Science in society

Participants at the 3-2-1-Ignition pop-up science shop in Nottingham, UK. Image courtesy of Ignite! Futures.

23 September 2013

Bringing science to life for young people

Science graduates, museum staff and enthusiasts across Europe are sharing their passion for research by organising temporary exhibitions in shopping centres and parks to help inspire the next generation.

science in society

16 September 2013

Empowering a generation of scientists

Lithuanian Laurynas Pliuškys hopes that the research he is doing could help find a cure for arthritis, and it’s thanks to Europe’s young scientist award that has been giving researchers the confidence to take up careers in science for a quarter of a century.

Marc Abrahams pictured with the Public Health prize-winning wonder bra at TEDx at CERN. © CERN

science in society

14 June 2013

Ig Nobel prizes make you laugh... then think

Each Autumn, just before the announcement in Stockholm of the genuine Nobel Prize laureates, a band of merry men at Harvard University distribute the ‘Ig Nobel Prizes’. These awards recognise real research work that make people laugh… and then think.

Archaeologist investigating a submerged prehistoric settlement site in Denmark. © The Viking Ship Museum

science in society

08 May 2013

Shipwreck ahoy!

Denmark’s best-preserved 17th century wreck may have gone completely unnoticed if it hadn’t been lying close to the path of a construction project.

During the PERPETUATE project, researchers used a huge shaking table from the Italian National Agencies for New Technologies and the Environment in Rome to test the vulnerability of model buildings confronted by a simulated earthquake. Here, a model of a vault from the Dey Mosque of Algiers is being tested. © Serena Cattari

science in society | environment

24 April 2013

Earthquake projects try to preserve history

The Ottoman mansion of Hassan Bey in the seismically active medieval centre of Rhodes, Greece, does not worry civil engineers – even though the building is faulty because its floor isn’t very well connected to the wall.

New scientific journals aim to be more and more open. © iStock

science in society

18 March 2013

A new 100 % ‘open’ scientific journal

Across the Atlantic, scientists are also making use of open access journals. In Canada, the national medical association started publishing a totally new, fully ‘open’ journal in January.

Gaining professional experience abroad can be a career boost for women scientists © Shutterstock

science in society | women in science | policy

18 March 2013

Women in science: Mobility is good for your career

For scientists, packing up their lab coats and microscopes and heading to foreign laboratories can really pay dividends. Thanks to initiatives like Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowships, women are benefiting more and more from making a move abroad.

Open access aims to make the results of publicly funded scientific research more accessible

science in society | innovation union

13 March 2013

Research plan fuels open access revolution

When Tim Gowers, a maths professor at the University of Cambridge in the UK, wrote a blog post criticising the high price charged by academic journals to access research, he did not expect to start a revolution.