Thursday 19 December 2013

GuardianWitness science award: make a film about the science you love

GuardianWitness
What one piece of science do you wish everyone knew? Make a short film about your favourite bit of scientific knowledge and you could win the GuardianWitness Science award – and an iPad Air
To enter, simply contribute to an assignment on GuardianWitness on or before 20 January 2014 and if you are shortlisted for an award we will contact you in February.


Monday 16 December 2013

The Status of EU protected Habitats and Species in Ireland Reports

Article 17 2013 Assessment documents - National Parks & Wildlife Service
Every six years, Member States of the European Union are required to report on the conservation status of all habitats and species listed on the annexes of the Habitats Directive as required under Article 17 of the Directive. Following a period of public consultation Ireland submitted these status assessments to the European Commission in June 2013.
The report will be published in 3 volumes. An overview report (Volume 1), which will provide more detail on the methodologies, a summary of the results and a list of contributors to the assessments, will be published later in 2013 or early in 2014. Volume 2 (Habitats) and Volume 3 (Species) contain the detailed reports and relevant scientific information and can be accessed here.
Habitats included range from Sand Dunes to Floating River vegetation and Bogs. Species covered include the Marsh Fritillary Butterfly, Whorl Snails, Sperm Whales and the Pine Martin amongst (unfortunately !) many others.

Gender disparities in science and Bibliometrics

Bibliometrics: Global gender disparities in science
 The research finds that in the most productive countries, all articles with women in dominant author positions receive fewer citations than those with men in the same positions. And this citation disadvantage is accentuated by the fact that women's publication portfolios are more domestic than their male colleagues — they profit less from the extra citations that international collaborations accrue. Given that citations now play a central part in the evaluation of researchers, this situation can only worsen gender disparities.

Thursday 12 December 2013

Launch of the INSIGHT Centre for Data Analytics

The INSIGHT Centre for Data Analytics | Creating a Data-Driven Society
 INSIGHT was established in 2013 by Science Foundation Ireland with funding of €75m. The INSIGHT Centre for Data Analytics is a joint initiative between researchers at UCD, NUI Galway, UCC, DCU, and other partner institutions. It will bring together a critical mass of more than 200 researchers from Ireland's leading ICT centres to develop a new generation of data analytics technologies in a number of key application areas.

'Altmetrics' and how to measure the impact of research

Rise of 'Altmetrics' Revives Questions About How to Measure Impact of Research
Steven Roberts, an assistant professor at the U. of Washington who studies how environmental change affects shellfish, tracks social-media metrics to see how his research is used online.

Global Research Reports

Global Research Reports | ScienceWatch | Thomson Reuters

Science Watch tracks on a weekly basis hot or emerging papers and research fronts in this free Web resource for science metrics and analysis. Includes interviews, first-person essays, podcasts, and profiles from scientists, journals, institutions, and nations, selected using Essential Science IndicatorsSM from Thomson Reuters (who also produce the Web of Science and Journal Citation Reports).

Wednesday 11 December 2013

Dublin Talks: 6 speakers, 6 minutes, 6 BIG ideas!

Innovation Dublin
Dublin Talks is a new series of inspiring talks by and about Irish people with big and interesting ideas.
Speakers have just six minutes to tell the audience their big idea - there’s something to suit everybody’s interests! Check out the link above for previous Dublin talks. Click each video once to play as a thumbnail, or doubleclick to view fullscreen.
Dublin Talks is organised by Dublin City Council, the Royal Irish Academy and Science Foundation Ireland, as part of Innovation Dublin.

Monday 9 December 2013

Irish scientists team up to work with China

NUI Maynooth > Communications Office > Press Release > Research
 A high level delegation of Irish scientists are currently in Beijing to develop cutting edge research partnerships. The delegation has been invited by leading Chinese Universities and follows a highly successful “Connect to China” event held in Carton House in Ireland which established links between Irish research and industry to access the Chinese market.
A showcase event will be hosted by Peking University from 6-7 December 2013, allowing Irish and Chinese research leaders to explore how to work together for high impact science.  Although the Irish team will be led by NUI Maynooth, it represents a highly integrated partnership with scientists from DCU, RCSI, TCD and DIT, all focused on the Scientific breakthroughs needed to develop new Biomedical technologies. This delegation is also part of a larger research effort that has been made possible by a Science Foundation Ireland International Strategic Collaboration (ISCA) Award to develop and strengthen existing partnerships with leading Chinese institutions in the research areas of ICT, biomedical science and nanotechnology.

Milestones of Medieval Dublin Lecture Series Podcasts

Milestones of Medieval Dublin
Renowned experts will explain just how the invasions, battles, famines and plagues that medieval Dubliners had to deal with make this one of the most fascinating cities in Europe. This is a unique opportunity to discover how events like the arrival of the Vikings and the Anglo-Normans who built Dublin castle helped shape the city.

Orcid unique author identifiers !

About ORCID | Connecting Research and Researchers distinquish yourself in three easy steps.
ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between you and your professional activities ensuring that your work is recognized

State must seize €1bn opportunity afforded by EU’s Horizon 2020 plan

State must seize €1bn opportunity afforded by EU’s Horizon 2020 plan so argues EU commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science MĂ¡ire Geoghegan-Quinn.
Ireland can draw down a minimum of €1 billion over the next seven years under the EU research, innovation and science programme Horizon 2020. However, more Irish organisations must participate in the programme.

Thursday 5 December 2013

Presentation Videos from ‘Open Data and Evidence Informed Decision Making’ seminar | The Programmable City

Presentation Videos from ‘Open Data and Evidence Informed Decision Making’ seminar | The Programmable City
 Here are the videos of the seminars and links to the slides, as only presenters are seen in the videos.
 The Programmable City project is undertaking a sustained programme of research on how software makes a difference to how social, spatial and economic life takes place, providing a comprehensive and groundbreaking interdisciplinary analysis of the two core inter-related aspects of the emerging programmable city: (a) Translation: how cities are translated into code, and (b) Transduction: how code reshapes city life.

Peer Review : Debate : Nature

Peer Review : Debate : Nature
 Peer review is commonly accepted as an essential part of scientific publication. But the ways peer review is put into practice vary across journals and disciplines. What is the best method of peer review? Is it truly a value-adding process? What are the ethical concerns? And how can new technology be used to improve traditional models?
This Nature web debate consists of 22 articles of analyses and perspectives from leading scientists, publishers and other stakeholders to address these questions. Key links and relevant articles from their archive are listed.
 

Introducing Subjectivity to Peer Review !

How to fix peer review
 PEER review, many boffins argue, channelling Churchill, is the worst way to ensure quality of research, except all the others. Marcus MunafĂ², of Bristol University, believes it could be improved—by injecting a dose of subjectivity. The claim, which he and his colleagues present in a (peer-reviewed) paper just published in Nature, is odd. Science, after all, purports to be about seeking objective truth (or at least avoiding objective falsity). But it is done by scientists, who are human beings. And like other human endeavours, Dr MunafĂ² says, it is prone to bubbles. When the academic herd stampedes to the right answer, that is fine and dandy. Less so if it rushes towards the wrong one.

