| Researchers Create Nanostructures, and Whip Up a Recipe, Too Out of a sugar, a salt and Everclear, scientists have made a new nanostructure that could be used for storing hydrogen or delivering drugs. It could also become a hot new ingredient for chefs. feeds.nytimes.com |
Whooooo are you? Who? Who? | GrrlScientist You are THE reason that I write a blog, and you always have been. But I don't know who you are or what you care about. Can you help me by telling me a bit about yourself?GrrlScientist and a new friend, a wild great tit, Parus major, select among her photographs snapped at Hietaniemen hautausmaa (Hietaniemi cemetery) in Helsinki, Finland. Yes, it was damned cold there!Image: Bob O'Hara, 24 November 2008.It's been a busy time for me, my peeps. I returned from a two-week visit to England almost one week ago, where I attended and live-tweeted two meetings and several train trips, met my new colleagues at The Guardian, and snapped a thousand or so photographs (some of which I'll be sharing with you in the next few weeks). After I returned home, I thought I could begin writing for you in earnest, only to discover that the ridiculously incompetent fools at T-Mobile inexplicably shut off my wireless connection – for the third time in just six months. After battling those idiots for the past six days, wi-fi has been restored at least temporarily, which leaves me to dig out from under more than 1,500 emails, finish several essays for you and bumble around as I try to familiarise myself with publishing on this new platform. This might sound like a lot of hassle, but the reason I do this is for you. But at this time, I am blind because unless you comment, I don't know anything about you; who you are, where you live, what you do, what you care about. So whilst I attend to business, please help me out by telling me about yourself. Are you a regular reader who has followed my peregrinations all over the blogoverse these past few months or read my blurtations on twitter, or did you just find this blog? Do you live in the UK or are you one of my many international readers? Do you also write a blog or use twitter? If so, let me (and your fellow readers here) know! Of course, I'd love to know other things about you: Do you keep pets? Are you attending university? If so, what are you studying (or alternatively, if you've completed your education, what are you doing now)? Do you travel and if so, where do you most enjoy visiting? What is the title of the book that you are reading right now, or what book have you read recently that most impressed you? But most important to me, if you are reading this and you either haven't commented before or haven't commented here, would you leave a comment to say hello? And as always, if you'd like me to write about something in particular, let me know (I already have one reader suggestion that I plan to work on).GrrlScientistguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Scientists threatening to leave Britain: case studies Five of the UK's leading experts tell how cuts to research funding are forcing them to look abroad• Datablog: Alok Jha explains how science funding worksProfessor Brian FosterProfessor Brian Foster, a particle physicist, says he is "seriously contemplating" shifting most of his research to Germany.He has been offered a prestigious professorship at Hamburg University in conjunction with one of the world's leading centres for the investigation of the structure of matter. It comes with £4.3m to spend on research of his choice over five years.He says it is "likely, but not certain" that he will take this up. He would maintain his position with Oxford, but says "the centre of gravity of my research would very much shift to Germany. There is nothing remotely as generous in the UK."Foster says he let his name go forward for the position out of concern at the cuts already applied to particle physics and astronomy. If extra cuts go ahead in the government's spending review next month they are likely to "sharpen my decision very much", he says.Foster says it is "common sense" to assume that if scientists across the world hear the UK government is about to cut research funds by 20%, they "aren't going to come here".This is particularly the case when the US, Japan, France and Germany are increasing funds to science."The opportunity for them to come is also demonstrably decreasing simply because positions are being cut. My particle physics department in Oxford has lost about half the postdoctoral researchers and support staff it had when I arrived seven years ago."UK physicists are substantially funded by the United States, Foster says, and there is a "long list" of cancelled or substantially scaled-back research projects. "One could weep at the idiocy of the coalition throwing the baby out with the bath water. UK science is demonstrably the most cost-effective and selective anywhere in the world. We do more for less than anywhere else. The damage to UK science, if cuts go ahead, may be more serious than even the Thatcher years."David ProctorDavid Proctor is considering leaving the UK despite having a long-term girlfriend in Dundee, where he has lived for the past four and a half years.The 33-year-old scientist, who is funded by cancer research charities to study enzymes, says the likelihood of major cuts to science is driving him to consider moving back to the US, where he was born."The opportunities just aren't going to be here," he says. He is worried that there will be cuts to universities as well as to research councils – publicly funded agencies that are responsible for co-ordinating and funding research in specific fields.In contrast, back home, President Barack Obama plans to increase government funds for science by at least 8%. "I will only return home if I'm unable to find a job that will allow me to remain in the UK."As an American, it's much easier for me to find work at home than in the UK, but I'd like to stay if I can."I have a girlfriend who is local so it would have been good to stay. Socially I like living in the UK."He has started to apply for jobs abroad as well as in the UK.Proctor says the cuts are on scientists' radar. "I know a couple of people who are thinking of moving. For me, it would also be a career move."I don't want to be a professor and I also don't want to be a high-level technician. I want to do research and there doesn't seem to be a career track for people who want to do that over here."Professor Kate JefferyOne of the country's most esteemed neuroscientists, Professor Kate Jeffery, has started to "future-proof" her career by exploring options abroad.For 20 years Jeffery has been working on spatial navigation – how the brain makes sense of the space around us. The work helps to explain Alzheimer's