Tomorrow’s Giants conference in July

Posted on 24 Mar 2010 by Maxine Clarke

The Royal Society and Nature present: Tomorrow’s Giants, a conference on 1 July 2010 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London, UK

Tomorrow’s Giants will bring together scientists and policy makers to gather scientists vision of the next 50 years, to address questions such as: What is required to enable academic achievement of the highest quality? What will science be like in 10 and in 50 years time? What will be the main goals and challenges?

Attendance at the conference is by application. Applications are encouraged by The Royal Society and Nature from early and mid-career scientists with an interest in the key topics of the conference and who wish to make a positive contribution to the parallel sessions and the panel discussion.

PROGRAMME

Thursday, July 1, 2010

9:00 a.m.

-Welcome and Introduction

-Lord Martin Rees, President, The Royal Society – Philip Campbell, Editor in Chief, Nature

9:30 a.m.

-Parallel Sessions

-Leaders in the field will be raising questions and looking at the challenges across three major themes identified for Tomorrow’s giants.

-Data

Moderator: Dame Sally C Davies, Director General of Research and Development and Chief Scientific Adviser for the Department of Health and NHS -Careers

Moderator: Robin Williams, Director of the Research Centre for Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh -Measuring and assessing

Moderator: David Sweeney, Director (Research, Innovation and Skills) at the Higher Education Funding Council for England

11:00 a.m.

-Feedback session

1:45 p.m.

Keynote Speaker: Dame Wendy Hall, Professor of Computer Science, University of Southampton

2:45 p.m.

-Panel Discussion

-Our Panel of leading policy and decision makers along with representatives for the three themes will answer questions raised in the parallel sessions and discuss selected topics from the event’s Nature Network Forum

-Discussants:

John Beringer, University of Bristol

Lord Paul Drayson, Minister for Science and Innovation Tony Hey, Corporate Vice President of External Research, Microsoft Terence Kealey, Vice-Chancellor, University of Buckingham Adrian Smith, Director General, Science and Research, BIS

3:45 p.m.

-Concluding remarks

Tomorrow’s Giants conference website and online application form.

Nature’s Middle East portal

Posted on 05 Mar 2010 by Maxine Clarke

The Arab world has a rich history of scientific enquiry. During the Golden Age of Science, the Arab world was influenced by texts from neighbouring regions of Greece, Persia and India, and built on them with great discoveries and inventions such as algebra, optics, medicine and many others. For more than 500 years Arabic was the language of science. Following translation into Latin, Arabic scholarship fed back to these neighbouring regions and helped lay the foundation for the European enlightenment and current Western science.

Nature Middle East has been created with an understanding of the potential of the Arab world to once again be an important centre of science. It covers a diverse group of 18 nations: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, the Palestinian territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Nature Middle East is about recognizing the contribution of many different peoples working together, united by a common language.

Nature Middle East is a comprehensive portal site for information on scientific and medical research in the Arabic-speaking Middle East, the research community and its activities. It is a site with a broad scope that caters for scientific and medical researchers at all levels, from students to post-doctoral fellows to principal investigators. Most importantly, Nature Middle East will be a unique online platform for the scientific and medical research community to connect, network and exchange information or ideas, to promote good science and stimulate research and debate.

In its March Editorial, Nature Cell Biology ( 12, 201;2010) welcomes this newest NPG regional gateway: “Nature Publishing Group has initiatives that aim to stitch together scientific communities within specific regions. As this issue of Nature Cell Biology goes to press, ”https://www.nature.com/nmiddleeast/">Nature Middle East, a website dedicated to serving the science community in Arabic-speaking countries of the Middle East, is being launched. The site aims to become a comprehensive source of information on scientific and medical research, with a target audience of students, postdoctoral trainees and principal investigators from Arabic-speaking countries across the Middle East, and for researchers outside the region who may have an interest in the emerging science of the Arab world. Following the success of two equivalent gateways — Nature China and Nature India — Nature Middle East will have content mainly in English, with some content being translated into Arabic. The content will include highlights of select research published in Nature journals and elsewhere, news items and commentaries. By providing links to jobs and events in the region and creating a platform for discussion via blogs and other online social networking tools, the website will also serve as a networking forum to engage the science community in this region, and facilitate further integration with the global scientific community.

A global scientific society that values open communication, collaboration and sharing of resources could become a powerful medium for change if these attributes take root in other spheres of human activity."

Dimensions of scientific diplomacy

Posted on 10 Feb 2010 by Maxine Clarke

As scientists working in a range of disciplines come under fire in some sections of the media, Nature Physics in its February Editorial (6, 75; 2010) explains why science diplomacy matters.

The Inter-Academy Panel (IAP) counts 103 of the world’s scientific academies as members, most recently the Academies of Science of Afghanistan, Mozambique and Nicaragua, and assembles once every three or four years to discuss issues, like climate change, biodiversity or nuclear proliferation, of global significance that hinge crucially on scientific knowledge, and the gaps in that scientific knowledge.

