News

So-called citizen science has become a significant force in several scholarly disciplines. The phenomenon can be found in both the natural and the social sciences, according to the largest systematic analysis to date on the topic, the results of which are published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE. ‘We see that in particular researchers in the natural sciences have collected and classified data with the help of interested volunteers. In the social sciences, there has been a focus on inviting select parts of the public to find out the effects of science on people's everyday lives. This may for example concern environment problems and risks,’ says Christopher Kullenberg, researcher in the field of theory of science.

Read More »

It's the moment we've all been dreading. Initial findings from a massive federal study, released on Thursday, suggest that radio-frequency (RF) radiation, the type emitted by cellphones, can cause cancer. The findings from a $25 million study, conducted over two and a half years by the National Toxicology Program (NTP), showed that male rats exposed to two types of RF radiation were significantly more likely than unexposed rats to develop a type of brain cancer called a glioma, and also had a higher chance of developing the rare, malignant form of tumor known as a schwannoma of the heart. The effect was not seen in females...

Read More »

The British Medical Journal just published an anonymous article by a pharmaceutical company insider that explained once again how pharmaceutical companies turn research studies, apparently scholarly articles, and medical education into stealth marketing efforts. Read More »

On the World Wide Web where virtually anyone can publish almost anything, it can be difficult to validate the authority of information and sources. Now, as the worlds of traditional scholarly publishing and open access (OA) journals intersect, it may be more difficult than ever. Read More »

Today’s healthcare systems face escalating challenges as they aggregate into larger and more complex health systems that are vertically and horizontally integrated. The trend is being driven by both business conditions and new government policies. But are the new systems producing better clinical and business outcomes? Read More »

Genevieve Contey and David Miller gave a presentation Wednesday about their experience managing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s social media platforms during Hurricane Sandy. Read More »

Three foundations pledged $6M over the next three years to Project Jupyter, an open-source software project that supports scientific computing and data science across a wide range of programming languages via a large, public, open and inclusive community. Fernando Perez of University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Brian Granger of California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo will lead the project at their institutions. Perez and Granger’s efforts with Project Jupyter are the result of their work developing IPython, a popular user interface for interactive computing across multiple programming languages.

Read More »