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Freshly re-elected, there seem to be few radical changes ahead for Angela Merkel's government. Her politics have been successful, but will Germany's neighbours start to benefit too?
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2013 celebrates the use of computer simulations to model complex chemical systems using multiscale approaches. Taken in a broad sense, these ideas and techniques extend well beyond chemistry.
French research requires a deeper reform with a vision — instead of limited organizational changes that do not provide a new competitive impulse to further develop research capabilities.
As with the ongoing debate on the degree of wetting transparency of supported graphene, transparency in both pre- and post-publication peer review is a contentious concept.
The discovery of catalysts that dictated polymer sterochemistry, which earned a Nobel prize for Karl Ziegler and Giulio Natta 50 years ago, initiated the modern age of controlled polymer synthesis.
Underfunding, chronic structural deficiencies and lack of proper evaluation are acutely harming Greek science. The only way forward is to increase investment in human capital and infrastructure, coupled with organizational reforms and a change of government attitude towards research.
The properties of semiconductor quantum dots can now be controlled down to the level of single electrons and spins. These solid-state 'artificial atoms' have inspired scientists to look at them as possible building blocks for realizations of quantum computers, with unexpected consequences.
The decision by the European Council to lower the expenditure ceiling for the next seven-year framework programme comes during a time of great debate on the distribution of research funding. The selection of two flagship projects that will each receive €500 million over the next decade raises further questions.
The United States Materials Genome Initiative aims at accelerating the discovery, development and deployment of materials. Yet, finding data standards and sharing practices that can be leveraged by the disparate communities in materials science and technology may prove difficult.
The journal impact factor is a good predictor of the quality of journals as measured by citations to primary research articles. It is, however, a poor indicator of citations to specific papers or of the future performance of individual researchers.
