European science conversations
by the community, for the community
The second Eurasian Women's Forum (EWF), which took place from September 19 to September 21, 2018, ended in St. Petersburg.
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke at the plenary session of the forum. The head of state noted that it is necessary to Read more [...]
Last year, Russia’s president Putin took away all the assets of the Russian Academy of Science . Putin has also created a sort of mega-academy, merging the academies of Sciences, Agricultural Sciences and Medical Sciences. However, its control was not bestowed upon the forward thinking chairman of the RAS, Vladimir Fortov. Instead, it was attributed to one of Putin’s finance manager, creating fierce controversy in the country and abroad. These events have come to disrupt parallel attempts to put Russian science back on the world map. For example, through initiatives such as the creation of a Russian Silicon Valley and the support of a mega-grant programme to reverse the brain drain. Read more [...]
There is little information about how the new Eurasian Economic Union may affect scientists in Belarus and Kazakhstan, which entered a closer economic union with Russia this week (29 May).
The backdrop to the agreement is two major forces, the Read more [...]
Russian researchers are vehemently protesting a bill that would essentially liquidate the venerated Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) and replace it with a newly -formed but as-yet poorly-defined body. The bill was passed its first and second reading on 1 July and 5 July 2013, respectively. It is slated to be signed into law when the Duma resumes session on 10 September. According to Russian law, substantive changes may not be made to a bill after it passes its second reading. Read more [...]
Fifty three years ago, on 31 January 1958, the first satellite for the observation of Earth was launched. Explorer 1 was the first satellite sent into orbit by the United States of America. In October 1957 the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 into space thus beginning the Cold War space race. Read more [...]
The scientific community have mobilised to save the threatened Pavlovks Experimental Station, which hosts a gene bank in the outskirts of St Petersburg. The facility holds genetic plant material - 90% of their plant seeds can not be found anywhere else in the world. Read more [...]
Russian history advances in concentric circles - repeating the same mistakes (or courageous attempts). Once more the Russian government believes that lust and money is enough to realise the qualitative changes that the Russia economy needs. Read more [...]
This June, I found out that I was going to ESOF 2010 – I was lucky to get a EuroScience travel grant as a young science journalist. I was eager to attend this forum, because I felt it was a great example of science communication, as well as an interesting Read more [...]
Grigory Perelman is the man who refused a million dollar prize awarded by the Clay Mathematics Institute in Cambridge for proving the Poincaré conjecture, a century-old conundrum about the characteristics of three-dimensional spheres, regarded by mathematicians as a holy grail for its important implications for mathematics and cosmology. Read more [...]
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