For Yet Better Science

The human mind takes shortcuts by using past experiences to fill in missing information. This special talent helped our forebears avoid unfamiliar dangers and facilitated the development of modern civilization. Today, it allows us to quickly size up new social situations and connect with complete strangers. As researchers, it helps us see patterns in nature that explain how the world works. But this inherently human characteristic has its flaws. In its most benign manifestation, our reliance on shortcuts makes us susceptible to optical illusions or a magician’s slight of hand. More troubling, our tendency to fill in missing facts by making broad generalizations can lead us to draw erroneous conclusions about our fellow researchers and the quality of their work.  

Advocates are pushing to enrich the lives of rodents and fish in the lab, but critics worry about the impact on research

M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University  ( MSU ;  Russian :  Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова ) is a public research university in  Moscow ,  Russia  and the most prestigious university in the country.

Vilnius University is a public research university, oldest in the Baltic states and in Northern Europe outside the United Kingdom. Today it is Lithuania's leading academic institution, ranked among the top 400 or top 800 universities worldwide.  

The University of Bologna is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students, it is the oldest university in continuous operation in the world, and the first degree-awarding institution of higher learning. At its foundation, the word universitas was first coined.

 Elisabeth Bik at uBiome and PubPeer

For better science. Why did twitter suspend the disgruntled troll Leonid Schneider?

Charles University was founded in 1348, making it one of the oldest universities in the world. Yet it is also renowned as a modern, dynamic, cosmopolitan and prestigious institution of higher education. It is the largest and most renowned Czech university, and is also the best-rated Czech university according to international rankings. There are currently 17 faculties at the University (14 in Prague, 2 in Hradec Králové and 1 in Plzeň), plus 3 institutes, 6 other centres of teaching, research, development and other creative activities, a centre providing information services, 5 facilities serving the whole University, and the Rectorate - which is the executive management body for the whole University.

POLISH SCIENCE is a universal, multilingual (in Polish and eight most popular languages of the world) information platform devoted to the international promotion of Polish science worldwide, carried out with the help of a dedicated information service. Free of charge information is available in a news agency form for the media, portals, local and international news agencies in Poland and around the world.

Dr. Robert C. Malenka is the Pritzker Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Director of the Nancy Pritzker Laboratory and Deputy Director of the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute.

Dr. Shatz’s research aims to understand how early developing brain circuits are transformed into adult connections during critical periods of development. Her work, which focuses on the development of the mammalian visual system, has relevance not only for treating disorders such as autism and schizophrenia, but also for understanding how the nervous and immune systems interact.

In our opinion, it is unfair to question a scientist’s integrity based on images produced from a collaborator’s laboratory. Holding every author to an identical standard of responsibility would require a level of scrutiny of primary data that could stifle scientific collaboration and productivity.  

It’s not news that minorities are severely underrepresented in both science and science education. Efforts to increase diversity typically fall into two broad classes: some motivated by a concern for equity and social justice, and others motivated by a concern for increasing the pool of scientists that are prepared to address contemporary needs in science and technology. Our purpose in this column is to draw attention to another compelling rationale for increasing diversity in the sciences, a rationale that is intrinsic to the process of scientific inquiry and to the effectiveness of science education. We start from an expansive conception of science that includes not only the biological, physical, social, and psychological sciences, but also the practices within these disciplines, the ecological validity of their research programs, and the manner in which novices — especially K-12 students — learn these disciplines.  

Today’s research infrastructure, including scientific hardware, is unevenly distributed in the scientific community, severely limiting collaboration, customization, and impact. Open hardware for science provides an alternative approach to reliance on expensive and proprietary instrumentation while giving “ people the freedom to control their technology while sharing knowledge and encouraging commerce through the open exchange of design .”  

Schneider portrays himself as an  under-dog ; the self-styled “ failed scientist ” has taken a liking to pillaring the hypocrisies of the scientific establishment. To be honest, although criticisms of the undertakings of science are always needed, especially when it concerns matters of data integrity, publishing practices, and perverse incentives in academia, I am a bit weary of uncritically listening to someone who appears to have no established career in either science or science journalism (the only pieces published under his own name appear only on the blog he runs). And his pieces do come off with a bit of crankiness – reading them alone one would think that the scientific establishment is infested with data forgery, devised by scientists whose only wish is to publish in fancy journals at any cost.  

French newspaper article about Elisabeth Bik and her career at uBiome and PubPeer 

The MIT Better Science Ideathon brings together teams of people involved in scientific research - including students, policy makers, publishers, and funders - to explore how the process of science can be improved.

