Although spending on science has risen worldwide, greater investment is needed in the face of growing crises, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has recommended in a new report published. The latest edition of its Science Report, which is published every five years, further reveals that there is …
Researchers like to work on projects that start small and slowly scale up. They must think bigger and faster, says Sandy J. Andelman, to tackle today's problems in time. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v475/n7356/full/475290a.html
Vijayan summarizes the problems faced with respect to funding of research. He suggests how grant system could be improved to achieve better quality in research. The manner in which grant applications are handled and funds are released is only one dimension (albeit a major one); there are other aspects to …
This major study analyses where, why and by whom science is being carried out around the world, and how this is changing. Examines how international networks of collaboration are changing the way in which scientific research is conducted, funded, the implications on decision makers in government, NGOs. etc and includes …
A shoddy inter-academy report on GM crops casts a shadow on the integrity and competence of Indian science, while a US expert finds approval for Bt brinjal deeply flawed according to this latest special report in Down to Earth. A shoddy inter-academy report on GM crops casts a shadow on …
When six of India’s top scientific academies were asked by Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh in March to assess the feasibility and safety of genetically modified (GM) crops and their regulation, it was expected their evaluation would help resolve the highly contentious question of growing GM food …
How many of the Einsteins who exist now will be allowed to learn physics? That is the question Eben Moglen, professor of law and legal history at Columbia University, threw at a selected audience in Delhi last month. And the answer he provided—none, perhaps—did not occasion much surprise. Those attending …
The leading academies of science in India have, at the request of the government, prepared a report that was expected to give an independent scientific review of transgenic crops and the proposed Biotechnology Regulatory Bill. But the Inter- Academy Report that has been prepared is disappointing on several fronts
Pune Indian gravitational wave astronomy has taken one step closer to studying gravitational waves, which may be able to provide direct evidence for the existence of black holes as a prototype is being built of a gravitational wave detector. The project is being carried out by Tata Institute of Fundamental …
The demands of global capital, mediated through the market, are increasingly driving the trajectory of advances in science. Today this acts as the principal barrier to the advance of science as a knowledge system that is designed to serve the needs of the people. The needs of a neo-liberal economic …
After a lengthy scientific review, the United States last week decided to ban the use of endosulfan, an inexpensive organochlorine pesticide that builds up in the environment. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ruled that the compound
On the analysis in his recent study I drew a large, random sample of papers from all disciplines declared to have tested a hypothesis and of which the main author was working in the US. I verified whether these papers were more or less likely to support the hypothesis they …
Spending on science is one of the best ways to generate jobs and economic growth, say research advocates. But as Colin Macilwain reports, the evidence behind such claims is patchy.
Much of the problems associated with the application of technology can be traced to the absence of any social science input into the foundation or structuring of science research in our contemporary world. Civil society interventions are almost invariably seen as irritants to science, while Weberian experts are expected to …
