TOP 100 SCIENCE SITES
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| Japanese stem cell researcher wins Balzan prize By COLLEEN BARRY 2010-09-06T15:39:33ZMILAN (AP) -- A Japanese researcher who found a way to give adults cells certain characteristics of embryonic stem cells, a process scientists say could eventually lead to cures for spinal cord injuries and other ailments, has been awarded the Balzan Prize for biology.... hosted.ap.org |
Nature joins the digital age of science publishing | GrrlScientist The world's top-ranked peer-reviewed science journal continues its evolution as a scientific and academic publisherImage courtesy of Nature Publishing GroupSome of you know that I write another blog, Maniraptora, at Nature Network. I've not updated it much recently because that site has been plagued with technical difficulties for quite some time, so I've been sitting back and watching the progress of the recent improvements occurring there. I am pleased to learn that the changes I've been observing are not limited to the blog platform alone; these changes are happening across the entire Nature Publishing Group (NPG) site. I realise that most people won't find this announcement to be particularly compelling, but let me explain why this should interest you. First, an announcement by editor-in-chief, Dr Philip Campbell, about these changes is being published on a blog – the first time ever that a major science research publisher has announced such profound and sweeping changes using a digital medium. This blog announcement is scheduled to go live on the normally quiescent NPG blog, Nautilus, at the same time this piece publishes here, so after you read this, be sure to pop over there to read and share your thoughts on what you see and on what Dr Campbell has to say. These changes are specifically intended to create a more digitally friendly experience for NPG's users. While it is true that most people who use NPG's site are either scientists, academics, students or journalists, a small but growing number of people from other walks of life also access their site. By making the site more user-friendly, NPG is indicating that public interface is important to it, that it is interested in sharing scientific research with a wider audience. This means you, the science-savvy reader, so do poke around the redesigned site and share your thoughts with NPG staff about the site's usability.In my opinion, the best thing about this redesign is that NPG is launching a new and highly readable digital edition of its flagship journal, Nature. It is providing a three-month trial subscription – free! – to everyone who registers, and it will periodically ask its subscribers for feedback and help in gauging public demand. The iPad users in the crowd will be interested to learn that NPG is also developing an iPad app, as well as adding more support for other mobile devices. Of course, being a blog writer at NPG, I and my colleagues have requested that reader commenting be made easier. That said, my sources at NPG recently assured me that plans are already under way to do this, so stay tuned for that improvement. I hope this reader commenting "fix" is also extended to providing readers with the ability to comment on published scientific papers. I have not been told anything specific regarding whether there are plans to implement this feature in the future, but I am certain it will happen because both the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and the Public Library of Science (PLoS) have done this for years. When reader commenting is implemented by NPG as a regular feature on its published research, it will be a breath of fresh air for facilitating communication between scientists, academics, students and the science-savvy public anywhere in the world. Despite my criticisms, this site redesign is not trivial: it required a large investment of time and resources and thus, it shows NPG's strong commitment to continuing its evolution as a modern scientific and academic publisher – a true social good. "The changes we are unveiling to Nature now are an important step in a much longer journey," managing director Steven Inchcoombe said in a press release. Considering that NPG hosts a number of science blogs on its extensive Nature Network, I am very hopeful that this redesign indicates even bigger changes are afoot; changes in the corporate culture at NPG indicating that it is becoming friendlier to the idea that science blog writers are legitimate science communicators who possess the skills and audience access that are essential for translating and publicising scientific research. "We will continue to evolve Nature to provide the information scientists need, when and how they need it."GrrlScientistguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Elevator Pitch: Utopia brings science research data to life Philip McDermott, a research associate, is working with two principal investigators and two other research associates on the project, which has been funded by the EU and UK Research Councils and by Portland Press , Pfizer and AstraZeneca in the private sector. Utopia's first incarnation was in 2002 as Utopia Tools, which was downloaded a modest 200 times each month. McDermott has more ambitious plans for Utopia Documents. • What's your pitch?"Modern science produces masses of data, but scientists usually only get to publish articles about the highlights, and once they are published articles are frozen in time. So a lot of important knowledge gets lost or hidden. "Utopia Documents links scientific research papers to the data and to the community. It enables publishers to enhance their publications with additional material, interactive graphs and models. It allow the reader to access a wealth of data resources directly from the paper they are viewing, makes private notes and start public conversations. It does all this on normal PDFs, and never alters the original file. We are targeting the PDF, since they still have around 80% readership over online viewing. "Semantics, loose-coupling, fingerprinting and linked-data are the key ingredients. All the data is described using ontologies, and a plug-in system allows third parties to integrate their database or tool within a few lines of script. We use fingerprinting to allow us to recognise what paper a user is reading, and to spot duplicates. All annotations are held remotely, so that wherever you view a paper, the result is the same." • How do you make money?"Our viewing software is free, and it's free to make public comments. Larger customers will want to annotate and discuss documents in private: we're able to provide bespoke back-end solutions so they can have complete control over their data." • How are you surviving the downturn?"As a research group, we're a not-for-profit setup, so we just need to bring in enough money to cover our costs. Even that is quite tricky though, and set to get harder as the cuts to the UK research budget bite. That said, we're getting a growing amount of interest from industry, so we're fairly optimistic about the future." • What's your background?"I'm originally a software engineer from the mobile devices world, before I returned to academia to do my doctorate. Since then I've been researching the application of modern data management techniques to scientific data. Our research group has a history of virtual reality and scientific data visualisation." • What makes your business unique?"We sit somewhere between academia and the business world. Our passion is research, but practical research that can actually be used by real working scientists." • What has been your biggest achievement so far?"At last year's Portland Press launch , David Thorne selected the word 'cleavage' accidentally in the demo paper; Utopia Documents dutifully brought back only images and descriptions of 'cleaved proteins'... much to our relief." • Who in the tech business inspires you?" Clay Shirky . He's very insightful and has a pragmatic attitude I admire. I like the approach of the 37Signals guys too, although we've actually chosen Python over Ruby for our scripting language. Sorry, guys." • What's your biggest challenge?"Funding. Since we fall between two worlds, we have to convince businesses to invest in academia and research councils to invest in an application, both of which can be difficult." • What's the most important web tool that you use each day? "I'm an OmniFocus convert, it leaves your mind free to do other things." • Name your closest competitors"Some applications allow you to annotate a PDF, but they change the underlying file which is no good for what we want. Mendeley are in a nearby ballpark, although they appear more focused on the scientific articles themselves, whereas we are more interested in their actual content." • Where do you want the company to be in five years?"The default reader for scientific articles." • Sell to Google, or be bigger than Google?"We'd like to choose the middle way: license to Google!" getutopia.comInternet startupsResearch and developmentDigital mediaguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Disfiguring tropical disease surges in Afghanistan By ROBERT KENNEDY 2010-10-15T14:14:46ZKABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- An outbreak of a tropical disease caused by sand fly bites that leaves disfiguring skin sores has hit Afghanistan, with tens of thousands of people infected, health officials said Friday.... hosted.ap.org |
Langbroek promotes psychological testing of political candidates Queensland Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek says psychometric testing could weed out candidates who would not cope with the scrutiny of public life. abc.net.au |