News & Comment

Annually, the European Research Council (ERC) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) allocate resources to promote research excellence in Europe and the USA. We observe that European Union (EU)-based researchers rely strongly on United States (US) collaborations to secure top EU funding, while the reverse is much less common.

Metrology and meteorology: just two letters separating two similar and frequently confused words. Andrea Merlone, Chiara Musacchio and Walter Bich tell us about these different disciplines and ways in which they collaborate.

The Ig Nobel Prize celebrates research that makes us first laugh and then think. We look at some of this year’s not so ignoble highlights.

Unsubstantiated claims that fuel growing public concern over the toxicity of photovoltaic modules and their waste are slowing their deployment. Clarifying these issues will help to facilitate the decarbonization that our world depends on.

Efficient superconducting diodes can be designed according to established physics. However, emerging concepts must be united with known mechanisms in order to unlock functionality in rectification and frequency conversion.

Claims of a room-temperature, ambient-pressure superconductor recently kicked up a storm on social media. As the dust settles, we take stock of what this experience can teach us.

Originally invented to improve cornering techniques in race driving, speed traps contribute to road safety. Robert Wynands introduces us to tools of traffic metrology.

First-generation students have to overcome obstacles other students don’t. Every academic can help.

Radionuclides have a myriad of applications, ranging from nuclear energy to environmental studies. Carine Michotte illustrates the importance of radionuclide metrology for nuclear medicine.

The common practice of naming equations, effects, constants and units after individual scientists has its downsides, and it’s time to rethink it.

Physics of Life research in the UK is transforming scientific insight and translational impact. Here I discuss its disruptive potential and barriers to interdisciplinary research through the lens of the activities of one of its pioneers, Tom McLeish.

The lone genius narrative is harmful to science and will not help humans settle in space.

The unit one is a necessary part of any system of units but debate concerning its proper treatment in science and technology continues. Richard Brown enumerates its uses.

75 years ago, Claude E. Shannon’s ‘A mathematical theory of communication’ appeared in Bell Labs’s research journal, marking the birth of the discipline of information theory. This month, we celebrate the influence of Shannon’s work, as well as his eccentric attitude.

Not to be confused with Jane Austen’s famous character, the unit darcy goes back to a French engineer, as Stefanie Reichert explains.