New, nonprofit, open-access, scientific journal Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene launches

Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene
Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene publishes original research reporting new knowledge of the Earth's physical, chemical, and biological systems during this era of human impacts; feedbacks between human and natural systems; and steps that can be taken to mitigate and adapt to environmental change. Elementa reports on fundamental advancements in research organized initially into six domains, embracing the concept that basic knowledge can foster sustainable solutions for society.

Wednesday 4 December 2013

‘Letters from an Irish Missionary in China’

Launch of the exhibition ‘Letters from an Irish Missionary in China’ | NUI Maynooth Library
 A launch of the exhibition ‘Letters from an Irish Missionary in China’ will take place in the Russell Library on Tuesday, 10th December at 4.30pm.
The exhibition tells the story of Bishop Edward Galvin, co-founder of the Maynooth Mission to China, through a series of reproduced letters from the collections of the Columban Fathers. This material is supplemented with primary and secondary sources from the collections of the Russell Library.
The exhibition, which runs until the end of January, provides a fascinating insight into Chinese civilisation and customs as well as religion and politics.

12 days of christmas information sources recommendations

ALISS 12 days of christmas recommendations
 Here are recommendations for the 12 days of christmas (for social scientists and others!) This is a nice eclectic list of resources based on the themes of the 12 days of Christmas produced by the Association of Librarians and Information Professionals in the Social Sciences.

Tuesday 3 December 2013

Food and forestry researchers get €26.3m for 51 projects

Food and forestry researchers get €26.3m for 51 projects
 More than €26 million has been awarded to 51 food and forestry research projects by the Department of Agriculture, Minister Simon Coveney announced this morning.
Several of the projects are investigating novel health benefits of foods. A joint Teagasc/UCC/NUIG project will investigate the potential of omega 3, derived from marine algae, to prevent depression and boost mental health.
A University of Limerick/University of Ulster project is looking at the use of peptides found in seaweed and fish byproducts in controlling diabetes. It is also investigating the possibility that these peptides could help appetite control, by giving the sensation of “feeling full”.
Meanwhile, researchers in UCD and Teagasc are measuring the beneficial effects of grass-fed beef in areas such as glucose control and heart health.
Other projects are looking at food safety, climate change, controlling disease in crops and improving soil quality.

Salamanca archives catalogue now available

Salamanca archives | NUI Maynooth Library
From the late 16th century, Irish colleges grew up on the continent in countries where trade links with Ireland were already well established and where there was support for Catholic reform. Young men, seeking an education for the professions or training for the priesthood, gravitated to university centres in Spain, France and the Low Countries where small colleges were established to provide their formation. Many of these closed in the turbulence of the late 18th century. The only ones to re-open in 1815, were those in Salamanca, Paris and Rome.
The archives of the Irish College in Salamanca came to Maynooth on the closure of the college in 1951. They comprise some 50,000 administrative documents dating from the foundation of the college in 1592 to the mid- 20th century. The collection also includes some papers from other Irish colleges in Spain: Lisbon (flourished 1590-1834), Valladolid (founded 1592), Santiago de Compostela (fl. 1605-1769), Seville (fl. 1612-1767), Madrid (founded 1629), AlcalĂ¡ de Henares (fl. 1649-1785).
The Salamanca Archive catalogue can be accessed through the St Patricks, College Maynooth archive catalogue

Monday 2 December 2013

Journal Metrics: Research analytics redefined

Journal Metrics: Research analytics redefined | Home
The academic community has long been demanding more transparency, choice and accuracy in journal assessment. Currently, the majority of academic output is evaluated based on a single ranking of journal impact. Bibliometricians have been exploring new methods to provide deeper insight. Within the field of journal evaluation, two of the most exciting are Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) and SCImago Journal Rank (SJR), those values are provided here free of charge.

InCites:Supporting objective analysis of people, programs and peers by connecting research to impact | Thomson Reuters

InCites | Thomson Reuters
 InCites™ is a customized, web-based research evaluation tool that allows you to analyze institutional productivity and benchmark your output against peers worldwide. With customized citation data, global metrics, and multidimensional profiles on the leading research institutions, InCites gives comprehensive insight into your institution's performance. And with robust visualization and reporting tools, you can create and share reports quickly and easily.

This resource is available from the Library if you've any queries please contact me.  The information at the above link also provides a useful article and a White paper on using Bibliometrics to evaluate research performance.

Thursday 28 November 2013

Evaluation of Academics in the UK with the Research Excellence Framework (REF)

As the REF submission period ends, mismatched publishing incentives signal challenging times ahead in academia.

Academics are frequently subject to new types of evaluations. November marks the end of the submission process for the UK funding council’s evaluation, the Research Excellence Framework (REF). John Hudson discusses some of the shortcomings of the REF and the methods individual papers are ranked. New evaluations and requirements change the incentives of economists and can affect their research – sometimes not for the better.


New TV Documentary on 4000-year-old body found preserved in an Irish peat bog, in Cashel, in Ireland's midlands

BBC Four - 4,000 -Year-Old Cold Case: The Body in the Bog

 A 4000-year-old body is found preserved in an Irish peat bog, in Cashel, in Ireland's midlands. To scientists and historians, it could offer brand new clues to solve an ancient mystery: the hundreds of bodies found mummified in the boglands of Northern Europe.
An international team of experts assemble to investigate this new find, led by Ned Kelly of the National Museum of Ireland. Ned is a veteran archaeologist, and has previously investigated some of Ireland's most famous bog bodies.
Now, will "Cashel Man" help prove his theory these Irish victims were ancient kings? And what clues can the bog bodies of Europe offer to explain our ancestors' most macabre tradition - ritual murder?
Meanwhile, that question could be answered by the bog itself. New science has found clues to suggest these deaths may be explained by prehistoric climate change. The body was unearthed in the CĂºl na MĂ³na bog in Cashel in 2011 by a Bord na MĂ³na worker operating a milling machine.

Tuesday 26 November 2013

Maximizing the Impact of your Research: a Handbook for Social Scientists

The Handbook

The handbook  which was produced by a team of academics based at the London School of Economics, the University of Leeds and Imperial College who have been working on a ‘Research Impacts’ project aimed at developing precise methods for measuring and evaluating the impact of research in the public sphere.
The aim of this handbook is to  help researchers to achieve greater visibility and impacts with audiences outside the university. It provides a large menu of sound and evidence-based advice and guidance on how to ensure that your work achieves its maximum visibility and influence with both academic and external audiences.

The critical role of arts and humanities

The arts and humanities play a critical role in the development of vibrant communities.

