One of the UK’s leading universities today outlined a “wholesale reform” of the ethical review and governance of its animal research, following criticisms last year. Read more
PARIS – French President François Hollande today promised to spare the research and higher education budget from savings of €50 billion (US$67 billion) that his government has pledged to find over the next three years to reign in its massive public deficit. Read more
US President Barack Obama says 2014 will be a “year of action” in which he plans to use his executive authority to enact new policies, while seeking greater cooperation from the sharply divided Congress. Read more
The first global analysis of the threats to sharks and their kin suggests that about a quarter of all the world’s species are at risk. Read more
The European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft has successfully woken up after almost three years in hibernation. Read more
A German academic publisher that has journals of respected scientific societies among its titles has announced that it shut down its journal Pattern Recognition in Physics, citing what it calls nepotistic reviewing and malpractice. The firm, Copernicus Publishing of Göttingen, Germany, was responding to a recent special issue on ‘solar variability’. “The special issue editors ultimately submitted their conclusions in which they ‘doubt the continued, even accelerated, warming as claimed by the IPCC project’,” the publisher wrote in its statement. Read more
Following the leak last month of a treatment protocol for a controversial stem-cell therapy earmarked for a clinical trial to be sponsored by the Italian government, further leaks from police investigations and other revelations are emerging daily about the activities of the trial’s sponsor, the Stamina Foundation. Read more
Preclinical animal studies often lack important details needed for other researchers to assess and replicate the work, and they use statistical calculations that are not fit for purpose. Read more
The Chinese government has crushed more than six tonnes of seized ivory — including complete tusks and carvings — as part of a global effort to thwart a worrying rise in elephant poaching. Read more
With the successful liftoff of a Geo-Synchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV) D 5 yesterday, India became the sixth nation to possess cryogenic propulsion rocket technology. The 415-tonne rocket successfully injected a 2-tonne communications satellite into the intended geosynchronous orbit, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has announced. Read more
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