News & Comment

Pietro Barabaschi, Director General of ITER, calls for measures and incentives to carefully document the entire research process, including dead ends and failures, instead of reporting just the successful final results.

High-school students are all too aware of climate change, but often aren’t taught how their physics lessons can help them understand the problem and its solutions. Melissa Lord shares tips on how to bridge the gap.

Despite decades of ever more urgent warnings, humanity is failing to address the climate crisis. Astronomer and climate activist Bernadette Rodgers argues that climate action, in any number of ways, can get results and is a moral and professional responsibility for scientists at this critical moment in human history.

Gathering evidence is key to science, so it is not surprising that scientific institutions have started to report their carbon emissions. However, it is critical to go beyond reporting, and act. Even without a perfect evidence base there are actions scientists and institutions can take that will lead to lasting change, argues Astrid Eichhorn, physicist and chair of the ALLEA Working Group on Climate Sustainability in the Academic System.

Faced with the knowledge that her students would bear the brunt of the climate crisis, theoretical physicist Vandana Singh looked for ways to integrate climate education into her classroom. She advocates for a holistic approach that integrates science, transdisciplinarity, justice and action.

Reducing resource usage will improve the environmental impact of high-performance computing — but doing so can clash with the science goals of funders. Computational physicist Peter Skands explains how he approached the conflict.

The large gender imbalance amongst physicists is often misattributed to a lack of interest in physics and maths amongst girls and women. Physicist Jessica Wade uses her experience of public engagement and advocacy to suggest actions that physicists at different career stages can take to tackle gender stereotypes and build a better physics community.

When students are in our physics classes, they are doing physics and are part of the professional physics community. Martha-Elizabeth Baylor explains how treating students as professionals and training them in all aspects of what it means to be a physicist benefits both students and the wider community.

Many scientists consider peer review a crucial part of science, but are frustrated by its perceived failures. Historian of science Melinda Baldwin suggests we consider peer review’s historical development to better understand its present-day form.

The US government has attempted to counter foreign influence on American research by pursuing criminal investigations into scientists linked to China. Xiaoxing Xi — 2020 recipient of the American Physical Society’s Andrei Sakharov Prize — believes that non-criminal approaches, such as those recommended by the independent group JASON, address the problem better.

Science in Asia is often overlooked in the West. Ayumi Koso draws on her experience as a press officer in Japanese research organizations to offer some simple tips for English-language science communication.

Many physicists want to use their mathematical modelling skills to study the COVID-19 pandemic. Julia Gog, a mathematical epidemiologist, explains some ways to contribute.