 Providing a historic look at how society has understood the value of the arts and humanities, Jason M. Kelly argues that today’s scholarship has largely framed itself around the context of the neoliberal commodified university. But there are other ways to understand scholarly value. By drawing from the Community Capitals Framework, he demonstrates how the arts and humanities play a critical role in the civil ecology of vibrant communities.

Science Foundation Ireland and Research Impact

SFI - SFI Research Impact

 The recently published SFI Agenda 2020 sets out a vision in which Ireland will, by 2020, be the best country in the world for both scientific research excellence and impact.  The 2012 report of the Research Prioritisation group has identified a number of priority areas around which future investment in publicly performed research should be based. These priority areas will deliver sustainable economic return through their contribution to enterprise development, employment growth, job retention and tangible improvements in quality of life.

The objectives of SFI’s impact assessment are as follows:
  • To stimulate researchers to consider how best to maximise the impact of their research and how to maximise the engagement of users of their research
  • To actively demonstrate the contributions and benefits of publicly funded research to society and the economy and, in doing so, demonstrate the value of publicly funded investment in R&D
  • To better understand the transfer of scientific knowledge into practice, strengthen the system and structures for this transfer and so maximise the use and benefits of publicly funded research.

Monday 25 November 2013

Will icy Comet Ison survive its close encounter with the sun?

Will icy Comet Ison survive its close encounter with the sun?

 This week will see the moment of truth for Comet Ison, the much-awaited “comet of the century” that could be about to put on one of the greatest celestial lightshows in living memory.

The Antikythera Mechanism, which might be called the First Computer.

ThatsMaths

More than a hundred years ago an extraordinary mechanism was found by sponge divers at the bottom of the sea near the island of Antikythera. It astonished the whole international community of experts on the ancient world. Was it an astrolabe? Was it an orrery or an astronomical clock? Or something else?

Friday 22 November 2013

Final day of the Warsaw Climate Change Conference - November 2013

Warsaw Climate Change Conference - November 2013

Check out the state of play of the negotiations on their final day plus livestreams from the press office.  This conference is about detailing the international response to climate change, how to implement it and how to finance it.

According to Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary UNFCCCCOP "19/CMP9 affords an opportunity to consolidate responses to climate change and to showcase the many ambitious adaptation and mitigation initiatives being implemented around the world. By scaling and speeding up action we prepare for a universal global agreement and move toward a safer future."

Universities patenting discoveries does not pay off !

Patenting Their Discoveries Does Not Pay Off for Most Universities, a Study Says
 Universities try to cash in on discoveries — gene splicing, brain chemistry, computer-chip design — but the great majority of them fail to turn their research into a source of income, according to a new study from the Brookings Institution.

Thursday 21 November 2013

Virtual guide to our Galaxy

Guide to our Galaxy

Starting from the centre this virtual journey shows the different components that make up our home galaxy, the Milky Way, which contains about a hundred billion stars.
It starts at the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way and with the stars that orbit around it, before zooming out through the central Galactic Bulge, which hosts about ten billion stars.

Its produced by the NSA. Great visualisation though to avoid permanent brain damage the funky soundtrack is best muted.



English seas get new marine conservation zones

English seas get new marine zones

 The UK government has announced it will create 27 new marine conservation zones (MCZs) to protect wildlife in the seas around the English coast. The MCZs will help seahorses, coral reefs and oyster beds to remain safe from dredging and bottom-trawling.
The Marine Conservation Society welcomed the "significant milestone". But it warned there were still fewer than a quarter of the number of MCZs recommended by scientists to complete an "ecologically coherent" network.


Tuesday 19 November 2013

Snowball Metrics

Snowball Metrics | SciVal
 In line with recommendations made by the sector, several distinguished institutions agreed to collaborate with a supplier, Elsevier, to define and agree their needs around metrics for decision making. The resulting metrics, Snowball Metrics, help establish a reliable foundation for institutional strategic decision making to complement existing approaches.

The project partners are:
  • University of Oxford
  • University College London
  • University of Cambridge
  • Imperial College London
  • University of Bristol
  • University of Leeds
  • Queen’s University Belfast
  • University of St Andrews
  • Elsevier

Halt the avalanche of performance metrics

Halt the avalanche of performance metrics
 The leaders of major universities around the world used to maintain a healthy scepticism towards league tables and the metrics that underpin them. But now, officials at institutions that do well in such assessments — partly on merit, and partly because they use the English language or have other historical advantages — are becoming beguiled with quantitative measures to rate the performance of academic staff. People who care about genuine quality in research and teaching need to resist that shift.

So argues  Colin Macilwain. in Nature (500) (7462)

Chronicling America Historic American Newspapers

Chronicling America « Library of Congress

 Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1836-1922 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress. Learn more

Friday 15 November 2013

Presentation slides from ‘Open Data and Evidence Informed Decision Making’ seminar | The Programmable City

Presentation slides from ‘Open Data and Evidence Informed Decision Making’ seminar | The Programmable City
 The 1st Programmable City Seminar filled the house with Ireland open data advocates, NUIM Students, NIRSA & NCG & StratAg & AIRO researchers, Media Studies Faculty, Computer Science Faculty, geographers, public servants, the folks at Dlublinked, technology media, the project team and others.  The audience reflected the trans-disciplinary nature of the Programmable City Project.

Really interesting seminar well done to all.

Global Forest Change 2000–2012

Global Forest Change | Google Crisis Map
  Results from time-series analysis of 654,178 Landsat images in characterizing forest extent and change, 2000–2012. From the University of Maryland Dept of Geographical Sciences.

Tuesday 12 November 2013

Science Exhibition in Russell Library to celebrate Science Week | NUI Maynooth Library

Science Exhibition in Russell Library to celebrate Science Week | NUI Maynooth Library
 The Russell Library is hosting a mini exhibition of science related historical texts to celebrate Science Week (Monday, 11th – Friday, 15th November). Highlights of the exhibition include the third edition of Newton’s ‘Principia Mathematica’ which was printed in London in the year 1726, as well as Samuel Sturmy’s ‘Mariner Magazine’, printed in 1669. Sturmy’s work contains practical instructions relating to navigation, surveying and astronomy, and features several working volvelles.

Country profile and featured projects for Ireland - Horizon 2020 - the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation - European Commission

Country profile and featured projects for Ireland - Horizon 2020 - the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation - European Commission

Horizon 2020 is the financial instrument implementing the Innovation Union, a Europe 2020 flagship initiative aimed at securing Europe's global competitiveness. Running from 2014 to 2020 with a budget of just over €70 billion1, the EU’s new programme for research and innovation is part of the drive to create new growth and jobs in Europe.

MERIL - Research Infrastructures Information System

MERIL - RI Information System

 The MERIL database is an inventory of the most excellent research infrastructures (RIs) in Europe of more-than-national relevance across all scientific domains: from archives and statistical offices to biobanks and satellites. Read more about MERIL and the criteria for inclusion.
 Note: The MERIL database is currently being populated; a full version of the MERIL database will be launched in 2013.

