Sabine has a passion for all things related to European research. A physicist by training, she has been covering stories in life science, the physical sciences, technology, policy and innovation for the past 20 years. She was previously the news editor at Nature Biotechnology. She was also involved in the creation ofAlphaGalileo. She is the Founder of SciencePOD translating complex science and tech concepts into high-quality articles written in simple language.
As Easter is looming, some of us already know that eating large amounts of chocolate eggs will be too much of a temptation to resist. This Easter chocolate binge is symptomatic of our approach to health. And to preventing chronic diseases that may affect us later in life. Until we actually see the damage done by such often irresponsible behaviour, we are not going to change. Clearly, we are our own worst enemies, when it comes to keeping ourselves in good health and taking preventative steps. Read more […]
In this exclusive interview with EuroScientist, John Ioannidis, professor of medicine, health research and policy, and statistics at Stanford University, California, USA, who is best known for his work on biases that pervade research and on how to improve research methods and practices, talks about possible new drivers for research to help scientists do research for the common good in the future. Read more […]
Chief Scientific Advisers (CSAs) play a unique role in countries that have them, like Ireland, the UK, the Czech Republic and New Zealand. Here, EuroScientist explores the nature of the science adviser’s role, in an exclusive interview with Mark Ferguson, CSA to the Irish Government. A timely read, as the European Commission just announced the name of the members of its high-level group of scientific advisers, as part of the new EU scientific advice mechanism. Read more […]
The practice of mindfulness is not yet full recognised by the science community for the benefits it can bring to the well-being and performance of individuals. As such, it constitutes the perfect case study to identify how evidence-base can help in promoting its wider adoption. Find out about how organisations who traditionally would not necessarily have adopted such practice–like universities, investment firms, tech companies,parliaments and the army–have been convinced to pursue this avenue Read more […]
Science may be opening up, but there are still areas that researchers would like to see remain private. Indeed, under the auspices of open science, scientists are increasingly expected to present a virtual projection of who they are. Appearance has gained an unprecedented level of importance. Scientists who do not play along open themselves to being mistreated or misunderstood. Living in a world of social media network means that scientists’ every utterance is recorded, dissected and analysed. Unfortunately, researchers have come to this game unprepared and without the type of training that politicians typically benefit from. Nobel Laureate Tim Hunt has had a bitter experience in this new era. Read more […]
The EC consultation on Science 2.0, whose results have recently been published, raised a number of issues that may need to be addressed before the idea of open science can fully be implemented. In particular, the need to introduce incentives in the scientific process to encourage scientists to share their data and publish in open access journals was brought up by many of the stakeholders consulted. He also sees the role of the Commission as that of a broker to create a level playing field to make it possible for open science to flourish. Read more […]
This is the first of a series of articles and interview in our forthcoming special issue on Open Science due to be published on 22nd June. In this exclusive interview with EuroScientist, Jan Velterop, an active advocate of open access, gives his opinion about how scholarly publishing is going to play a role in the evolution of research towards more open science. He outlines the types of hurdles present along the way, in relation to copyright and the peer review process, among others. He also touches upon what, he believes, needs to change in the behaviour of scientists themselves and that of academic institutions Read more […]
The culture and conditions of the scientific process have evolved in such a way—with greater collaboration and greater competition than ever before–that anonymity no longer serves its purpose. It is therefore time to reflect on the best mechanisms that can be introduced to ensure greater study reproducibility and replicability. Read more […]
In this exclusive interview with EuroScientist, Kamila Markram explains how Frontiers, the open access academic publisher she co-founded is designed to remedy some of the shortcomings of the current academic publishing process. She talks about reinventing peer review by making it possible to exchange views, introducing altmetrics and making science attractive to young minds. She also introduces Loop, a social media network for scientists designed to be integrated wherever scientists are present, in places such as online publications and universities web sites. Read more […]
The lack of regulatory scrutiny on how our personal data is collected and used is a growing concern. It is not clear which is the most worrying. Having future generations who may not even question being under constant digital scrutiny. Or allowing technology to further develop without implementing the necessary data privacy safety nets; thus failing to create healthy habits for the next generations. Read more […]
Big Data is becoming a new paradigm of evidence-based decision making, creating new possibilities to build smarter, more resilient and more efficient cities and societies. In this interview, Dirk Helbing, professor of computational social science at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, explains how to best utilise information for ourselves and our society, and what pitfalls may lie ahead. Read more […]
Trust. You can trust scientists, can’t you? They investigate the world, are curious, and always tell the truth, don’t they? In this editorial, you will find rather unscientific elements of trivia related to trust. It is designed to get our readers thinking about the true nature of trust, as part of our special issue on the topic. Read more […]
European science conversations by the community, for the community
