Research dollars don’t stay locked up in academia and government labs. R&D collaborations with the private sector are common – and grow the innovation economy.
Rand Wilcox, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Any field that collects and analyzes data relies on statistical techniques to make sense of it all. Modern, more accurate methods should supplant the old ways… but in many cases, they haven’t yet.
Not much science will get done without the money to fund people and equipment.
Michael Pereckas
What are research dollars actually spent on? Rather than looking at artifacts like publications and patents, a new initiative directly tracks the people and businesses that receive research funding.
There wouldn’t be statues acclaiming Darwin and his theory if it couldn’t stand up to decades of testing.
CGP Grey
In science, the word ‘theory’ has a very specific meaning that’s easy for nonscientists to misunderstand or misconstrue. Here’s what a theory must withstand to be accepted by the scientific community.
A scientific breakthrough in a vacuum may be free of ethical implications. But many developments can be used for good or evil, or both. There’s a fine balance on what to control and to what extent.
More is less in the world of research publications.
Desktop image via www.shutterstock.com.
The traditional mode of publishing scientific research faces much criticism – primarily for being too slow and sometimes shoddily done. Maybe fewer publications of higher quality is the way forward.
One of Newcastle’s macaque monkeys.
Newcastle University
Embracing more rigorous scientific methods would mean getting science right more often than we currently do. But the way we value and reward scientists makes this a challenge.
Climate change and the current El Niño have left Africans more vulnerable than ever to hunger.
Philimon Bulawayo/Reuters
Economic growth alone won’t end hunger. Good policies and programmes are needed, too. Scientists and researchers have a role to play in these initiatives.
Can new ideas break through preconceived notions?
Light bulb image via www.shutterstock.com.
Science and technology research has become so complicated and expensive that a gap has grown between the experiments scientists would like to do and what they have the means to do.
Extra, extra! The embargo’s lifted, read all about it.
Newspapers image via www.shutterstock.com.
A new model of citizen-led science is emerging – as in the case of Flint, Michigan’s poisoned water. Rather than simply supporting scientists, citizens ask their own questions and set the research agenda.
If scientists’ knowledge is segregated in non-overlapping silos, there can’t be cross-pollination between fields.
Doc Searls
Scientists often prioritize deep goals over broad ones. But today’s “wicked” problems demand an interdisciplinary approach. A new study shows how they can tweak work styles to alter their deep/broad ratio.
Previous Vice President of the Academy of Science of South Africa and DSI-NRF SARChI chair in Fungal Genomics, Professor in Genetics, University of Pretoria, University of Pretoria