Global comparisons of scientific output are commonplace. As non-experts, policymakers and administrators must rely on indexes of impact and recognition — counts of published papers and citations, and the prestige of source journals — to assess the impact of public spending and to allocate research funds. The gold standard is the Scientific Citation Index Expanded,…
Polar and brown bears diverged between 4 million and 5 million years ago, but they continued to interbreed when the climate warmed. Now, there is evidence that it is happening again.
It’s assumed that modern humans, Homo sapiens, originated in Africa sometime between 200,000 and 100,000 years ago. But paleoanthropologist Tim Weaver argues there might be another way to interpret our species’ beginnings. Instead of a discrete origin event, he suggests in the Journal of Human Evolution that our ancestors’ arrival into the world might have…
Scientists attempting to better understand the formation and the present-day layering of planet Earth have turned to ancient meteorites — meteorites which they say could hold important clues to some of the Solar System’s earliest chemical processes. Those meteorites are known as diogenites, and researchers from the Carnegie Institution, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and…
Three simple numbers that add up to global catastrophe – and that make clear who the real enemy is
Rethinking Labels Boosts Creativity: Thinking generically leads to innovative uses for everyday items
By switching back to the more social, less active jobs of their youth, some honeybees regained the ability to learn quickly.
The Olympics is a vast experiment in human performance, sport technology and global travel. Nature meets some of the scientists behind the scenes.
European science cooperation with Africa needs redefining, as it is failing to address wide-ranging needs and challenges experienced by African countries — and often ignores those countries most in need of support, a conference has heard. Speaking at the Euroscience Open Forum 2012 (ESOF), in Ireland, Ismail Serageldin, director of the New Library of Alexandria,…
President Obama has proposed spending $1 billion to fund a “Master Teacher Corps” initiative, which would reward top-performing educators with $20,000 annually. In a statement, Obama said the master-teacher program would shine a light on the best STEM educators, and allow them to “mentor and model” for their less-experienced colleagues. The program would start with…