Archive by date | July 2013

Senate bill would boost NIH budget to $31 billion in 2014

Supporters of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) just got what passes for good news in Washington DC’s current climate of fiscal austerity: the US Senate subcommittee that funds the biomedical agency voted today to boost its budget by nearly $2 billion, to $31 billion in 2014.  Read more

Management row threatens to blow Sahara solar dream

Plans to supply Europe with electricity generated in North Africa suffered another blow this week when the DESERTEC Foundation, set up in 2009 to promote the idea, pulled out of the industrial consortium which is trying to advance the €400 billion project.  Read more

Russian Academy gets temporary reprieve

The Russian Academy of Science is to be axed

The Russian Academy of Sciences, threatened with liquidation, has been granted a temporary reprieve. The Duma – the Russian Parliament – agreed today to postpone until October its final vote on a bill that some feel will mark the end of the academy, founded in 1724 by Peter the Great.  Read more