Open data is increasingly common, but when it comes to tackling global disease, more needs to be done.

Climate change is the perfect example of how a cut-and-dry scientific issue can become controversial if it is represented consistently in partisan terms. Let’s not drag funding into the fray as well.

Citizens need to ask for, understand and trust scientific evidence.

Just a hunch? Hardly. Think germ theory, atomic theory and the theory of evolution.

Scientists need to learn how to communicate science strategically.

Beth Simone Noveck urges researchers to work out how technology can improve public institutions.

Squeezed budgets for basic research will make it harder to respond to disease outbreaks and other global threats, say Arturo Casadevall & Ferric Fang.