Former universities minister Michelle Donelan is appointed head of newly-created Department for Science, Innovation and Technology in mini-reshuffle. The United Kingdom has a new government department dedicated to science and technology. On 7 February, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak split the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) into three new departments, creating the Department […]
Nature
Largest-ever study of journal editors highlights ‘self-publication’ and gender gap
Analysis shows that some researchers publish a considerable proportion of their own work in journals they edit. The gender gap among senior journal editors is bigger than many people thought, and some editors publish a surprising number of their own papers in the journals that they edit, finds the first study to look at these […]
Nature Outlook: Children’s Health
Most parents want to protect their children from the variety of illnesses and experiences that can occur in the early years of life. Explores some of the biggest issues in children’s health in this Nature Outlook that I edited. Read more in Nature.
Energy crisis squeezes science at CERN and other major facilities
LHC to end 2022 data-taking season two weeks early to save on electricity, among other measures. As energy prices spike as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, possibly causing a global economic downturn and stoking fears of rolling blackouts — especially in Europe — science laboratories are not being spared. The situation has raised […]
Turning city planning into a game
Ursula Eicker lets people play around while designing the cities of the future. Ursula Eicker builds ‘digital twins’ of cities, and she hopes to someday build one for yours. Her research team creates sophisticated computer models to explore how building materials, energy sources and people’s mobility patterns affect the energy use and carbon emissions of […]
The scientists who switched focus to fight climate change
Four researchers describe how they found different ways of responding to the planet’s biggest threat — from quitting tenure to overhauling their academic programme. It was during a car journey to California in temperatures sometimes exceeding 40 °C that Sophie Gilbert decided she needed to make a major career change. Driving to visit family from […]
Canada announces new innovation agency — and it’s not modelled on DARPA
The unit will instead mimic Finnish and Israeli agencies. But some researchers worry Canada might be too big and regionalized for the scheme to succeed. The Canadian government has announced that it will invest Can$1 billion (about US$780 million) over the next five years to create a funding agency focused on innovation in science and […]
Beauty and wonder of science boosts researchers’ well-being
Appreciating the phenomena they study helps scientists to persevere in the face of setbacks. Scientists’ ability to experience wonder, awe and beauty in their work is associated with higher levels of job satisfaction and better mental health, finds an international survey of researchers. Read more in Nature.
Sci-Hub downloads show countries where pirate paper site is most used
Researchers worldwide are accessing papers using the site — but China tops the chart, with more than 25 million downloads over the past month. Download figures for Sci-Hub, the popular but controversial website that hosts pirated copies of scientific papers, reveal where people are using the site most. The statistics show that users accessing Sci-Hub […]
Social-media platforms failing to tackle abuse of scientists
A report by activists found that half of debunked online disinformation targeting three prominent scientists remains live and unlabelled. Social-media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are not doing enough to tackle online abuse and disinformation targeted at scientists, suggests a study by international campaign group Avaaz. Read more in Nature.