Posts

Featured Post

SDGs: A level playing field?

Image
The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals have become a byword for the key challenges our world faces. But are developing countries facing an additional challenge, by not being recognized equally for the impact their research is having? Simon Linacre looks at a new white paper that shows more can be done to raise up funding and research recognition for the developing world. When the UN adopted the SDGs in 2015 to focus attention on the major challenges facing the world, it did so seeking to recognise all 193 signatory countries equally. It has always been apparent that some of the worst problems facing humanity are felt much more keenly in developing countries, however the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was an opportunity to right the wrongs of the past and even out inequalities. However, there has been a nagging doubt, to paraphrase George Orwell, that ‘all countries are equal, but some countries are more equal than others’. This fear has been realized in a la
Post a Comment
Read more

Pushing the frontiers of physics and nuclear energy

Image
  In southern Sweden, one of the largest science and technology infrastructure projects is being built. The European Spallation Source facility’s main aim “is to build and operate the world’s most powerful neutron source, enabling scientific breakthroughs in research related to materials, energy, health and the environment, and addressing some of the most important societal challenges of our time .” Up to 3 000 guest researchers will perform experiments here in any given year, beginning in 2023. An island off Finland’s southwestern coast will house the world’s first nuclear waste storage facility. About 400 metres below the ground, a specially built tomb is ready to receive spent nuclear fuel and keep it safely stored for about a million years. Sweden has begun constructing its own deep disposal site. France, Switzerland and the United Kingdom are next. AI is shaping the future of humanity. To safeguard it, the EU intends to act as a watchdog and regulate AI by finalising the Artifi
Post a Comment
Read more

Discovering ‘galaxies’ of research within universities

Image
University research data looks like something from outer space – let’s zoom in and see what’s there Research institutions need the right tools to discover their strengths and weaknesses, to plan for the future, and to make a greater impact for the communities of tomorrow. In this post, Digital Science’s VP Research Futures, Simon Porter, uses a digital telescope to view the ‘galaxies’ of research within our best and brightest institutions – and explains why that matters. When we see new images of our universe through the lens of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), we’re left in awe of the unique perspective we’ve witnessed, and something about our own universe – even the perception of our own existence – has altered as a result. What we see are entirely new galaxies, and worlds of possibility. That’s also what I see when I look at the research data spanning our many universities and research institutions globally. Each one of these institutions represents its own unique u
Post a Comment
Read more

My First 100 Days: Leadership for Change

Image
Dr Alison Mitchell, Chief of Staff, Digital Science. In keeping with many Digital Science new starters, Chief of Staff Alison Mitchell has had an exhilarating first few months at the company. Here she reflects on the theme of change in terms of leadership and growth in a complex organization. For many years I’ve watched Digital Science from afar, and I’ve always been aware of its long-held commitment to helping researchers and research institutions make a difference. For more than a decade, Digital Science has been committed to maximizing the impact research and researchers can have throughout society. We do this by providing researchers with the full range of data they need, by giving them access to analytics that enable better decision-making about research, and by supplying better tools to help communicate the outcomes – including the impact – of their research more broadly.  We’re in an era of major crises across the world that can be solved only through open debate and k
Post a Comment
Read more

This Number Clique Just Got More Exclusive: Mathematicians Finally Make a Breakthrough on the Ramsey Number

Image
Mathematicians have iterated a new upper-bound limit on a famously elusive math concept: the Ramsey Number The Ramsey number’s upper bound hasn’t changed since Paul Erdős calculated it in 1935 The Ramsey number involves “cliques” and “anti-cliques,” but this new research used related “books” to make the breakthrough. In  new research  that has not yet been peer reviewed, mathematicians have made tiny but important progress on one of math’s thorniest problems: the Ramsey number. The Ramsey number is part of the field of combinatorics, which studies the “counting numbers” and the different ways to arrange them in groups and other problems. One major example of a combinatorics subfield is graph theory. Aspects of combinatorics also touch many mathematical and other fields, from advanced  algebra  and  geometry  to  biology  and  programming . So why do all these people have their eyes on the prize of the Ramsey number, and what does this new breakthrough mean? Vist websit : https://new-sc
Post a Comment
Read more

For Scholars’ Eyes Only?

Image
Unravelling the academic impact of 007 The first edition of Ian Fleming’s novel Casino Royale (inset) was published 70 years ago on 13 April 1953. Daniel Craig (pictured) portrayed James Bond in the 2006 film adaptation of the book. James Bond remains the property of Eon Productions and Ian Fleming Publications. On the 70th anniversary of the publication of Ian Fleming’s first James Bond novel, Casino Royale , we ask the question: Why does James Bond have such a large footprint in scholarly literature? Our analysis reveals that Bond, James Bond, is about more than just espionage, vodka martinis and cinema studies. Every so often a fictional character is so well drawn that even though they often embody the ideals or sensibilities of a non-contemporary era, with all the challenges that can present, they transcend their original zeitgeist to be constantly reinvented, renewed and, to use a modern term, rebooted for new generations. In science fiction and fantasy, this is a famil
Post a Comment
Read more

Elsie Widdowson: Long-lasting impact on health

Image
Dr Elsie Widdowson . In the final of our series to celebrate Women’s History Month, we look at the remarkable career of Elsie Widdowson. Born in 1906, she was one of the first women to graduate from Imperial College, London, and went on to earn her first PhD from there. Following an early research interest in plants, she became an expert in human diets, going on to provide invaluable input into the UK’s rationing project after World War II. In this short series of blogs, Digital Science is using modern tools to assess three women and their research legacies to amplify their achievements during Women’s History Month. We saw earlier this month the major contributions made by Marie Maynard Daly and Rita Levi-Montalcini , and in the final part we review the impact made by Dr Elsie Widdowson in her long career.  The first remarkable thing to note about Dr Widdowson is the change in disciplines she covered in her early work. At first she was interested in plants, and her first PhD a
Post a Comment
Read more