Commentary

Six years after the end of Communist rule in Russia, attempts to reform Russian science have produced a mixed scorecard. There have been some substantial achievements, but there is still need for further changes.

Biotechnology and the European Public Concerted Action This article has been written by an international team of researchers working as part of a Concerted Action of the European Commissions (B104-CT95-0043) administered on behalf of Directorate General XII by Andreas Klepsch. For details see box overleaf. Address for correspondence: G. Gaskell, Department of Social Psychology, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK (e-mail: gaskell@se.ac.uk). Throughout Europe, there is widespread lack of trust in the ability of governments and other public authorities to deal effectively with people's concern about biotechnology applications.

In the first-ever analysis of peer-review scores for postdoctoral fellowship applications, the system is revealed as being riddled with prejudice. The policy of secrecy in evaluation must be abandoned.

Bringing old building stock into line with modern standards of earthquake-resistant design is a daunting and expensive task. But the damage caused by the Kobe earthquake shows that doing nothing will be even more costly.

A permanent decline in global oil production rate is virtually certain to begin within 20 years. Serious planning is needed to deal with the economic consequences.

At a time when the number of biotechnology-based patent applications is soaring, it is essential that the law allows a significant 'experimental-use' exemption. The United States urgently needs to modify its legislation in this area.

Science is in a parlous state – passing fashions, a star system and the new cult of management have combined to strangle originality. The ethics of V. B. Wigglesworth offer a cure.

US government proposals for maintaining competence in nuclear weapons while observing a test ban have serious flaws. An approach based on remanufacturing proven weapons when necessary offers significant advantages.

Scientific knowledge is a communal belief system with a dubious grip on reality, according to a widely quoted school of sociologists. But they ignore crucial evidence that contradicts this allegation.

Although the suggestion eighty years ago that four in ten scientists did not believe in God or an afterlife was astounding to contemporaries, the fact that so many scientists believe in God today is equally surprising.

Proposals by a school board in California to recognize the dialect used by most of its pupils unleashed a ferocious media attack. Why did the press get things so wrong, and why were the proposals so virulently ridiculed?

The electron is 100 years old this year. Of all the elementary particles, it is by far the most familiar, useful and venerable. But is it elementary? And what other particles are elementary?

What are the implications for humankind of the astounding report two weeks ago of the production of viable sheep from adult cells? The moral imperative of preserving human dignity must remain paramount.

Ten years have passed since the now famous American Physical Society meeting that heard the first breathless accounts of high-temperature superconductivity. Now, in calmer times, practical applications are emerging.

Should archaeological remains be returned to the cultures from which they were removed? We should consider the needs of researchers and wider society as well as acknowledging the sensibilities of indigenous communities.

Basic researchers in Britain and elsewhere must become more informed about science policy and more active as campaigners if their profession is to survive. Useful lessons can be learned from colleagues in the United States.

Scientists who work in biomedical fields cannot be objective observers of processes that go on in their own bodies. What is the rational solution to this dilemma?

Forty years ago, the world of physics was stunned by the discovery that nuclear beta-decay does not respect symmetry between left and right. But the credit for this conclusion has not been properly attributed.

Fourteen cases of new-variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease have so far been confirmed in the United Kingdom. Are they the start of an epidemic? If so, how informative will cases in the next few years be in predicting its course?