2 mei - The world’s oldest continuous scientific experiment is about to produce another patient climax. A tendril of a tar-like substance will drop from a glass funnel, something which has only happened eight times since the experiment started in 1927.
1 mei - Scientists on PLoS ONE tried to replicate the ‘priming’ experiments originally described by social psychologist Dijksterhuis. But the replication failed. A new chapter in social psychology's problematic history?
26 april - According to the last negotiating paper, it will be 2017 before the research-budget of the EU and Horizon2020 will return to current levels. “Very unambitious”, says EP Budget negotiator Anne Jensen. The budget for ‘promoting active European citizenship’ is ironically cut too in this ‘Year of the Citizen.’
19 april - The origin of the Antarctic ecosystem can be traced back to the emergence of the Antarctic ice sheets 33.5 million years ago, research from Utrecht University shows. The development of a sea-ice ecosystem triggered further the evolution of whales and penguins.
12 april - University rankings are ubiquitous, but still none of them are able do justice to research in arts, humanities and social sciences. The same holds true for teaching performance, according to EUA.
8 april - The image of science as an exclusively male profession must be altered. Instead female role models and mentors help girls to choose sciences, say three CERN-researchers.
4 april - EdX and Stanford team up to build an open source platform and the smartphone technology influences education in Africa. Also, on this week’s agenda, why are almost all the world’s largest solar panel producers in danger of going bankrupt?
4 april - Although students are notorious for their drinking, college enrollment does not lead to alcohol abuse later in adulthood, research from Penn State shows. Hypothetically, if everybody in the US would go to college, alcohol abuse would even be reduced significantly.
3 april - At only fifteen, Jack Andraka did what the entire medical community couldn’t: he created a cheap sensor test for cancer. If others are to follow his lead, education needs more creativity; the current system “is the most effective way to kill innovation.”
25 maart - One of the world’s biggest solar plants has very recently opened in the United Arab Emirates. It is a sign of things to come in the Gulf region. The Energy Academy of the Dutch Hanze Hogeschool looks revolutionary developments in Arab Countries better known for oil production.
22 maart - The Indian president calls for a “culture of excellence” in higher education and the EU opens up access to scientific research. Also, on this week’s agenda, the most detailed picture ever of the early universe.
20 maart - President Obama proposed a trust fund to finance alternative energy transportation research. “The only way to really break this cycle of spiking gas prices, the only way to break that cycle for good is to shift our cars entirely off oil.
19 maart - Atomic collapse, a phenomenon first predicted in the 1930s but never observed, has now been seen for the first time in an “artificial nucleus” simulated on a sheet of graphene. This discovery by MIT and Berkeley could pave the way for new kinds of graphene-based electronic devices.
12 maart - Scientists from Wageningen University discovered a gene that allows potato plants to develop tubers during the long days of summer in northern latitudes. Without this gene, the production of potatoes would not have been possible in Europe.