By nature.com Communities Team on 29 Oct 2010
Blogs This week’s guest post on the Soapbox Science blog comes from Aaron Clauset of the Colorado Initiative in Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He examines and compares two very different ways of reporting science – statistically and with narrative: It seems to me that for science, the correct emphasis should be on the statistics. That is, we should be more worried about observing something that is not really there. But as humans, statistics is often too dry and too abstract for us to understand intuitively, to generate that comfortable internal feeling of understanding. Thus, our … Read more
Posted in Weekly round-up
By nature.com Communities Team on 28 Oct 2010
We’re back in Europe for the twelfth instalment of our mapping series. This week, Dr Paul Groth of VU University of Amsterdam maps the scientific highlights of the city he works in. Read more
Posted in Science maps
By nature.com Communities Team on 27 Oct 2010
A new interactive ‘Special’ in the online version of Nature, and partly reproduced in print, looks at the special relationship between scientists and cities. In a fascinating series of articles and graphics, the story of metropolitan research is told with the aid of some addictive data visualisations. Read more
Posted in Science maps
By nature.com Communities Team on 22 Oct 2010
Blogs It’s been a busy week in the UK. A major spending review by the government apparently spared the research budget, ringfencing the pot for four years. Jennifer Rohn, one of the chief campaigners to protect funding under the Science is Vital banner, declares that her heart is light. Nicolas Fanget provides a handy summary of the spending review’s implications for science. Lee Turnpenny conjures up a (perhaps) imaginary conversation between the Queen and Prime Minister about the funding situation. And both Stephen Curry and Richard Grant wrote to their MPs on the matter. On World Statistics Day, Bob O’Hara … Read more
Posted in Weekly round-up
By nature.com Communities Team on 20 Oct 2010
Our tour of scientific cities and territories takes its first foray into Asia, with this map of Hong Kong by Gabriel Wong of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Read more
Posted in Science maps
By nature.com Communities Team on 18 Oct 2010
The first in an occasional series of posts in which we invite other Nature web sites into our digital party for a virtual cocktail. First up, say hello to Scitable, a teaching and learning resource from Nature Education, which has just launched new sections on careers and communications. Read more
Posted in Science education
By nature.com Communities Team on 15 Oct 2010
Blogs This week saw the launch of the Fourth Paradigm blog, which builds on the recent book of the same name to explore issues in data-intense research: Here, researchers from around the world will contribute their own views on data-intensive science, creating an ever-expanding collection of timely, thought-provoking treatises. The book was released just a year ago, a short time in the world of publishing but a veritable eternity in the realm of today’s data-intensive science. Thus the blog will serve as a continual update to the book, bringing the latest and, we hope, most provocative contributions to this burgeoning … Read more
Posted in Weekly round-up
By nature.com Communities Team on 13 Oct 2010
We’ve now published ten Google maps showing the key scientific locations in cities and territories across the world – from San Francisco to Malta to Canberra. Thanks once again to everyone who’s contributed so far. Read more
Posted in Science maps
By nature.com Communities Team on 08 Oct 2010
First, a warm welcome to Julia Zichello, whose new blog Evolverie will form ‘A collection of research, ideas, hypotheses, whims and spins on evolution.’ … Read more
Posted in Weekly round-up |
By nature.com Communities Team on 06 Oct 2010
Given that we’re in Nobel season, today’s map has a ring of topicality about it. Over the summer, we gave regular coverage to the island of Lindau, at the foot of the Alps on Lake Constance. It is here that the annual gathering of Nobel Prize winners and early career scientists takes place, known as the Lindau Conference. Read more
Posted in Science maps