For Yet Better Science

South Korea’s position as one of the world’s   most innovative nations   is a remarkable achievement considering that, for the first half of the twentieth century, it was an agrarian-based Japanese colony, then a battle ground. It is second only to Germany in Bloomberg’s 2020 Innovation Index, having reigned at the top of the 60-country list for the previous 5 years. In the separate 2019 Global Innovation Index, published by Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization, South Korea is at number 11 and Germany is in 9th place among the 129 countries ranked.

Language, cultural differences and expense are common downsides, but there are opportunities to learn new techniques, work in diverse settings and polish confidence.

When discussing Luxembourg many are quick to point out the country’s central location or small size. However, Luxembourg deserves to be equally acknowledged for its accomplishments in economics and business, visible through a number of innovation initiatives. Browsing the internet, one may discover that Luxembourg was responsible for putting the ball in ballpoint pens. Such a feat, though impressive, is only a small piece of the history of innovation in the Grand Duchy.  

A spirit of collaboration — and an engineering icon — have together supported the emergence of a major scientific hub. Engineers may know Øresund Bridge as Europe’s longest road and rail bridge. Aficionados of crime dramas will forever associate the spectacular 7.8-kilometre section between Malmö and Copenhagen with the opening credits of the popular Swedish–Danish series  The Bridge . For scientists in the region, its opening, in 2000, underpinned the development of Medicon Valley, one of Europe’s strongest life-sciences clusters.

As social media and other online networking sites have grown in usage, so too has trolling – an internet practice in which users intentionally seek to draw others into pointless and, at times, uncivil conversations. New research sheds light on the motives and personality characteristics of internet trolls. Through an online survey completed by over 400 Reddit users, the study found that individuals with dark triad personality traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy) combined with schadenfreude – a German word meaning that one derives pleasure from another’s misfortune – were more likely to demonstrate trolling behaviors.

Finland continues to maintain its position as a producer of high-impact research that ranks above the world average, despite growing international competition. At the same time though, many peer countries remain ahead of Finland. The latest data compiled by the Academy of Finland for its State of Scientific Research reviews indicate that the same trends apply for individual fields of science when the standard of research is assessed by citations to scientific publications.

More mice are used in research than any other animal species, so it is vital that experiments involving mice yield robust and reliable results. One potentially confounding factor is stress, which impacts on both the results of studies and the welfare of the animals involved.

The huge Paris–Saclay University has earned a top international ranking — but researchers say it’s too soon to judge whether the model is a success.

Scientific quality is hard to define, and numbers are easy to look at. But bibliometrics are warping science — encouraging quantity over quality. Leaders at two research institutions describe how they do things differently.

Few cities in the world unite sophisticated scientific opportunities with such a rich cultural life as the German capital.

Heidelberg's focus in on undergraduate student research. Here, you won’t compete with graduate students for lab time or resources, and we offer a unique combination of  labs and facilities  for your use, which includes a  cadaver lab , and  the  National Center for Water Quality Research  housed on our campus. 

Trolls are characterised by the ‘Dark Tetrad’ of personality traits, including psychopathy, Machiavellianism, Narcissism and sadism

A study explored gender, psychopathy, sadism and self-esteem as predictors of engaging in malevolent trolling.

Does anybody know why Twitter had suspended the account of the "for better science" troll Leonid Schneider ? Was the suspension related to the defamation suits that he lost in Germany?