European science conversations
by the community, for the community
Recently, I have involved the Homo scientificus europaeus project in both a national and local initiative, first in Spain and then in Barcelona. My apologies for writing in the first person. This was not on the agenda. Two weeks ago, I realized that the Read more […]
Any politician that dangles the carrot of a graduate premium on future earnings to justify increases in student fees, interest rates on loans, or adjusting student loan repayment thresholds, should be challenged for gross mis-selling. These are the findings of a recent report by the UK Intergenerational Foundation. In this opinion piece, the author of the report warns of the possible financial implications of postgraduate student loans for the future financial health of students and their career prospects. This phenomenon, particularly acute in the UK, could soon reach other countries in Europe, should they be tempted to follow suit.
Computer science gives us stunning possibilities these days, but I wish we would all take time to remind ourselves of some simple facts about algorithms.
‘How democratic should science be?’ was the question that opened the first Scientists Dating Forum public event. In the evening of the 26th October, around 30 people meet in Flatherty’s Irish Pub (Barcelona) to discuss the participation of society in science while having a beer.
In the second instalment of a two-part series, Emmanuelle Charpentier, head of regulation and infection biology at the Max-Planck-Institut in Berlin, Germany, gives her opinion on the challenges in obtaining research funding in the current system in Europe. She also shares her views on how mobility can be hampered by bureaucracy. Finally, she points to the limited coherence for scientists pursuing a research career in Europe. Clearly, many efforts have yet to be made to improve the condition of scientists in Europe.
Science:Disrupt aims to bring people together, encouraging them to mix ideas and share their dreams, by organising events and stimulating discussions using articles and podcasts. Mixing people of various background is designed to facilitate cross-fertilisation of ideas from different disciplines and geographies and stimulate collaborative co-creation in science. In this interview with Euroscientist, Science:Disrupt co-founder Gemma Milne, explains how she was inspired by this type of multidisciplinary emulation already taking place in the tech start-up scene.
In April of this year the world’s first three-parent baby was born and is reported to be healthy. This is a huge milestone in mitochondrial therapy, a year after the procedure was legalised in the UK, the only country in the world (so far) to have explicitly permitted the technique.
A network of young scientists demonstrated that they have a unique role to play in helping to protect endangered fish species. Specifically, they are involved in developing better production strategies for salmon, eels and sturgeons, under the umbrella of a European project called IMPRESS. To develop conservation solutions through innovative research, they seek to pair their research objectives with understanding the needs of fishing communities and conservation policy makers. This example shows the potential for evidence-based policies can make a difference to wild fish species.
During the year where President Reagan started his famous tax cut, I was a master student in Biochemistry at Univ. Paris 6- UPMC, lucky to learn the concept of protein allostery from a great professor, Daniel Blangy. Years before, he was one of the Read more […]
For every characteristic of uberisation, there is a parallel in the world of research. This raises the question of whether research was “uberised” before Uber even existed? In this article EuroScientist explores which aspects in research have been most impacted by technology, and the challenges ahead to leverage uberisation for the good of science and scientists.
Public databases of the toxic effects of chemicals that have been registered under the REACH directive have been sitting idle for too long. In an opinion piece, Thomas Hartung explains how the development of software by his team at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, at Johns Hopkins University, USA, helps make sense of the large volume of chemical database content. Now that they made such data machine readable, expectations are that it will soon be possible to provide open access to such public database. Ultimately, this could substantially decrease the number of animal tests. Indeed, the database makes it possible to do so-called read-across, allowing to infer toxicity of heaps of untested chemicals from existing data on chemicals of similar structure, which have already been tested.
Website and social media statistics To increase the reach of the articles, podcasts and videos published on EuroScientist, we spread our content using our mailing list, our broad network of contacts connected to the ESOF conference, and to the EuroScience membership, Read more […]
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