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How Tackling Real-world Problems Transformed My Teaching and Research

How Tackling Real-world Problems Transformed My Teaching and Research

Designing courses on the basis of what really matters to people is a win-win for students and society.

European Universities Brace for Mountain of Bureaucracy After US National Institutes of Health Changes the Rules

European Universities Brace for Mountain of Bureaucracy After US National Institutes of Health Changes the Rules

European universities and research institutes say rule changes by the US's main health research funder will force them to hire staff to deal with vast amounts of new paperwork, potentially delaying projects and weakening transatlantic collaboration.

Opening Up Scientific Enterprise to Public Participation

Opening Up Scientific Enterprise to Public Participation

For decades, communities have had little access to scientific information despite paying for it with their tax dollars. To bring open science into the mainstream, we need creative policy solutions - and your help to create them.

Rich Countries Must Align Science Funding with the Sustainable Development Goals

Rich Countries Must Align Science Funding with the Sustainable Development Goals

This week, New York City is buzzing with scientists. A Science Summit is being held at the United Nations, to coincide with the UN General Assembly. The summit’s overall theme revolves around the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to end poverty and protect the environment. Research in poorer countries maps closely with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals - wealthy nations must follow if the goals are to be met. 

The efficacy of Facebook’s vaccine misinformation policies and architecture during the COVID-19 pandemic

The efficacy of Facebook’s vaccine misinformation policies and architecture during the COVID-19 pandemic

During the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, Facebook began to remove vaccine misinformation as a matter of policy. This study evaluated the efficacy of these policies using a comparative interrupted time-series design.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: Why I Cannot Return Home Yet

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: Why I Cannot Return Home Yet

Studying abroad helped a Panamanian student to accept who he is, but it meant him letting go of his dream.

Science Needed Now, for Action

Science Needed Now, for Action

The importance of science in helping the UN to make progress on key issues is as clear and critical as ever. Yet participation of the scientific community is not what it could and needs to be.

This Alternative Way to Measure Research Impact Made Judges Cry with Joy

This Alternative Way to Measure Research Impact Made Judges Cry with Joy

Podcast: Research managers, citizen scientists, librarians and technicians rarely make it onto author lists. But an initiative to assess their hidden contributions to team science moved some judging panel members to tears.

Swiss Expect to Wait Until at Least 2025 for Association After UK Horizon Europe Deal

Swiss Expect to Wait Until at Least 2025 for Association After UK Horizon Europe Deal

Swiss university leaders expect to have to wait until at least 2025 before associating to Horizon Europe after the UK struck a deal with Brussels last week. Switzerland, like the UK, has been excluded due to wider political disagreements with the EU. But while the UK solved its dispute over the Northern Ireland protocol in February this year, Switzerland hasn't even formally re-started talks with Brussels that could pave the way for association.

English is the Common Language of Science. That Comes at a Cost for Scientists and the Planet

English is the Common Language of Science. That Comes at a Cost for Scientists and the Planet

English is the common language of science, but it comes with downsides for scientists and our planet.

Harnessing Scientific Evidence and Decision Making to Accelerate the SDGs

Harnessing Scientific Evidence and Decision Making to Accelerate the SDGs

A joint statement summarizes insights from the first-ever Science Day held to accelerate progress on the SDGs.

Co-benefits of Climate-SDG Synergies Far Outweigh Trade-offs: UN Report

Co-benefits of Climate-SDG Synergies Far Outweigh Trade-offs: UN Report

A UN report prepared by a group of independent experts calls for governments to tackle the climate and sustainable development crises together, to maximize the impact of policies and actions.

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 …