Friday 8 November 2013

Nobel Laureate Lecture Professor Serge Haroche Nobel Prize Winner in Physics

Nobel Laureate Lecture | Serge Haroche | Registration and Live Stream

“Shedding new light on Schrödinger’s cat”  
by 
Professor Serge Haroche Nobel Prize Winner in Physics, 2012
Monday, 11th November 2013 at 11am in the Mahony Hall, The Helix, DCU.
 If you would like to attend the lecture in The Helix Register Now to secure your attendance as places are limited

 The Nobel lecture will also be streamed live on this page @ 11am on Monday 11th

Thursday 7 November 2013

The Doegen Records Web Project

The Doegen Records Web Project

In 1926 the Irish government asked Dr Doegen to make recordings of Irish speech in the Gaeltacht and in areas of the country where Irish had suffered decline.
 The 212 surviving records which comprise the collection contain some 400 tracks in all. These include folktales, versions of the parable of the Prodigal Son, songs (both sung and spoken), discourses, prayers and miscellaneous items of vocabulary such as recitations of the numbers 1 to 30 or the days of the week.

Wednesday 6 November 2013

Getting Better Cited in the Social Sciences

4: Getting Better Cited

"A key reason why academic work is poorly cited is that the authors make virtually no effort to encourage citation" 

So link into this very informative piece to get some tips on how to improve your citation counts !

Flash Eurobarometer reports - European Commission

Flash Eurobarometer reports - European Commission

Flash Eurobarometers are ad hoc thematical telephone interviews conducted at the request of any service of the European Commission. Flash surveys enable the Commission to obtain results relatively quickly and to focus on specific target groups, as and when required.

Current Reports include:  Attitudes torwards Biodiversity, Firearms in the European Union, Introduction of the Euro in rececently acceded member states.

Science Week 10th to 17th November 2013

Science Week - About Science Week
 The aim of Science Week is to promote the relevance of science, technology, engineering and maths in our everyday lives and to demonstrate their importance to the future development of Irish society and to the economy.
Science Week is a Discover Science & Engineering (DSE) project. DSE initiatives are managed by Science Foundation Ireland on behalf of the Office of Science, Technology and Innovation at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation.


Science Week Events

Science Week Events

This year Science Week will take place from 10th  to 17th  November  2013. The theme for this year’s Science Week is:
“Science Week 2013 – Exploring the XTRA-Ordinary”. 

Check out the evening lectures taking place in Maynooth or visit the National Science Museum Exhibition in St Patricks College on Saturday afternoon.


Friday 1 November 2013

Planet Hunters

Planet Hunters

NASA's Kepler spacecraft is one of the most powerful tools in the hunt for extrasolar planets. The Kepler team's computers are sifting through the data, but there will be planets which can only be found via the remarkable human ability for pattern recognition.
This is a gamble, a bet if you will, on the ability of humans to beat machines just occasionally.  Fancy giving it a try?
 The Planet Hunters initiative, where volunteers trawl through light curves from Kepler, has just reported finding numerous exoplanets, including a seventh planet orbiting a star about 2,500 light years from Earth, “marking the first seven- planet candidate system from Kepler”, according to details posted on arxiv.org.

Nobel Week Dialogue: 9th of December: "Exploring the Future of Energy"

Nobel Week Dialogue

A forum for scientists and non-scientists alike, the meeting aims to deepen the dialogue between the scientific community and the rest of society. The Nobel Week Dialogue is free to attend and accessible to a worldwide audience online.

Sign up to attend the event in person or register your contact details to receive information regarding the online streaming of the day's programme

Greater training is necessary to put open data at the heart of Research Data Management policy and practice.

Greater training is necessary to put open data at the heart of Research Data Management policy and practice.
 As higher education institutions look to implement broader visions of openness, there is a need to re-assess the training and skills required for appropriate research data management (RDM). Geoff Curtis and StĂ©phane Goldstein present the findings of a report on how best to exploit developments in RDM practice to promote greater awareness and understanding of open data.

Thursday 31 October 2013

Irish research team shines light on male infertility

IRISH RESEARCH TEAM SHINES LIGHT ON MALE INFERTILITY | Research Office | NUI Maynooth
 A research team led by Professor Kay Ohlendieck from NUI Maynooth’s Department of Biology has determined the molecular mechanisms of a particular form of sperm abnormalities called globozoospermia and found that the abnormal morphology of sperm cells plays a crucial role in infertility.

Friday 25 October 2013

In Pursuit of the Irish Headhunter

In Pursuit of the Irish Headhunter
 Charles R. Browne (1867-1931) surveyed communities in the remotest parts of Ireland between 1891 and 1900. A major exhibition of his  photographic collection was presented in the John Paul II Library at NUI Maynooth. Check out the Photo's of the exibition.

SFI SPEAKER SERIES: GROW YOUR OWN... Curators Talk | Science Gallery

SFI SPEAKER SERIES: GROW YOUR OWN... Curators Talk | Science Gallery

 So what is synthetic biology? Ask the experts in an evening with the curators, Paul Freemont, Anthony Dunne, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, and Cathal Garvey - as part of the SFI Speaker Series. Find out how design, genetics, engineering and biology all contribute to one of the most important emerging fields in contemporary science.

Tellus Border Home

Tellus Border Home

Tellus Border is an EU INTERREG IVA-funded regional mapping project collecting geo-environmental data on soils, water and rocks across six border counties - Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Cavan, Monaghan and Louth - and continuing the analysis of existing data in Northern Ireland.  The project is a cross-border initiative between the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland, the Geological Survey of Ireland, Queen’s University Belfast and Dundalk Institute of Technology.

Airborne geophysical data has been released and is available to view on the Tellus Border viewer. Please visit the Data Downloads page to download the data. Geochemical data will be available to download later in 2013. Topsoil geochemistry is available to preview on the Tellus Border viewer

Thursday 24 October 2013

NUIM ePrints and eTheses Archive

Welcome to NUIM ePrints and eTheses Archive - NUIM ePrints and eTheses Archive

 NUI Maynooth ePrints Archive is an institutional repository of ePrints which showcases the research output of NUI Maynooth and St. Patrick's College staff and postgraduate students. This open access ensures the widest possible dissemination and impact for our work in Maynooth and cont ributes to the growing body of research literature that is now freely available online.

Wednesday 23 October 2013

Dryad Digital Repository - Dryad

Dryad Digital Repository - Dryad

The Dryad Digital Repository is a curated resource that makes the data underlying scientific publications discoverable, freely reusable, and citable. Dryad provides a general-purpose home for a wide diversity of datatypes.

