In January 2018 the University of Manchester and MCAA launched a survey on the practices and attitudes in higher education institutions with regard to displaced students and academics. The aim of the survey was to identify the best practices to integrate displaced students and academics into higher education institutions. Together with previous work, the current study highlights the need to raise awareness among researchers and institutions about the various existing practices adopted in Europe to integrate displaced students and academics. Read more [...]
The Cambridge Analytica scandal has shown that the work of scientists is not neutral. The work of psychologists who designed the questionnaire aimed at profiling Facebook users might have been stellar work in its own right, within the standards of the field. But the way the answers to the questionnaire were later used for the purpose of influencing the political choices of the Facebook users who took the questionnaire, is--to say the least--questionable. This scandal is a case in point to show that there is no better time to continue the dialogue of the role of scientists in society. After 5 years working as Editor of EuroScientist, I would like to announce that I am now moving on to pastures new. Read more [...]
Medicamentalia-Contraceptives is an international journalistic investigation by Civio on birth control access and barriers. We have combined data journalism with on-the-ground reporting to tell the stories of the women behind the statistics, to gather their opinions about birth control access and their freedom to decide about their bodies. This instalment follows in the footsteps of two predecessors, focused on access to essential medicines and access to vaccines around the world. Read more [...]
One in ten women around the world doesn't use the contraceptives she needs. We analyse how women exercise this right and how side effects interfere with it. Read more [...]
The main monotheistic religions all limit the right of women to decide about their pregnancies and use contraceptives, but with different interpretations. Read more [...]
EuroScientist wishes 2018: To all of you, EuroScientist readers, we would like to thank you for your continuous support. In these few words, we would like to tell you how exciting the past four years have been since we re-launched the magazine. Now, at a time where media business models everywhere are being reinvented, EuroScientist is no exception to the trend. Find out what is in store for next year.... Read more [...]
The trend against Experts and a public loss of trust in science have recently made headlines. For example, they translated as tweets questioning man-made climate change by the current US president. Or statements such as ‘I think that the people of this country have had enough of experts’ by British politician Michael Gove during the Brexit campaign. But is such a shift in public attitudes towards science actually taking place? And if so, who exactly has lost trust in whom? In this opinion piece, the results of three national surveys on public perception and trust in science from Germany, Sweden and Switzerland are outlined and give us some answers. It makes for some fascinating reading! Read more [...]
Not everyone is able to seamlessly use the web, computers, tablets, smart-phones, electronic ticket machines and even some digital-based home appliances. Now, a new initiative, called Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure, seeks to set up an open development community to solve the accessibility problem. Read more [...]
Our biological clock made the news headlines, recently. Earlier this month, the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine was awarded to a trio of American scientists – Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash, Michael W. Young – for their work on the topic. The announcement has, thus, triggered a renewed interest for our sleep patterns. Read more [...]
Nowadays thanks to the improvement of the techniques of DNA sequencing and developing new statistical tools it is possible to study DNA of mummies revealing interesting news: ancient Egyptians are much more closely related to ancient Middle Easterner populations than African populations. Read more [...]
Many public statements condemning the recent attacks in Barcelona—which saw a van trample over people in La Ramblas on a crowded summer evening—aim to disregard the terrorists by classifying them as “mere murderers”, “crude criminals” or other similar insults. The following analogy may sound harsh, however it seems to me that this strategy is as mistaken. And it is equally dangerous to one that brands a man who murders his wife as someone mentally disturbed. In both cases the goal is to reduce the perpetrator to a condition of irrationality. And in doing so refusing to comprehend the complex structure of radicalisation. Read more [...]
A controversial European Union court decision about vaccines raises two interesting scientific questions: How do scientists decide whether vaccines can cause conditions such as autism or multiple sclerosis? And how certain can they be when they make their conclusions? Recently news outlets ran headlines saying that the highest court of the European Union ruled, “Vaccines can be blamed for illnesses without proof” or “without scientific evidence.” But the EU court decision is a bit more complex than the headlines claim. In this piece of investigative journalism, Vanessa Schipani examines the case. Read more [...]
European science conversations by the community, for the community