The Nature Physics editorial continues: “The IAP initiative is typical of the approach espoused in a newly published report, ”https://royalsociety.org/New-frontiers-in-science-diplomacy">New Frontiers in Science Diplomacy: Navigating the Changing Balance of Power, which summarizes a two-day meeting organized last year by the Royal Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The report stresses the vital role of science diplomacy in the modern world in three ‘dimensions’: science in diplomacy, diplomacy for science, and science for diplomacy. The first of these relates to the obvious need for scientific advice and evidence to underpin international negotiations or developments, a prominent example being the work of the existing Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Diplomacy for science recognizes that “science can be a bridge to communities where political ties are weaker, but to develop relationships in these areas, scientists may require diplomatic assistance, whether in contract negotiations, intellectual property agreements or dealing with visa regulations.”

Finally, science for diplomacy acknowledges the ‘soft power’ of science, as a national asset and a universal good — and exemplified by the founding of CERN in post-war, divided Europe. Following the CERN model is the current project to build the synchrotron SESAME in Jordan, as a partnership between several Middle Eastern countries including Israel, Iran and the Palestinian Authority. Indeed the further development of scientific partnerships with the Middle East and the wider Islamic world is identified in the report as a priority for science diplomacy."

Nature Physics journal website.

Elucian Islands village in Second Life

Posted on 29 Jan 2010 by Maxine Clarke

Via the Nature Network Second Life forum, Nature Publishing Group has created a new Elucian Islands village.

The village is a whole ‘sim’ owned by Nature Publishing Group (NPG) and covered with labs available for scientists or educators to use free of charge to work on their own projects. If you would like a space in the village, please contact Joanna Scott or Lou Woodley to get set up.

There is a new Nature Network group specially for residents of the village and people interested in what’s going on there: please do feel free to join if you’d like to keep up to date. In the next couple of weeks Jo and Lou will be starting a group blog for residents to blog about their projects, so do watch out for that as well.

Find out more here about the Elucian Islands, Nature Publishing Group’s home at Second Life.

Nature announces winners of 2009 mentoring awards

Posted on 08 Dec 2009 by Maxine Clarke

On 1 December, the winners of the 2009 Nature Awards for Creative Mentoring – the 5th since the competition’s inception in 2005 – were announced at the British Embassy in Tokyo. For the 2009 awards, nominations were invited from Japan – the first time that researchers from an Asian country have been honoured. Two awards were made, one for lifetime achievement and the other for mid-career achievement.

The Lifetime Achievement award went to Prof. Fumio Oosawa (above, left), while the mid-career award was given to Dr Hiroaki Kitano (right). Comments from the nominators can be seen here. The presentation ceremony was held in the Ambassador’s Residence at the British Embassy in Tokyo on and was hosted by Mr David Warren, the British Ambassador to Japan. Dr Philip Campbell, Editor-in-Chief of Nature, presented the awards. The prizewinners were selected by a panel of six eminent Japanese scientists chaired by Prof Akiyoshi Wada and including Prof Ryoji Noyori, the 2001 Nobel laureate for chemistry.

For more details of the awards, the judges, the nominations and more, visit the NPG Asia-Pacific website (in English), or NPG’s Japanese-language site. The event was also covered in the local press.

NPG’s press release announcing the awards.

More about Nature awards.

Nature Materials looks to second worlds

Posted on 30 Nov 2009 by Maxine Clarke

Virtual worlds such as Second Life present an intriguing premise for scientific use. But are the benefits sufficiently clear for widespread uptake? In a Commentary in the current (December) issue of Nature Materials ( 8, 919-921; 2009), Tim Jones discusses the advantages virtual worlds allow in the context of science and science communication, including allowing research collaborators to meet in a virtual space, or larger events such as talks where the audience can interact with each other.

An Editorial in the same issue of Nature Materials (8, 917; 2009, free to access online) points out that despite its advantages, growth of Second Life membership has occurred at a relatively slow pace, certainly when compared with popular social networks such as Facebook or Twitter, possibly because of the need to install software and have a fast broadband connection, or possibly because one has to adopt a flippant name in order to participate. If you are interested in trying out Second Life, the Editorial draws attention to Science Friday, a weekly radio show broadcast to a live audience gathering at a joint location in Second Life; and Nature’s weekly podcasts and Nature Publishing Group events at Second Nature that stimulate lively discussions between participants. Large institutions such as NASA and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have already built representations. Second Life may have the look and feel of a computer game, but more serious applications have started to emerge.

Poster on the rise of p53 at Nature Reviews

Posted on 25 Nov 2009 by Maxine Clarke

Nature Reviews Cancer and Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology present a free poster on the rise of p53, by Bert Vogelstein and Carol Prives. “In 1979 the discovery of p53 was reported. The gene encoding p53 (TP53) was initially believed to be an oncogene but 10 years later it was correctly characterized as a tumour suppressor, which led to a steep rise in p53 research. We now know that the protein encoded by TP53 — one of the most commonly mutated tumour suppressor genes in human cancer — regulates many important biological activities and is itself regulated through post-translational modifications that are induced by sensors of cell stress. This Poster highlights some of the key discoveries from the past 30 years that have led to our current understanding of p53 biology and complements the ”https://www.nature.com/nrc/focus/p53/index.html">Nature Reviews Cancer Focus on p53 – 30 years on, comprised of articles that reflect the history and the emerging directions of p53 in cancer research."