Apps 4 Gaps: All-Ireland Open App Competition

Apps 4 Gaps
Apps4Gaps is an All-Ireland competition aimed at encouraging young people (including 3rd Level) to develop ideas and create applications that will provide innovative and fresh ways of exploiting the Open Data freely available from the Census 2011 that could benefit society in such areas as transport, housing, planning, education, communications and health.

Winning teams will be awarded €1,000 – €1,500! The best entry overall will be awarded a Boole Medal.

Tuesday 22 October 2013

Irish Squirrel & Pine Marten Project funded by the Irish Research Council

Irish Squirrel & Pine Marten Project - Irish Squirrel + Pine Marten Project

 In October 2009, the Mammal Ecology Group of NUI, Galway, launched an exciting research project investigating the relationships between three woodland mammal species in Ireland; the native red squirrel, the pine marten and the introduced grey squirrel. The research project was carried out by Emma Sheehy under the supervision of Dr Colin Lawton and funded by the Irish Research Council.

 In the most recent distribution survey carried out on the two species (Carey et al., 2007) it was noted that in certain midland counties (Laois/Offaly and Cavan/Monaghan) the grey squirrels had not replaced the red in the same manner as in other areas, and even that the red squirrel had extended its range. This coincided with a resurgence of the pine marten (Martes martes) in the two areas suggesting that the pine marten may be disrupting the usual pattern of displacement of red squirrels by greys. Alternatively it may just reflect habitat preferences of the species concerned.

Click into the Media Links to hear Emma chatting about her research.



Irish Qualitative Data Archive

Irish Qualitative Data Archive
  
The Irish Qualitative Data Archive (IQDA) is a central access point for qualitative social science data generated in or about Ireland. The archive contains qualitative datasets that include interviews, pictures and other non-numerical material. It also frames the parameters and standards for archiving such data within the Irish research community. The IQDA is building on existing archiving projects being undertaken by NIRSA(National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis) at NUIM both relating to photographs (NIRSA photo archive and the Ned Cassidy photo archive, the latter in conjunction the Irish Architectural Archive (IAA) and NUIM library).

MANTRA Research Data Management Training

Research Data MANTRA

MANTRA is an online course designed for researchers or others planning to manage digital data as part of the research process. Through a series of interactive online units you will learn about terminology, key concepts, and best practice in data management. MANTRA is maintained by Data Library staff in Information Services, University of Edinburgh. It was originally developed in collaboration with the Institute for Academic Development as part of a Jisc-funded Managing Research Data project (2010).

MANTRA is an online course designed for researchers or others planning to manage digital data as part of the research process. - See more at: http://datalib.edina.ac.uk/mantra/#sthash.8AzaAKPg.dpuf

MANTRA is an online course designed for researchers or others planning to manage digital data as part of the research process. - See more at: http://datalib.edina.ac.uk/mantra/#sthash.8AzaAKPg.dpuf

Scopus Database

Scopus | Elsevier TrainingDesk
Scopus is the world’s largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature and is available via the Library.

Want to improve the effectivness of your search strategies check out these online tutorials.

Bias in research: the rule rather than the exception?

Bias in research: the rule rather than the exception? - Editors' Update - Your network for knowledge - Editors' Update – Your network for knowledge

Dr Kevin Mullane and Dr Mike Williams, two of the editors of the Elsevier journal, Biochemical Pharmacology, discuss some of the causes and prevalence of bias in the fields of biomedical research - and the implications for the wider research community.

Monday 21 October 2013

Access Project MUSE collections from the Library

Project MUSE
 Project MUSE is a leading provider of digital humanities and social sciences content; since 1995, its electronic journal collections have supported a wide array of research needs at academic, public, special, and school libraries worldwide. MUSE books and journals, from leading university presses and scholarly societies, are fully integrated for search and discovery.

When searching just select for content the Libray has access to to see full text availability.

Thursday 17 October 2013

Impact factors are clouding our judgement

Impact factors are clouding our judgement  (Reciprocal Space Blog by Stephen Curry)
  
Nature has an interesting news feature this week on impact factors. Eugenie Samuel Reich’s article — part of a special supplement covering various aspects of the rather ill-defined notion of impact — explores whether publication in journals such as Nature or Science is a game-changer for scientific careers.

Trapped in a Fig: The Perils and Payoffs of Pollination

Trapped in a Fig: The Perils and Payoffs of Pollination | EveryONE

 Pollinating insects are an industrious bunch, working tirelessly as they flit from blossom to blossom. But for insects like the short-lived, fig-pollinating wasp, the job of bringing fruit to fruition can be a dangerous business. According to a recent PLOS ONE study, some wasps can get trapped and die in the fig during pollination, when they enter to deposit their eggs. The researchers find that wasps of a certain size may take this risk into account when deciding which figs to approach.

Are Alternative Metrics Still Alternative? by Mike Buschman and Andrea Michalek

Bulletin April/May 2013 (ASIS&T)

 Citation counts have long been the tried and true measure of academic research usage and impact. Specifically, published articles in prominent journals citing other published articles in other prominent journals equate to prestige and tenure. This scheme for determining impact was developed in the 1960s, and while so much else about collecting and disseminating information has changed since that time, the citation count mechanism continues to dominate the way research is evaluated. Yet, there are many well-known problems with this system.

Tuesday 15 October 2013

Horizon 2020 featured projects for Ireland

Country profile and featured projects for Ireland - Horizon 2020 - the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation - European Commission

Research-related data and summaries of featured projects relating to Ireland. 

"Horizon 2020 is the financial instrument implementing the Innovation Union, a Europe 2020 flagship initiative aimed at securing Europe's global competitiveness. Running from 2014 to 2020 with a budget of just over €70 billion1, the EU’s new programme for research and innovation is part of the drive to create new growth and jobs in Europe."

Friday 11 October 2013

Why altmetrics are about more than just research impact ~ libfocus - Irish library blog

Why altmetrics are about more than just research impact ~ libfocus - Irish library blog

Royal Irish Academy audio archive

Royal Irish Academy | About | Audio

 Listen to audio recordings of discourses, public lectures and other Academy events under the catagories of Science, Humanities, Social Sciences and Policy. These recordings include

'A Conversation with Professor Peter Higgs and Colleagues' where they explore four generations of research on the Higgs boson.

'Public Lecture: A Hundred Objects, A Hundred Stories' with Fintan O'Toole, Author of A history of Ireland in 100 objects.

Academy Discourse: 'The Battle for Afghanistan' with William Dalrymple discussing the 1st Afghan war.

'Values in University Education - From Academic Freedom to Impact'. The seminar explored shifting principles, aims and values in higher education, such as academic freedom, impact, peer review and open innovation, against the backdrop of current economic challenges.

Thursday 10 October 2013

MANTRA Research Data Management Training

Research Data MANTRA

MANTRA is a free, non-assessed course with guidelines to help you understand and reflect on how to manage the data you collect throughout your research. The course is particularly appropriate for those who work with digital data.
Through a series of interactive online units you will learn about terminology, key concepts, and best practice in data management.