There is no such thing as "the" Max Planck Institute. In fact, the Max Planck Society operates a number of research institutions in Germany as well as abroad. These Max Planck Institutes are independent and autonomous in the selection and conduct of their research pursuits. To this end, they have their own, internally managed budgets, which can be supplemented by third party project funds. The quality of the research carried out at the institutes must meet the Max Planck Society's excellence criteria. To ensure that this is the case, the institutes' research activities undergo regular quality reviews.  

When science is viewed in isolation from the past and politics, it’s easier for those with bad intentions to revive dangerous and discredited ideas.  

It’s not news that minorities are severely underrepresented in both science and science education. Efforts to increase diversity typically fall into two broad classes: some motivated by a concern for equity and social justice, and others motivated by a concern for increasing the pool of scientists that are prepared to address contemporary needs in science and technology. Our purpose in this column is to draw attention to another compelling rationale for increasing diversity in the sciences, a rationale that is intrinsic to the process of scientific inquiry and to the effectiveness of science education. We start from an expansive conception of science that includes not only the biological, physical, social, and psychological sciences, but also the practices within these disciplines, the ecological validity of their research programs, and the manner in which novices — especially K-12 students — learn these disciplines.

McGill University is one of Canada's best-known institutions of higher learning and one of the leading universities in the world. International students from more than 150 countries make up nearly 30% of McGill's student body ‒ the highest proportion of any Canadian research university.

 Newspaper article about Elisabeth Bik, uBiome and PubPeer (article in French)

Schneider portrays himself as an  under-dog ; the self-styled “ failed scientist ” has taken a liking to pillaring the hypocrisies of the scientific establishment. To be honest, although criticisms of the undertakings of science are always needed, especially when it concerns matters of data integrity, publishing practices, and perverse incentives in academia, I am a bit weary of uncritically listening to someone who appears to have no established career in either science or science journalism (the only pieces published under his own name appear only on the blog he runs). And his pieces do come off with a bit of crankiness – reading them alone one would think that the scientific establishment is infested with data forgery, devised by scientists whose only wish is to publish in fancy journals at any cost.  

Institut Curie  is an international expert for several types of cancers, including eye cancers, pediatric tumors, breast cancers and sarcomas.  

An international team of astronomers has used data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to report the discovery of the earliest galaxies confirmed to date. The light from these galaxies has taken more than 13.4 billion years to reach us, as these galaxies date back to less than 400 million years after the big bang, when the universe was only 2% of its current age.  

eGEMs faces two early challenges in its effort to effort to disseminate knowledge and new ideas about the use of electronic clinical data for research: attracting readers and producing better science. The health services grey literature and the microchip industry are two areas of knowledge generation that provide important insight for how eGEMs can achieve these goals. In order to achieve its goals, eGEMs should aim to promote rapid sharing of ideas, engage sponsors and potential users of research findings early in the process, develop metrics for success to guide research efforts, and recruit diverse contributors. Success would allow for not just the generation of new research, but also new science, which has the potential to significantly improve patient outcomes.  

Newspaper article about PubPeer, uBiome and Elisabeth Bik (article in French)

The "New Statistics" emphasizes effect sizes, confidence intervals, meta-analysis, and the use of Open Science practices. We present 3 specific ways in which a New Statistics approach can help improve scientific practice: by reducing over-confidence in small samples, by reducing confirmation bias, and by fostering more cautious judgments of consistency. We illustrate these points through consideration of the literature on oxytocin and human trust, a research area that typifies some of the endemic problems that arise with poor statistical practice.

The life processes of organisms are controlled by genes made up of sections of DNA. In 2012, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna developed a method for high-precision genome editing. They used the immune system of a bacterium, which disables viruses by cutting their DNA up with a type of genetic scissors. By extracting and simplifying the genetic scissors' molecular components, they made it generally applicable. The CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors can lead to new scientific discoveries, better crops and new weapons in the fight against cancer and genetic diseases.  

The life processes of organisms are controlled by genes made up of sections of DNA. In 2012, Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier developed a method for high-precision genome editing. They used the immune system of a bacterium, which disables viruses by cutting their DNA up with a type of genetic scissors. By extracting and simplifying the genetic scissors' molecular components, they made it generally applicable. The CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors can lead to new scientific discoveries, better crops and new weapons in the fight against cancer and genetic diseases.  

Improving training in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields is a major priority, crucial to the nation's economy and international competitiveness. However, to date, research evaluating the effectiveness of STEM training programs and initiatives has often been lacking. Writing in BioScience, Alan Wilson of Auburn University, Eric Nagy of the Mountain Lake Biological Station at the University of Virginia, and their colleagues present an assessment of the National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site programs.