The rise of p53: download poster and view timeline.

View/download a high-resolution PDF of the poster.

Nature Medicine and Nature Biotechnology announce the SciCafé

Posted on 13 Oct 2009 by Maxine Clarke

Following on from yesterday’s post about schemes to involve the general public in the daily lives of scientific researchers, Nature Medicine and Nature Biotechnology announce an initiative to connect commercially oriented academics with their local business community (Nat. Med. 15, 1095; 2009). The SciCafé is a series of networking events in Boston and San Francisco that help researchers connect with investors and serial entrepreneurs.

The SciCafé is intended to provide a showcase of the work of investigators publishing cutting-edge work to an invited audience of 30 or so business people. The first SciCafés were in Boston and San Francisco because each area not only produces a prodigious amount of high-quality science, but is also home to a large number of sophisticated, early-stage life science investors/entrepreneurs. Starting next month, the journals are extending the concept to Europe, with a SciCafé in planned in London. Nature Medicine writes:

“Academics are selected on their publication record and on the potential commercial interest of their research. Editorial responsibility for selection rests with the participating journals, which take an ecumenical approach, looking at the whole literature—not just papers published in Nature journals. Those selected are given one-on-one coaching by the editors on how best to present their research to an investor audience. We also invite the technology transfer offices of any selected academics to send a representative to the SciCafé.

In announcing the SciCafé to the broader biomedical community, we would like to also invite applications from investigators in the Boston, San Francisco or London areas who are interested in presenting. Applications should be sent to scicafe@us.nature.com outlining in 1,000 words the applicant’s contact details, the three peer-reviewed papers most relevant to their work, a clear but brief description of the commercial potential and any associated intellectual property.

We acknowledge that many in academia have no interest in seeking closer ties with the investor community. But for those who do wish to commercialize their work, we hope SciCafé offers a new opportunity.”

NPG to publish Polymer Journal

Posted on 10 Jun 2009 by Maxine Clarke

The Society of Polymer Science, Japan (SPSJ) and Nature Publishing Group (NPG) are pleased to announce a partnership to publish the society’s leading international journal Polymer Journal. From July 2009, articles will be freely available. Further developments will culminate in January 2010 when the full site is launched.

Polymer Journal publishes high-quality peer-reviewed articles spanning all areas of polymer research. The monthly journal was launched in 1970 and is keen to continue its record of facilitating important advances in the field, ensuring rapid publication of papers after they have undergone review. Polymer Journal welcomes submissions across a variety of article types including Original Articles, Notes, Short Communications and Reviews.

Essential polymer research is regularly published in NPG’s flagship journal Nature, as well as in a number of other Nature journals including Nature Chemistry, Nature Materials, Nature Physics and Nature Nanotechnology.

The Editor-in-Chief of Polymer Journal, Professor Toshikazu Takata of the Tokyo Institute of Technology leads a first-class, internationally diverse editorial board. The combined knowledge, experience and dedication of the board provides a first-class editorial service across the full spectrum of polymer science.

About Polymer Journal.

Journal aims and scope.

About the Society for Polymer Science, Japan.

Editorial board listing.

Benefits to authors.

Request a sample copy and subscription information.

The Nature Big Science Debate: A Biological Century?

Posted on 03 Jun 2009 by Maxine Clarke

On Monday 8 June, Nature is hosting The Big Science Debate: A Biological Century? The event starts at 7 p.m. at Kings Place 90 York Way, London NI. Physics, biology and chemistry have all helped define the twentieth century. Many world-changing innovations from physics include electric power, the microchip and the internal combustion engine. In biology and chemistry, an agricultural revolution has helped to feed a growing population. But some of these advances have also helped to create climate change and a rate of species-loss not seen since the last mass extinction. What will physics and biology look like 50 years from now? And what might the impacts be?

Join three distinguished panellists — a physicist, a biologist and a historian — as they cast their gaze into the future of science, and its possible impacts. Will we resolve the riddle of dark matter and dark energy, and will string theory remain the best candidate for unifying the forces of nature? Will stem cells have fulfilled their promise and what of the potential of genetically modified crops in agriculture?

Panellists:

• David Edgerton, Professor of the History of Science, Imperial College London

• Lewis Wolpert, Professor of Biology as Applied to Medicine, University College London

• Alison Wright, Chief Editor of Nature Physics

Chair: Ehsan Masood, Acting Chief Commissioning Editor, Nature

Host: Nick Campbell, Managing Editor, Nature

For more info on The Nature Debate series, please email the organizers.

Tickets are available online, by email or via the King’s Place Box Office on +44 (0)20 7520 1490.

Kings Place, and how to get there.

nature.com blogs

Category Archives: Partners