News & Views Index
March
2010

 

 

 

Large Hadron Collider Begins First Set of Data Runs, Though at Half Energy.    31/03/10 [More

 

President of the Royal Society, Martin Rees, is Visiting Australia as the Guest of the Australian Academy of Science.    29/03/10

    Yesterday he discussed his views on the challenges of climate change, the makeup of Britain's House of Lords his "day job" of being a cosmologist/astrophysicist, and his views on Richard Dawkins, religion and god with the ABC's Monica Attard. [More]

 

Flawed Top-down Scientific Directives Impact the Conduct of Groundbreaking Research.    2703/10

     Arguably, some of the most groundbreaking discoveries in the modern era... have been made by single, ground-up scientists. [More

 

The Minister, the Universities, and Those Interim Compacts.    24/03/10

    Not only do those interim agreements have no cloths, there's damn all flesh on them. [More]

 

Former Commissioner for London Schools Asks Which UK Political Party Will Put Education First?    24/03/10

    A recent poll shows that first-time UK voters regard education as a top priority in the forthcoming election. [More]

 

Nobel Laureate Nominated for US Office of Science and Technology Policy Associate Directorship.    24/03/10

    The Director of US President Barack Obama's Office of Science and Technology Policy, John Holdren, may soon be joined by physicist Carl Wieman as an associate director for science. [More]

 

University of Queensland to Raise the Bar for Mathematics Teaching.    23/03/10

    The University of Queensland News reports the following initiative which we believe really is a big deal. [More]

 

Tackling Human-Relevant Climate Change.    23/03/10

    Three US federal agencies announced the launch Monday of a joint 5-year, $250-million program to predict climate change and its impacts on local scales over several decades... [More

 

Ratio of Research Funding to Highly Cited Publications - Six Nations.    22/03/10

    Britain faces fierce competitive challenges "from countries which are investing at a scale and speed that [it] may struggle to match". [More]

 

Australia's Chief Scientist on ABC's Lateline.    20/03/10

    Following the March 18, 2010 meeting of the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council (PMSEIC) Lateline's Ticky Fullerton gave Australia's Chief Scientist, Professor Penny Sackett an extensive interview. [More]

 

Eric Lander, Co-Chair of PCAST, Spoke to the AAAS on Science and Technology in the First Year of the Obama Administration.    19/03/10 [More]

 

Australian Academy of Science's Report on Australia's Renewable Energy Future.    19/03/10

     It provides scientific analyses of eight existing and emerging renewable energy technologies. [More]

 

PMSEIC Concentrates on the Science of Learning and New Terms of Reference are Announced.    18/03/10

    Whether or not you consider that the Council is making (or being allowed to make) a significant contribution to furthering science, engineering and innovation for Australia... [More]

 

Israeli Astrophysicist Evinces Scepticism About Proposed Centres of Excellence.    18/03/10

    Is it a strategy to counteract opposition within the universities to government policies? [More

 

Japan's Scientists Produce Ten-Year Roadmap -- Resourcing It, However, is Problematic.    18/03/10

    But "The council doesn't have the money to translate the documents," Iwasawa sighs. [More

 

There's Been Deafening Silence Following the Release of the Report -- Peter Hall.    17/03/10 [More]

 

Israeli Cabinet Approves NIS 1.3b (A$382m) Plan to Reverse Israeli Brain Drain.    16/03/10

    The Israeli cabinet has approved a five-year program to create 30 centres of academic excellence in order to attract Israel's leading scientific Diaspora. [More

 

The US President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology's (PCAST) March 12th Meeting.    16/03/10

    PCAST meets at bimonthly intervals, publishes its agendas well in advance, is open to the public, and invites public contributions. In addition the proceedings are webcast and  then archived. [More]

 

For Maths It's Déjà Vu All Over Again.    15/03/10

    On March 10, 2010 the Group of Eight universities released its Review of Education in Mathematics, Data Science and Quantitative Disciplines. [More]

 

Snapshots of Australia's Climate 1960 - 2009 and More.    15/03/10

    CSIRO and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology have combined to present this picture of Australia’s climate. [More

 

Historian Geoffrey Alderman's Assessment of the British University Sector Has Relevance for Australia.    15/03/10

    An interrelationship of toxic factors is responsible for the worsening standards in British universities. [More]

 

Canadian Science Budget a Bit Thin This Year.    06/03/10

    And the announcement that the government will conduct the latest in a series of reviews of federal science spending has met with a collective groan. [More

 

Dates for PMSEIC and PCAST Announced.    06/03/10 [More]

 

Cuts at King's College, London: a Comment of Wide Significance by Iain Pears.    05/03/10

    Proposals for draconian cuts of academic staff at King's College London have justly aroused condemnation from the world of academia and beyond, not only for their savagery, but for the way they are being implemented. [More]

 

Perhaps It Was as Inevitable as Death and Taxes.    04/03/10

    Critics of the teaching of evolution in US classrooms are gaining ground in some states by linking the issue to global warming. [More]

 

John Holdren Comments on the Proposed US R&D Budget.    04/03/10

    Even within a tight budget, the president is proposing a 6.4 percent increase for civilian research and development. [More]

 

Ms Gillard Gives Universities Australia a Rousing Pep Talk to Go Forth and Educate Fiercely.    03/03/10

    The Hon Julia Gillard MP, Minister for Education. Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Minister for Social Inclusion, Deputy Prime Minister. Address to the Universities Australia Annual Higher Education Conference. [More]

 

Britain's Council for Science and Technology Issues A Vision for UK Research.    03/03/10

    The Council for Science and Technology (CST) is the UK Prime Minister’s top-level advisory body on science and technology policy issues, Gordon Brown's equivalent of US President Barack Obama's PCAST. [More]

 

Helga Nowotny Assumes Presidency of European Research Council; Fotis Kafatos Returns to Research.    02/03/10

    Fotis Kafatos: "I don't begrudge the time I spent on the ERC, but I would be foolish not to step down now — it was consuming me." [More]

 

A University Consists Not of its Estate, but... its Academic Staff : Jonathan Wolff.    02/03/10

    If a university starts to shed academic staff, the international marketplace responds. [More