Ecologists fear plan to seal off the United States from Mexico would put wildlife at risk. With Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump talking about walling off the United States from Mexico, ecologists fear for the future of the delicate and surprisingly diverse ecosystems that span Mexico’s border with the southwestern United States. “The southwestern US […]
policy
Israel’s botanical gardens face funding crisis
Israel’s 11 botanical gardens are scrambling to cope with deep cuts in funding from the government’s agricultural ministry. Government spending on the gardens, which host research and education programs and are often associated with universities, is down by more than 50% this year. That’s a reprieve from a 98% cut that the ministry announced last […]
Brexit Vote Will Likely Cause Problems for UK Fishers
Fishers were part of the “Leave” push, but it may not work out as they’d hoped. The United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union in last week’s “Brexit” referendum will have profound effects on how fisheries are managed in both the UK and the EU. For now, it’s unclear exactly what those effects will […]
Drugs are going missing, but why?
Dr. Jacalyn Duffin, a hematologist and medical historian at Queen’s University in Kingston, first became aware that certain drugs were sometimes getting hard to find in 2010, when her patient at a cancer clinic wanted to stop chemotherapy because she couldn’t get prochlorperazine, a common anti-nausea drug. Duffin was shocked. “I just couldn’t believe that […]
Canadian researchers do more with less
Growing participation in large international research projects may explain the drop in Canada’s index performance. Researchers at Canadian institutions are publishing more papers in top journals, but make up a smaller part of the collaborative teams that publish them, according to the latest data from Nature Index. Between 2012 and 2015, the number of publications […]
Winners and losers emerge in UK funding shake-up
Government’s ‘global challenges’ fund hoovers up extra cash for developing-world problems, cutting grants elsewhere. Funds dedicated for research on developing-world problems will eat into the core science grants of the United Kingdom’s research councils over the next five years, documents released by the councils show. After enduring years of flat funding, scientists had celebrated in […]
Calls for more independence for government medical officers
Physicians are calling for Canada’s chief medical officers of health to be given greater independence from provincial governments following the recent firing of New Brunswick’s medical officer, Dr. Eilish Cleary, for reasons that remain unknown. “The position is too important to allow people to be arbitrarily dismissed,” says Dr. James Talbot, the former chief medical officer of […]
A Fishy Plan
Canada’s new government says it’s going to expand the country’s marine protected areas. Scientists worry the government is cutting corners to hit its goal. Canada has a long way to go in protecting its oceans. The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity wants 10 percent of the world’s marine and coastal environments protected by 2020. […]
Nurse review paves way for merger of UK research councils
Paul Nurse, president of the Royal Society, has called for an overarching body to encompass all the UK’s research councils in a long-awaited review released last week. A review of the UK’s research funding system has recommended tighter integration of the country’s seven discipline-specific research councils under a single, new umbrella organisation that would oversee […]
Canada expected to reinstate mandatory census
The new Canadian government seems poised to fulfill a wish of social scientists by bringing back the country’s mandatory long-form census. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was sworn in this morning, and members of his Liberal party expect him to act promptly to meet one of his campaign promises. Such a move would also signal his […]