workplace relationship.

Calls for New Manhattan Projects Overlook Crucial Aspects of the World War II Crisis Innovation Model

Calls for New Manhattan Projects Overlook Crucial Aspects of the World War II Crisis Innovation Model

The Manhattan Project is often invoked as a model for mission-driven research projects, such as the search for a Covid-19 vaccine. Daniel P. Gross and Bhaven N. Sampat argue that the broader U.S. approach to mobilising science and technology in World War II, led by the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), provides a better analogy for some contemporary R&D problems.

How the UK and EU Did a Deal over Horizon Europe

How the UK and EU Did a Deal over Horizon Europe

The UK now has guarantees that it won't have to make more than a 16% net contribution to Horizon Europe, according to UK and EU sources, a reassurance that has allowed today's deal to go ahead. Since February, negotiators have been locked in discussions over a technical part of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), agreed back in 2020 setting out post-Brexit relations, including what the UK will pay for association.

The Slippery Slope of Scientific Ethics

The Slippery Slope of Scientific Ethics

A new biopic of J. Robert Oppenheimer emphasizes the personal and political over the scientific, missing an opportunity to deeply engage with scientific ethics.

Ivanova's To-do List: Time to Lay the Foundations for the Next EU Research Programme

Ivanova's To-do List: Time to Lay the Foundations for the Next EU Research Programme

Pending Parliament's approval, Iliana Ivanova will take the reins as commissioner for research, innovation and education later this month. With European elections due in June 2024, interest groups in Brussels now want her to look beyond what will be a short tenure and focus on the first phases of shaping the next EU research framework programme, due to start in 2028.

Three Institutional Pathways to Envision the Future of the IPCC - Nature Climate Change

Three Institutional Pathways to Envision the Future of the IPCC - Nature Climate Change

The IPCC has been successful at building its scientific authority, but it will require institutional reform for staying relevant to new and changing political contexts. Exploring a range of alternative future pathways for the IPCC can help guide crucial decisions about redefining its purpose.

Betting Against Worst-case Climate Scenarios is Risky Business

Betting Against Worst-case Climate Scenarios is Risky Business

How much change can human systems tolerate before society collapses?

Comparing Data Policy Priorities Around the World

Comparing Data Policy Priorities Around the World

There are important differences in how countries treat and value data. This report compares key data policies in China, India, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the European Union.

US Extends Science and Technology Agreement with China, Buying Time to Renegotiate the Deal

US Extends Science and Technology Agreement with China, Buying Time to Renegotiate the Deal

The US has extended a historic science and technology agreement (STA) with China by six months, but now needs to renegotiate the deal to mollify concerns that it aids Beijing's technological and military rise and fails to ensure a reciprocal research relationship. 

White House seeks input on tightening rules for risky pathogen research

White House seeks input on tightening rules for risky pathogen research

Request for comment suggests government may soften controversial proposed restrictions.

U.S.-China Tensions Could Complicate Effort to Renew Key Research Pact

U.S.-China Tensions Could Complicate Effort to Renew Key Research Pact

Rising tensions between the United States and China could derail the renewal of a 44-year-old agreement on scientific cooperation between the two countries. Last week, U.S. President Joe Biden invited China to spend the next 6 months discussing changes to the broad agreement, first signed in 1979, that enables joint research.

Work on Creating a Single European Market for Research Enters the Next Phase

Work on Creating a Single European Market for Research Enters the Next Phase

Work has started on the 2025 - 2027 policy agenda of the European Commission's ERA Forum for Transition, the expert group set up to shape the European Research Area (ERA) and create a borderless, single market for research, science and technology.

Commission's Research Directorate to Develop a New Artificial Intelligence in Science Policy

Commission's Research Directorate to Develop a New Artificial Intelligence in Science Policy

The European Commission is to add a new unit with a brief to set down guidelines for the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in science, according to a leak on the upcoming restructuring of the research and innovation directorate general, DG RTD.