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A CERN Model for Studying the Information Environment
CERN has been a model for how to support large-scale research collaboration. Given the challenges facing democracy today related to the information environment, a similar level of effort is required for research on the information environment.
Vaccine Shown to Prolong Life of Patients with Aggressive Brain Cancer
Trial results suggest people with newly diagnosed glioblastoma could potentially be given extra years of life
Large-scale Behavioural Data Are Key to Climate Policy
Applying behavioural science can support system-level change for climate protection. Behavioural scientists should provide reliable large-scale data and governments should secure infrastructure for data collection and the implementation of evidence.
EU Agrees €12.4B Budget for Horizon Europe in 2023
EU policymakers have reached a deal on the budget for next year, and with the focus squarely on tackling the fallout from the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis, research and innovation do not feature at the top of the policy priorities.
Enriching Research Quality: A Proposition for Stakeholder Heterogeneity
Enriching Research Quality: A Proposition for Stakeholder Heterogeneity
Dominant approaches to research quality rest on the assumption that academic peers are the only relevant stakeholders in its assessment. In contrast, impact assessment frameworks recognize a large and heterogeneous set of actors as stakeholders.
Farming Feeds the World. We Desperately Need to Know How to Do It Better
Farming Feeds the World. We Desperately Need to Know How to Do It Better
Interventions designed to improve agricultural practices often lack a solid evidence base. A new initiative could change that.
From Anti-Government to Anti-Science: Why Conservatives Have Turned Against Science
From Anti-Government to Anti-Science: Why Conservatives Have Turned Against Science
Empirical data do not support the conclusion of a crisis of public trust in science. They do support the conclusion of a crisis of conservative trust in science: polls show that American attitudes toward science are highly polarized along political lines. In this essay, we argue that conservative hostility toward science is rooted in conservative hostility toward government regulation of the marketplace, which has morphed in recent decades into conservative hostility to government, tout court. This distrust was cultivated by conservative business leaders for nearly a century, but took strong hold during the Reagan administration, largely in response to scientific evidence of environmental crises that invited governmental response. Thus, science-particularly environmental and public health science-became the target of conservative anti-regulatory attitudes. We argue that contemporary distrust of science is mostly collateral damage, a spillover from carefully orchestrated conservative distrust of government.
The UK Faces Exclusion from High-level Horizon Calls in Quantum
The EU moved to exclude the UK from Horizon Europe calls on sensitive quantum projects in October due to doubts over the country's willingness to provide EU researchers with reciprocal access to UK programmes and to comply with intellectual property rules. The move reverses the EU's previous decision to accept UK participation in more mature quantum projects with high 'technology readiness levels'.
Who Owns the Moon?
Nations agree that no one should own territories in space, but legal debates about owning and selling materials extracted from the moon, planets and asteroids are quickly becoming points of tension
Why Conflict Parties Cease Fighting
The path to peace usually leads through a ceasefire. In an international project, ETH Zurich researchers have shown the conditions under which parties to civil wars are willing to stop fighting – and why they decide to do so.
Research Spending Could Be Lone Bright Spot for U.S. Science After Election Sets Up Divided Government
Research Spending Could Be Lone Bright Spot for U.S. Science After Election Sets Up Divided Government
Likely Republican control of the House presages fiery hearings attacking Biden, but also gridlock
The Big Idea: We Need to Reverse Climate Change, Not Just Stop It
Taking carbon out of the atmosphere will become increasingly important.
There’s one big subject our leaders at Cop27 won’t touch: livestock farming
It’s on course to guzzle half the world’s carbon budget, so why are governments so afraid to discuss it?
Writers Envision the Next 75 Years of Science Policy
"The Next 75 Years of Science Policy," a collection of essays presents a wide range of visions for how science might serve society in the coming years.
UK-Swiss Science Deal As Both Barred from EU Scheme
Political tensions mean both nations have been shut out of the EU's prestigious Horizon programme.
Australia to update science frameworks in renewed commitment to evidence-based policymaking
Australia to update science frameworks in renewed commitment to evidence-based policymaking
Saying 'No' in Science Isn't Enough
When women refuse requests to do unrewarded tasks, another female colleague often gets asked instead.
Science and Politics: The Fight for Evolution
As the Turkish government intensified its attacks on the theory of evolution, the academic community rallied to push back. A researcher recounts how she decided to join them.
Publishing Fast and Slow: A Review of Publishing Speed in the Last Decade
This article analyzes changes in the speed of publication of research articles over the last ten years.
Programming in Parallel Universes
Quantum computers have the potential to change the world as profoundly as electricity did.
Public support of science: A contingent valuation study of citizens' attitudes about CERN with and without information about implicit taxes
Public support of science: A contingent valuation study of citizens' attitudes about CERN with and without information about implicit taxes
Large-scale projects in fundamental science, such as major particle colliders, radio telescopes, synchrotron light sources are promoted by scientific communities in the first place, mainly funded by governments, and ultimately by taxpayers. Little is known, however, about preferences of the latter except in the form of qualitative social attitudes survey.
Apocalypse in the Rear-view Mirror
The planet, as authoritarian capitalism's plaything, is subject to real-world economic-ecological downward spirals. And yet exorbitant space exploration projects continue to build escapist dreams on extractivism. And the threat of nuclear war continues to push at the limits of tenuous environmental stability.
Ukraine Needs New Doctoral Schools or Risks Losing Generation of Scholars, Official Warns
Ukraine Needs New Doctoral Schools or Risks Losing Generation of Scholars, Official Warns
Ukraine urgently needs new doctoral schools to train its next generation of academics, according to a senior Ukrainian science administrator. He warned that, without that and other measures to stop "internal brain drain", many researchers are fleeing universities for better paid IT jobs in order to make ends meet. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, European countries have launched countless schemes and scholarships to help displaced Ukrainian students and academics.
Deceptive Academic Journals: An Excerpt from The Predator Effect
Deceptive Academic Journals: An Excerpt from The Predator Effect
Predatory journals - even the term is controversial - have been a vexing problem for many years, and have certainly been a subject of coverage at Retraction Watch and elsewhere.
The Promise of Impact Science
Imagine if nonprofit leaders, philanthropists, and policy makers no longer had to guess what works but could predict success with scientific certainty. Enter the field of impact science.
US Mid-term Elections: 3 Ways Science is on the Line
Researchers project changes ahead for federal science if Republicans take control of either chamber of Congress.
Health and Science Are on the Ballot This Election. Here's What We're Watching
Tuesday's votes will chart the course for the future of health care access, affordability, and public health writ large.
Technical Reports Provide Scientific Evidence to Underpin Africa's Case at COP27
In this article, the Oppenheimer Generations Research and Conservation team's Dr Duncan MacFadyen and Rendani Nenguda write about the technical reports developed through the African Group of Negotiators Expert Support, which provides an armful of scientific evidence to underpin Africa's case at COP27.