European science conversations
by the community, for the community
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 [...]
On 9th of February 2014, the people of Switzerland voted in a referendum for the limitation of immigration from the European Union. Within three years, the government has to fix annual quota for asylum seekers and EU citizens interested in living in the country. In response, the EU has now suspended negotiations about the association of Switzerland to the European funding scheme Horizon 2020. Switzerland is heavily implicated in European research projects, which makes the referendum’s decision potentially disastrous for Swiss scientists. Read more [...]
Swiss science and education may take a hit after the country's citizens narrowly approved immigration caps in a referendum on 9 February. Though the immigration reform would take up to three years to implement, the vote had an immediate impact on the European Union's newest member state, Croatia, which saw its free movement of people agreement with Switzerland put on hold. Read more [...]
On the 11th March 2011 the Tohoku earthquake struck off the north-eastern coast of the Japanese island of Honshu. An area of seafloor larger than Greater Tokyo moved eastwards by 5 metres and some parts of the fault moved by up to 50 metres. A total of nearly 19,000 people were killed, mainly as a result of the following tsunami. But the event came as a huge surprise to scientists the world over “This was a truly extraordinary earthquake and very unfortunately seismologists, including myself, did not expect this to happen,” said Japanese scientist Dr. Kiyoshi Suyehiro. Read more [...]
A European team of researchers has identified the mutation that triggers narcolepsy by studying a large family who suffer from this rare disorder. Read more [...]
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