MANTRA is an online course designed for researchers or others planning to manage digital data as part of the research process. - See more at: http://datalib.edina.ac.uk/mantra/#sthash.kZfGU6dL.dpuf
MANTRA is an online course designed for researchers or others planning to manage digital data as part of the research process. - See more at: http://datalib.edina.ac.uk/mantra/#sthash.kZfGU6dL.dpuf

The Mental Health of young people in Ireland : Report

PERL Homepage - Royal College Surgeons in Ireland

A report of the Psychiatric Epidemology Research across the Lifespan (PERL) Group was lauched today titled "The Mental Health of young people in Ireland". This report summarises findings on the rates of mental ill-health among Irish youth from their Adolescent Brain Development Study and their Challenging Times Two Study.

Digital Library portal for researchers in Astronomy and Physics

SAO/NASA ADS: ADS Home Page

Operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) under a NASA grant. The ADS (Astrophysics Data System) maintains three bibliographic databases containing more than 10.4 million records: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Physics, and arXiv e-prints. The main body of data in the ADS consists of bibliographic records, which are searchable through highly customizable query forms, and full-text scans of much of the astronomical literature which can be browsed or searched via a full-text search interface. Integrated in its databases, the ADS provides access and pointers to a wealth of external resources, including electronic articles, data catalogs and archives. They currently have links to over 10.1 million records maintained by their collaborators.  Access to full text will depend ofcourse on what your Library has subscriptions to.

Monday 7 October 2013

Tracking Citations and Altmetrics for Research Data: Challenges and Opportunities

Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) Bulletin August/September 2013 by  Stacy Konkiel  . Click for the full article.
 The recently announced San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment [1], which calls for the abandonment of the journal impact factor as a means to determine the quality of research, highlights how important and contested the measurement of scholarly impact has become. Measuring impact for research data is also complicated. Data citation itself is not yet a standard practice [2, 3], and there is no authoritative agreement on how and when data should be cited [4]. Altmetrics, which track scholarship’s usage on the social and scholarly web, comprise a nebulous group of metrics that use an ever-shifting list of web services’ APIs as a source of their data [5]. As with data citations, standards do not yet exist to record or report the impact of different types of altmetrics. In light of these challenges, a panel was convened at the ASIS&T Research Data Access & Preservation Summit 2013 (RDAP13) to discuss new developments in exactly how researchers track the impact of data.

Friday 27 September 2013

IPCC - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

IPCC - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

A total of 209 Lead Authors and 50 Review Editors from 39 countries and more than 600 Contributing Authors from 32 countries contributed to the preparation of Working Group I's  Fifth Assessment Report  "Climate Change 2013: The physical Science Basis". For more on how the Working Group I report was prepared click here.
 
This report confirms with even more certainty than in the past, that it is extremely likely that the changes in our climate system for the past half a century are due to human influence. It should serve as yet another wake up call that our activities today will have a profound impact on society not only for us but for many generations to come. Multiple lines of evidence confirm that the extra heat being trapped by greenhouse gases is warming the Earth atmosphere,surface to record levels, heating and acidifying the oceans, raising sea levels, and melting ice caps and glaciers.

The Final Draft of the Working Group I contribution to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report will be available here on 30 September.


Thursday 26 September 2013

Wednesday 25 September 2013

The New Mendeley for iPad and iPhone | Mendeley Blog

The New Mendeley for iPad and iPhone | Mendeley Blog


release of the all new Mendeley for iOS. We’ve rebuilt the app from the ground up to make it fast, fluid and easier to use than ever before. It’s available today for FREE on the app store. - See more at: http://blog.mendeley.com/uncategorized/the-new-mendeley-for-ipad-and-iphone/#.dpuf

Tuesday 24 September 2013

Elsevier Connect | Mendeley to host master class on how technology is changing research

Elsevier Connect | Mendeley to host master class on how technology is changing research

 On Thursday, innovators from companies at the forefront of publishing and technology innovation will come together to discuss how technology can change, facilitate and improve things for researchers.
The master class – called Social Science: How Technology is Changing Research – is being hosted by Mendeley as part of Social Media Week in London.

Monday 23 September 2013

European and US Research Collaboration and Mobility Patterns: Science Europe and Elsevier Release Comprehensive Study | Elsevier

European and US Research Collaboration and Mobility Patterns: Science Europe and Elsevier Release Comprehensive Study | Elsevier
 Brussels, September 12, 2013 Science Europe and Elsevier today released a new report that for the first time provides a comprehensive view of the European and US research mobility and collaboration landscapes: 'Comparative Benchmarking of European and US Research Collaboration and Researcher Mobility'.

Other studies have shown that research nations benefit from collaborative research, in particular international collaborations, as they typically result in higher citation impacts, a quality measure of research articles. The report, based on Scopus data, shows that both Europe and the US have experienced steady growth in their overall collaboration rates since 2003. Inter-country collaboration in Europe also showed an increase, from slightly over 11% in 2003 to 13% of articles in 2011, contrasting with the recently-decreasing levels seen in analogous inter-state collaboration in the US, at 16% of articles in 2011.  Since the percentage for Europe has steadily been rising since 2003, it seems that the national and European mechanisms to encourage cross-country collaboration in Europe are working, although with considerable variation by discipline.

The study found that US researchers are more likely to collaborate with their peers outside the US than European researchers are likely to collaborate with their colleagues outside Europe, although in fact the additional benefit of collaborating outside the region is proportionally greater for European researchers than for US researchers.

Friday 13 September 2013

Crime-scene DNA extracted from single hair - life - 13 September 2013 - New Scientist

Crime-scene DNA extracted from single hair - life - 13 September 2013 - New Scientist

Is Google Scholar useful for bibliometrics? A webometric analysis - Springer

Is Google Scholar useful for bibliometrics? A webometric analysis - Springer
 Google Scholar, the academic bibliographic database provided free-of-charge by the search engine giant Google, has been suggested as an alternative or complementary resource to the commercial citation databases like Web of Knowledge (ISI/Thomson) or Scopus (Elsevier). About 63.8% of the records are hosted in generic domains like .com or .org, confirming that most of the Scholar data come from large commercial or non-profit sources. Considering only institutions with at least one record, one-third of the other items (10.6% from the global) are hosted by the 10,442 universities, while 3,901 research centres amount for an additional 7.9% from the total. The research concludes that Google Scholar lacks the quality control needed for its use as a bibliometric tool; the larger coverage it provides consists in some cases of items not comparable with those provided by other similar databases. The full text of the article is available at the link above.

