Five mathematicians, working in a field spurned by Stockholm and Oslo as a matter of course, will now receive $3 million awards of their own It started with a simple message from Internet billionaire Yuri Milner: let's meet up.

The biggest thing holding invention back is our impatience. With enough time and support, young engineers will develop the technology we need.

Anne Glover says that better access to evidence helps policy-makers to make informed choices.

In an era of large collaborations, multi-authored papers, and enormous datasets, is there still room for the single creative idea that proves to be a gamechanger?

If everyone likes your research, you can be certain that you have not done anything important. That is the first thing to grasp. Conflict goes with the territory. Innovation comes when universities encourage risk-taking, says Andrew Oswald.

Measures of research impact are improving, but universities should be wary of their limits.

Nachwuchsforscher stehen unter hohem Druck: Gefragt sind Publikationen und Mobilität, Freiräume dagegen sind rar. Die Akademien der Wissenschaften der Schweiz machen die schwierige Situation zum Thema einer Tagung an der Universität Zürich.

Immer wieder geht das Schlagwort vom künstlichen Organismus um, wenn von der synthetischen Biologie die Rede ist. Doch wie künstlich ist das Leben, das diese Ingenieurs- disziplin der Biologie «schafft»?

Weakened by the economic crisis, European science faces increased competition from emerging countries. Helga Nowotny shares her vision for the future of European research.

Bernard Guetta is known as France's most respected geopolitical analyst. On his show on the public radio station France Inter, with its audience of 1.8 million, he deftly discusses the challenges Europe faces in the era of globalization.