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Universities and researchers say the review strikes the right balance between national security and international collaboration.Credit: Oliver Strewe/Getty
Push-back against Australia’s effort to control research that has potential military applications
An independent review has criticized the Australian government’s plans to tighten controls on research that might have both military and non-military uses. The country’s Department of Defence felt that such controls were needed to reflect changes in national security risk, but researchers were concerned that the proposals were so broad that they would restrict international collaborations. The defence department says it supports the review’s findings.
Huge variations in US postdoc salaries point to undervalued workforce
Postdoctoral salaries in the United States range from US$23,660 — the minimum wage set by the US Fair Labor Standards Act — to well over $100,000, according to a peer-reviewed report covering 14,000 postdoctoral researchers working at 52 institutions. The median salary was $47,500. It has historically been difficult to track salaries because of vast differences in how postdocs are paid and classified by their institutions, but the study highlights significant disparities across the country.
Skulls and sloths: museums face calls to return artefacts
An investigation by The Guardian has revealed some of the high-profile restitution claims received by British museums. The cases include an appeal to return Neanderthal skulls to Gibraltar, and send the remains of an extinct sloth named after Charles Darwin back to Chile.
Indian payment-for-papers proposal rattles scientists
Indian scientists are objecting to a government proposal that would see PhD students receive cash bonuses of 50,000 rupees (about US$700) for publishing in “reputed” international journals and of 20,000 rupees for publishing in domestic journals. Scientists worry that the programme could degrade the quality of research and lead to an increase in scientific misconduct, by incentivizing publishing rather than good science.
FEATURES & OPINION
For a black mathematician, what it’s like to be the ‘only one’
“I am an African-American male,” Edray Goins once blogged. “I have been the only one in most of the universities I’ve been to — the only student or faculty in the mathematics department.” “To say that I feel isolated,” he continued, “is an understatement.” With fewer than 1 percent of doctorates in mathematics awarded to African-Americans, Goins found the upper reaches of the field a challenging place.
What if you could diagnose endometriosis with a tampon?
Women’s health is often viewed in the context of an ability to have children, a bias that slows innovation in medicine. Some ‘femtech’ start-ups are addressing the imbalance.
MIT Technology Review | 7 min read
Make clinical-trial data sharing an imperative, not an option
The world’s leading medical journals now require authors to disclose whether and how they plan to share clinical-trial data. That's good for science and researchers.