and some forms of amnesia. Her lab at University College London attracts researchers from Spain, Greece, Iceland, Italy and Germany. She also has a company she started with her husband that makes scientific equipment, which she would take with her if she left."My university is the best place in the country to do the kind of research I do," she says. "However, my research is entirely contingent on grant money. If I became unable to fund my research, then I would leave. Like many scientists, I suspect, I have already begun 'future-proofing' by staring to explore what options might be available outside the country if the worst happens."Jeffery left her family in New Zealand to work in the UK. "Leaving them was very difficult, but my desire to do science was even stronger. Like most scientists, I have a passion for this kind of work … I would readily give up the life I have here in order to pursue my interests elsewhere if I had to."Applying for funding can take months, she says. Even then, there is a four in five chance of failure. "If it fails, as most do, that is devastatingly disappointing, but you just pick yourself up and start all over again. Grant-getting is gruelling and occupies about 30% of a typical scientist's time. If funding declines even further and the success rate becomes even less, then the average researcher … will not have time to find funding. Some will doubtless leave the profession altogether, but the most committed will simply go elsewhere."Science, Jeffery says, is not like finance. "It is deeply cultural and that culture is fragile and easily damaged. I really hope we don't end up vandalising one of our greatest assets."Carlos GiasCarlos Gias has dedicated the last few years to searching for a cure for the most common form of blindness, age-related macular degeneration. Now, though, he has had enough, and decided to quit the UK, tempted by colleagues' descriptions of the lavish funding available abroad.It is simply too hard to find a job in this country, the postdoctoral researcher says, and too frustrating. Careers in British science are spent writing grant applications.Gias will be giving up a field he finds fascinating. From his laboratory at University College London's Institute of Ophthalmology, he studies the effectiveness of different therapies to treat loss of sight."I'm 34 and I've been working on this for a long time. I want to have my own [research] group, I want to establish myself. I can see from established researchers how hard it is."It is different overseas, he said. "I was talking to a colleague today who's been talking to a Chinese researcher and he was shocked finding that we have to keep on applying for grants over and over again and spending a lot of time [doing that]."He added: "I'm realising that it's only going to get harder now, which makes me think, 'is this good for me?'"Gias is also considering quitting science altogether to go into finance. Politicians in Britain have decided that "the banks will be saved, but not the universities", he said.Tom WhyntieCambridge graduate Tom Whyntie is warning that universities in Germany and the United States are already headhunting British researchers with the cuts in mind.Whyntie, who is finishing his PhD at Cern – the European organisation for nuclear research – says he knows postdoctoral researchers who have been headhunted and that it is a "very tempting offer".The 26-year-old particle physicist says funding for his field has been cut by so much in the last three years that if it goes any further he'll be looking for a job outside the UK. "As a scientist you want to be worrying about the experiments, not your next pay cheque," he says. "It's pretty much critical now. A 25% cut and it will be game over for my field. A 10% cut would be the straw that broke the camel's back. We need extra money just to stay where we are."Whyntie says he'll be looking for a postdoctoral research post in Germany and the US if the cuts go ahead."This is really about the kind of signal that our government is sending out. Cuts would show they aren't committed to science and aren't serious about keeping the best people in the UK."We have a track record of using our knowledge well in the UK. You just have to look at Cambridge to see how the economy can grow when incredibly bright people are centred in one place."Research fundingHigher educationResearchLiberal-Conservative coalitionScience funding crisisScience policyJessica ShepherdJeevan Vasagarguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Today's Mystery Bird For You To Identify Since it's Friday (and I've been ill most of the week), I am giving you a spectacular mystery bird -- one that is probably quite easy to identify, too.Mystery Bird photographed at Quintana Neotropical Bird Sanctuary, Brazosport area, Texas, USA. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]Image: Joseph Kennedy, 29 September 2010 [with binoculars]. Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/800s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400Since it's Friday (and I've been ill most of the week), I am giving you a spectacular mystery bird -- one that is probably quite easy to identify, too. There is one feature of this spectacular mystery bird that sets it apart from its relatives. What is that?Daily Mystery Bird Rules: 1. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification, keeping in mind that more than one field mark is often necessary to distinguish between species. IDs without any supporting information are not valid and may be deleted by the moderators. 2. Expert and intermediate level birders: do NOT try to be the first to blurt out the mystery bird's ID. Instead, please provide helpful hints, such as descriptions, literary references, puns, personal anecdotes, and other forms of discussion and assistance for beginning birders and for those following on their iPhones without naming the species. Expert and intermediate birders are free to name the bird species 24 or more hours after it was first published.3. Each mystery bird is usually accompanied by a question or two. These questions can be useful for identifying the pictured species, but may instead be used to illustrate an interesting aspect of avian biology, behaviour or evolution, or may be intended to generate conversation on other topics, such as conservation. 4. Each bird species will be demystified 48 hours after publication. If you have bird images, video or mp3 files that you'd like to share with a large and appreciate audience, feel free to email them to me for consideration.GrrlScientistguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Dot Earth: Global Warming and the 'Tyranny of Boredom' Is global warming destined to be boring -- until it's not? feeds.nytimes.com |