Archive by category | Financial Crisis

French scientists begin three-week protest march

French scientists begin three-week protest march

Travelling by foot, bicycle or kayak, more than 3,000 scientists, support staff and members of the public? from across France set off on Friday on a three-week march in defence of scientific research and higher education. The organizers say it is the biggest protest of its kind for 10 years.  Read more

Germany pulls back from international mega-telescope project

Germany pulls back from international mega-telescope project

Germany’s science funding may look healthy to outsiders, but its research ministry seems to have stretched its cash too thinly. Last week, it decided that helping to fund the world’s biggest radio-telescope – to be built in South Africa and Australia by 2024 at a cost of more than €1.5 billion – was one international mega-project too many. On 5 June, it said it would pull out of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), to the dismay of German astronomers, who say they were not consulted and are hoping to reverse the move.  Read more

Bosch quits Desertec

The world’s most ambitious renewable energy project suffered another blow yesterday when the Germany technology supplier Bosch announced it was pulling out of the DESERTEC solar project. Stuttgart-based Bosch, the world’s biggest supplier of car parts, said it will quit the Desertec Industrial Initiative (Dii) by the end of the year.  Read more

Looming cutbacks threaten long-term US research

Sweeping US budget cuts set to begin in 2013 would reduce federal research and development funds by $57.5 billion over the next five years, according to a report released on 27 September by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) based in Washington, DC.  Read more

Scientific society loses multimillion-dollar court battle

A ten year court battle waged by the world’s largest scientific society reached a critical juncture today when the Ohio Supreme Court handed down itslong-awaited verdict in ACS versus Leadscope, a case that began in 2002 when the non-profit American Chemical Society sued three former employees of its highly lucrative Chemical Abstracts Service, accusing them of stealing its intellectual property and using it to start Leadscope, a chemical information company based in Columbus, Ohio.  Read more