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Kavli Prizes reward cosmic inflation, memory research and imaging

Kavli Prizes reward cosmic inflation, memory research and imaging

The 2014 Kavli Prizes, announced today, were shared among nine scientists for their work on the theory of cosmic inflation, for contributions to the field of nano-optics and for the discovery of specialized brain networks for memory and cognition.  Read more

German research agencies condemn animal-rights attack on neuroscientist

A timid silence often follows public attacks on scientists who use animals in their research. But today a group of ten heavyweight academic organisations in Germany shed its habitual reserve and raised a stern collective voice against animal-rights activists whose recent advertising campaign targeted an individual neuroscientist.  Read more

UK Royal Society still trails US National Academy of Sciences in female members

UK Royal Society still trails US National Academy of Sciences in female members

The Royal Society — Britain’s national science academy — today announced it had elected 50 new fellows, who get to put the prestigious letters ‘FRS’ after their name. Among the array of top scientists this year are England’s chief medical officer Sally Davies, and climate economist Nicholas Stern. Stephen Chu – Nobel physics laureate and former US Energy Secretary – is one of 10 new foreign members.  Read more

Taiwan scientist’s findings did not constitute defamation

The legal odyssey of Taiwanese environmental engineer Ben-Jei Tsuang has come to an end, as the petrochemical company that had accused him of libel did not appeal an earlier ‘not guilty’ verdict by the legally-required deadline of 20 November. The company had claimed that Tsuang’s release of data linking a petrochemical plant to increased cancer rates amounted to libel.  Read more

Balzan prizes honour research on ‘spooky action at a distance’ and infectious bacteria

Balzan prizes honour research on 'spooky action at a distance' and infectious bacteria

A physicist and a bacteriologist, both French, have claimed two of this year’s Balzan prizes, each worth 750,000 Swiss francs (US$ 800,000), the Italo-Swiss International Balzan Prize Foundation announced today.  Read more

Updated: White House announces Energy Department nominees

President Barack Obama today nominated Franklin “Lynn” Orr, a chemical engineer at Stanford University in California, as under secretary for science at the Department of Energy. Orr’s nomination was accompanied by that of Marc Kastner, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, to head the department’s office of science.  Read more