Pathology in the Hundred Acre Wood: a neurodevelopmental perspective on A.A. Milne

Pathology in the Hundred Acre Wood: a neurodevelopmental perspective on A.A. Milne

"Somewhere at the top of the Hundred Acre Wood a little boy and his bear play. On the surface it is an innocent world, but on closer examination by our group of experts we find a forest where neurodevelopmental and psychosocial problems go unrecognized and untreated. "
" We begin with Pooh. This unfortunate bear embodies the concept of comorbidity. Most striking is his Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), inattentive subtype. As clinicians, we had some debate about whether Pooh might also demonstrate significant impulsivity, as witnessed, for example, by his poorly thought out attempt to get honey by disguising himself as a rain cloud. We concluded, however, that this reflected more on his comorbid cognitive impairment, further aggravated by an obsessive fixation on honey. The latter, of course, has also contributed to his significant obesity."

Voyager - The Interstellar Mission

Voyager - The Interstellar Mission
Voyager 1 has entered interstellar space. The NASA spacecraft, which rose from Earth on a September morning 36 years ago, has traveled farther than anyone, or anything, in history. Now Voyager 1 is in the space between the stars. How did Voyager 1 get there? How do we know and where is it going? For more information on humanity's first emissary to what lies beyond, explore the videos, images and stories on the NASA website.

Wednesday 11 September 2013

rdmrose - Projects - Research - Information School - The University of Sheffield

rdmrose - Projects - Research - Information School - The University of Sheffield
 RDMRose was a JISC funded project to produce taught and continuing professional development (CPD) learning materials in Research Data Management (RDM) tailored for Information professionals.
 The materials are available for reuse by other educators and have also been designed for self-supported CPD (continuing professional development). The module is split into 8 sessions, each equivalent to a half day of study.

Monday 9 September 2013

The new metrics cannot be ignored – we need to implement centralised impact management systems to understand what these numbers mean

The new metrics cannot be ignored – we need to implement centralised impact management systems to understand what these numbers mean
By using the social web to convey both scholarly and public attention of research outputs, altmetrics offer a much richer picture than traditional metrics based on exclusive citation database information. Pat Loria compares the new metrics services and argues that as more systems incorporate altmetrics into their platforms, institutions will benefit from creating an impact management system to interpret these metrics, pulling in information from research managers, ICT and systems staff, and those creating the research impact.

Friday 23 August 2013

Increase in CAO points for primary education, ICT and specialist sciences at NUI Maynooth

The Bachelor of Education degree for primary teaching at NUI Maynooth has seen a surge in demand, coinciding with the move from Froebel College of Education in Blackrock to NUI Maynooth. Points for the BEd in primary teaching have increased to 495, the highest nationally.

There has been strong demand for ICT related courses at NUI Maynooth with the BSc in Computational Thinking at 520 points, 20 points up from last year and the BSc in Computer Science & Software Engineering up 5 points from last year. Specialist scientific courses at Maynooth also experienced strong demand with the BSc in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics increasing to 570 points and the BSc in Biotechnology up 10 points to 425.

Thursday 22 August 2013

Strategies for using Bibliometrics

Strategies for using Bibliometrics
 Evaluation of scientific research is notoriously hard, almost by definition: success means something not done before, but if it was not done before, then how can we evaluate it?

The day before death: New archaeological technique gives insight into the day before death

The day before death: New archaeological technique gives insight into the day before death
 For more than a century archaeologists have carefully brushed and shovelled away the soil surrounding human skeletons. It was thought that the soil was without any value – but now ground-breaking research from Danish scientists show that that the soil holds the key to very detailed information about the individual in the grave.

Satellites glimpse ultra-powerful “black hole” whirlpools in Atlantic

Satellites glimpse ultra-powerful “black hole” whirlpools in Atlantic
 Satellites have shown two mysterious 'black hole' whirlpools in the South Atlantic ocean - ultra powerful “vortexes” which suck water down into the depths.
The powerful vortices of current have been described as ‘maelstroms’ and are ‘mathematical analogues’ for black holes – which is to say they do exactly the same with water that black holes do with light.

Wednesday 21 August 2013

Earth Overshoot Day

Earth Overshoot Day

According to the 'Global Footprint Network' August 20 is Earth Overshoot Day 2013, marking the date when humanity exhausted nature’s budget for the year. We are now operating in overdraft. For the rest of the year, we will maintain our ecological deficit by drawing down local resource stocks and accumulating carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Tuesday 20 August 2013

ChemDatabaseService - YouTube

ChemDatabaseService - YouTube

The National Chemical Database Service, which is funded by the EPSRC and hosted by the Royal Society of Chemistry have produced a series of webinars about their (non-crystallography) databases.

SPRESIweb is a structure and reaction database for organic chemists. It contains 5.52 million molecules and 4.26 million reactions extracted from the literature by VINITI (USSR) from 1974.  

ARChem is another tool for the synthetic organic chemist.  It takes a database of reactions and uses it to generate a set of rules for finding synthetic pathways.  In this case, the database used is the RSC's 'Methods in Organic Synthesis’.  


ACD/i-Lab2 You can search by compound name or structure (draw or import).  It contains experimental property data from the literature and predicted data, including spectra and log P.  


Chemicalize is a free web application where you can type in a URL and it will augment the web page, pulling out any chemical structures. 

Friday 16 August 2013

9 things you should consider before embarking on a PhD | Elsevier Connect

9 things you should consider before embarking on a PhD | Elsevier Connect

Scopus2Orcid - Use the Scopus to Orcid Author details and documents wizard to collect all your Scopus records in one unique author profile.

Scopus2Orcid - Use the Scopus to Orcid Author details and documents wizard to collect all your Scopus records in one unique author profile.
Your publications on Scopus may be spread over a number of different Author profiles, because these are generated automatically. In order to create a single profile containing the correct publications, please follow the steps in this wizard. On completion, any changes will also be sent as corrections to Scopus.

ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) seeks to remedy the systemic name ambiguity problems seen in scholarly research by assigning unique identifiers linkable to an individual's research output. If you have not yet created an ORCID profile, you will be able to do so during the process that follows; alternatively, you can register first at http://orcid.org and then import your works from your profile page

Woolly creature named new species

Woolly creature named new species
A creature looking like a cross between a house cat and a teddy bear has been named as a new species after being wrongly identified for 100 years.
The woolly-furred olinguito, which weighs 2lb (0.9kg), is related to raccoons and coatis and lives in the cloud forests of Colombia and Ecuador.
For more than a century it was mistaken for its larger close cousin, the olingo.

Thursday 15 August 2013

Top 10 most-accessed articles April–June 2013 « RSC Advances Blog

Top 10 most-accessed articles April–June 2013 « RSC Advances Blog

Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Sloan Digital Sky Survey
 The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) is one of the most ambitious and influential surveys in the history of astronomy. Over eight years of operations (SDSS-I, 2000-2005; SDSS-II, 2005-2008), it obtained deep, multi-color images covering more than a quarter of the sky and created 3-dimensional maps containing more than 930,000 galaxies and more than 120,000 quasars.
SDSS data have been released to the scientific community and the general public in annual increments, with the final public data release from SDSS-II occurring in October 2008. That release, Data Release 7, is available through this website.

