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How Some of 2021's Major Science Stories Evolved over Time
Tulsa massacre analysis and a genetically modified mosquito release are two important updates to 2021 stories.
Why Do Some People Succeed when Others Fail? Outliers Provide Clues
Adopting behaviors of people who buck trends could boost public health and sustainability. In any large dataset involving the choices people make, a handful of people will succeed when most others like them fail. Zooming in on those outliers and mapping out how they made their choices could give those failing in similar circumstances a leg up.
R&D Policy in Europe: Six Things to Look out for in 2022
What are the main six debates to watch this year in European research policy?
Reform the Way the World Works Together - or Doesn't - on R&D
What the Manhattan Project's scientific director J. Robert Oppenheimer and his physicist-colleagues went through after the war holds lessons for us today, hoping for the end of our own generation's global crisis.
How Researchers Can Help Fight Climate Change in 2022 and Beyond
COP26 energized the global effort to halt global warming. Research is now crucial to monitoring progress and creating solutions.
New Patent-Free COVID Vaccine Developed As "Gift to the World"
A new COVID-19 vaccine, developed by researchers from the Texas Children's Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine, is being offered patent-free to vaccine manufacturers across the world.
New Year's Resolution: Research Group Aims to Fix the Way the World Collaborates on Technology
New Year's Resolution: Research Group Aims to Fix the Way the World Collaborates on Technology
With the COVID-19 crisis still underway and a climate crisis looming, an international group of senior researchers is pushing the world's biggest economies to reform the way they manage collaboration on emerging technologies. In coming years, argues a group participant, David Delpy, professor of medical photonics at University College London, the world risks conflict over who controls and benefits from a range of emerging technologies from climate control to 6G wireless networks.
What Scientists Say About Elizabeth Holmes Guilty Verdict
Theranos case highlights the importance of peer review for biotech entrepreneurs, scientists say.
2022 Will Put Research Missions to the Test
Horizon Europe Missions will reach full steam this year. The €1.9 billion two-year plan for the missions saw the light of day last autumn, with the European Commission launching the first calls in the last weeks of 2021.
Scientific 'War for Talent' Heats Up As Pandemic Restrictions Ease
Scientific 'War for Talent' Heats Up As Pandemic Restrictions Ease
Countries and universities are once again engaged in a war for talent over researchers, entrepreneurs and students as the world emerges in fits and starts from a pandemic-induced slowdown in international migration.
New Coronavirus Variant Identified in France
B.1.640.2 was discovered in a traveler returning from Cameroon and has a high number of mutations. And a first "flurona" case has been confirmed in Israel.
Two Years of COVID-19 in Africa: Lessons for the World
Africa urgently needs to guarantee its own health security.
Cuba's Vaccine Success Story Sails Past Mark Set by Rich World's Covid Efforts
The island nation struggles to keep the lights on but has inoculated 90% of its population with home-developed vaccines
More Than a Feeling: Why Our Emotions Are Crucial to the Way We Think
Emotions enhance our process of reasoning and aid decision-making, says the author and physicist Leonard Mlodinow
This 3,700-Year-Old Tablet is the Oldest Example of Applied Geometry
Ancient Greeks have been credited with the invention of trigonometry, but a mathematician reveals Babylonians used it about a thousand years earlier.
Costa Rica Has Run on 100% Renewable Electricity for 299 Days
Costa Rica Has Run on 100% Renewable Electricity for 299 Days
For 75 days straight, Costa Rica ran on 100% renewable electricity.
The Top 1% of Americans Have Taken $50 Trillion From the Bottom 90%-And That's Made the U.S. Less Secure
The Impact of the COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution on Mental Health Outcomes
The Impact of the COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution on Mental Health Outcomes
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a “second pandemic” of anxiety and depression. While vaccines are primarily aimed at reducing COVID-19 transmission and mortality risks, they may have important secondary benefits.
Two Years of Coronavirus: How Pandemic Unfolded Around the World
In December 2019 the WHO was told of a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China. These charts show how Covid-19 has spread across the world since then
Cool, Funny and Bizarre Science Stories of 2021
These are some of the fun science stories from this year.
Long distance ski racing is associated with lower long-term incidence of depression in a population based, large-scale study
Long distance ski racing is associated with lower long-term incidence of depression in a population based, large-scale study
Physical activity has been proposed to be beneficial for prevention of depression, although the importance of exercise intensity, sex-specific mechanisms, and duration of the effects need to be clarified. Using an observational study design, following 395,369 individuals up to 21 years it was studied whether participation in an ultralong-distance cross-country ski race was associated with lower risk of developing depression.
Companies Race to Stem Flood of Microplastic Fibres into the Oceans
New products range from washing machine filters and balls to fabrics made from kelp and orange peel.
Sustainability at the Crossroads
A look back at 2021 through the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Explanatory Power of Citations: a New Approach to Unpacking Impact in Science - Scientometrics
The Explanatory Power of Citations: a New Approach to Unpacking Impact in Science - Scientometrics
This article proposes a text clustering approach to derive contextual aspects of individual citations and the relationship between cited and citing work in an automated and scalable fashion. The method reveals a focal publication's absorption and use within the scientific community. It can also facilitate impact assessments at all levels.
How COVID Vaccines Shaped 2021 in Eight Powerful Charts
The extraordinary vaccination of more than four billion people, and the lack of access for many others, were major forces this year - while Omicron's arrival complicated things further.
How Human Capital, Universities of Excellence, Third Party Funding, Mobility and Gender Explain Productivity in German Political Science - Scientometrics
How Human Capital, Universities of Excellence, Third Party Funding, Mobility and Gender Explain Productivity in German Political Science - Scientometrics
Apart from generally showing why political scientists publish more or less, this article specifically identifies accumulative advantage as the principal reason why women increasingly fall behind men over the course of their careers.
A New Type of Powerful Artificial Intelligence Could Make EU's New Law Obsolete
A New Type of Powerful Artificial Intelligence Could Make EU's New Law Obsolete
The EU's proposed artificial intelligence act fails to fully take into account the recent rise of an ultra-powerful new type of AI, meaning the legislation will rapidly become obsolete as the technology is deployed in novel and unexpected ways. Foundation models trained on gargantuan amounts of data by the world's biggest tech companies, and then adapted to a wide range of tasks, are poised to become the infrastructure on which other applications are built.
No Mountain High Enough: Study Finds Plastic in 'Clean' Air
Microplastics from Africa and North America found airborne in French Pyrenees, 2,877 metres above sea level