Wednesday 14 August 2013

Extinctions of large animals sever the Earth's 'nutrient arteries'

Extinctions of large animals sever the Earth's 'nutrient arteries'
  A new study has demonstrated that large animals have acted as carriers of key nutrients to plants and animals over thousands of years and on continental scales.
 The paper in the advance online publication of the journal Nature Geoscience explains that vital nutrients are contained in the dung and bodies of big animals. As they eat and move more than small animals, they have a particularly important role in transporting nutrients into areas where the soil is otherwise infertile.

Tuesday 13 August 2013

Limitations of Bibliometrics - MyRI

Limitations of Bibliometrics - MyRI
 In this short video, Prof John Walsh from the School of Geological Sciences at University College Dublin discusses some the limitations that they have encountered in using Bibliometrics in their field.

Monday 12 August 2013

EarthSky's meteor shower guide for 2013 | Astronomy Essentials | EarthSky

EarthSky's meteor shower guide for 2013 | Astronomy Essentials | EarthSky

 Is the Perseid meteor shower over for 2013? Keep watching! The hours between midnight and dawn on August 13 may feature good displays of meteors.

SFI - President of Ireland Young Researcher Award (PIYRA)

SFI - President of Ireland Young Researcher Award (PIYRA)
 The President of Ireland Young Researcher Award (PIYRA) is Science Foundation Ireland's most prestigious award to recruit and retain early career researchers to carry out their research in Ireland. This programme emphasises the importance that Science Foundation Ireland places on the early development of academic careers. The award recognises outstanding engineers and scientists who, early in their careers, have already demonstrated or shown exceptional potential for leadership at the frontiers of knowledge. Awardees will be selected on the basis of exceptional accomplishments in science and engineering in all areas covered by SFI’s legal remit and on the basis of creative research plans that are built on work that has attracted international attention. For the PIYRA programme, scientific excellence is both necessary and paramount but is not sufficient; applications must also demonstrate potential impact.

Fossils throw mammalian family tree into disarray

Fossils throw mammalian family tree into disarray

 Two fossils have got palaeontologists scratching their heads about where to place an enigmatic group of animals in the mammalian family tree. A team analysing one fossil suggests that the group belongs in mammals, but researchers looking at the other propose that its evolutionary clan actually predates true mammals. The situation begs for more analysis, more fossils, or both, experts say.

Friday 9 August 2013

SciVerse ScienceDirect TOP25 Hottest Articles

SciVerse ScienceDirect TOP25 Hottest Articles across all subject areas

An opportunity for postdoctoral scholars | Elsevier

An opportunity for postdoctoral scholars | Elsevier
  For scholars who recently received their PhD’s and currently do not have a research position, Elsevier (leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services) are  offering  unlimited complimentary access to all their  journals and books on ScienceDirect, for up to 6 months.

This program allows those who qualify to have access to scientific journals and books in their field. To find out if you qualify click the link.

Thursday 8 August 2013

Very Large Telescope: The First Fifteen Years of Discovery | ScienceWatch | Thomson Reuters

Very Large Telescope: The First Fifteen Years of Discovery | ScienceWatch | Thomson Reuters

Europe’s flagship visible-light observatory, the Very Large Telescope array (VLT) is located on Cerro Paranal (elevation 2, 635m) in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) recently celebrated the 15th anniversary of the telescope achieving “first light.”

Wednesday 7 August 2013

The Sun's Magnetic Field is about to Flip - NASA Science

The Sun's Magnetic Field is about to Flip - NASA Science

 August 5, 2013:  Something big is about to happen on the sun.  According to measurements from NASA-supported observatories, the sun's vast magnetic field is about to flip.
"It looks like we're no more than 3 to 4 months away from a complete field reversal," says solar physicist Todd Hoeksema of Stanford University. "This change will have ripple effects throughout the solar system."
Field Flip (splash)

First-ever public tasting of lab-grown Cultured Beef burger - Maastricht University

First-ever public tasting of lab-grown Cultured Beef burger - Maastricht University

On Monday 5 August, Professor Mark Post of Maastricht University presented a burger made from Cultured Beef in front of an invited audience in London. This first-ever public tasting highlighted the urgent need to find a sustainable solution to food production.

Monday 29 July 2013

Bad night's sleep? The moon might be to blame | Elsevier Connect

Bad night's sleep? The moon might be to blame | Elsevier Connect


Many people complain about poor sleep around the full moon, and now a report just published in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, offers some of the first convincing scientific evidence to suggest that this really is true. The findings add to evidence that humans — despite the comforts of our civilized world — still respond to the geophysical rhythms of the moon, driven by a circalunar clock. The  'Current Biology' journal is available from the Library by searching the Ejournal listings or via the Science Direct database.

 


Many people complain about poor sleep around the full moon, and now a report just published in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, offers some of the first convincing scientific evidence to suggest that this really is true. The findings add to evidence that humans — despite the comforts of our civilized world — still respond to the geophysical rhythms of the moon, driven by a circalunar clock. - See more at: http://elsevierconnect.com/bad-nights-sleep-the-moon-might-be-to-blame/#.dpuf
Many people complain about poor sleep around the full moon, and now a report just published in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, offers some of the first convincing scientific evidence to suggest that this really is true. The findings add to evidence that humans — despite the comforts of our civilized world — still respond to the geophysical rhythms of the moon, driven by a circalunar clock. - See more at: http://elsevierconnect.com/bad-nights-sleep-the-moon-might-be-to-blame/#.dpuf
Many people complain about poor sleep around the full moon, and now a report just published in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, offers some of the first convincing scientific evidence to suggest that this really is true. The findings add to evidence that humans — despite the comforts of our civilized world — still respond to the geophysical rhythms of the moon, driven by a circalunar clock. - See more at: http://elsevierconnect.com/bad-nights-sleep-the-moon-might-be-to-blame/#.dpuf
Many people complain about poor sleep around the full moon, and now a report just published in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, offers some of the first convincing scientific evidence to suggest that this really is true. The findings add to evidence that humans — despite the comforts of our civilized world — still respond to the geophysical rhythms of the moon, driven by a circalunar clock. - See more at: http://elsevierconnect.com/bad-nights-sleep-the-moon-might-be-to-blame/#.dpuf

Many people complain about poor sleep around the full moon, and now a report just published in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, offers some of the first convincing scientific evidence to suggest that this really is true. The findings add to evidence that humans — despite the comforts of our civilized world — still respond to the geophysical rhythms of the moon, driven by a circalunar clock. - See more at: http://elsevierconnect.com/bad-nights-sleep-the-moon-might-be-to-blame/#.dpuf

World University Rankings 2023

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2023 include 1,799 universities across 104 countries and regions, making them the lar...