Most researchers are honest and their work is a worthwhile addition to the scholarly record. However, a significant percentage of researchers are engaged in questionable practices or producing work lacking integrity. For example, Bik and colleagues have estimated ~2% of the biomedical literature is affected by image manipulation problems. Adam Day, who runs the Papermill Alarm, has estimated that […] … learn more→

\A virologist named Beata Halassy recently made headlines after publishing a report of successfully treating her own breast cancer by self-administering an experimental treatment. Having previously undergone a mastectomy and chemotherapy, Halassy informed her doctors that she wanted to treat her tumour by injecting it with viruses known to attack cancerous cells. This sort of approach is called oncolytic […] … learn more→

The rigid structures of language we once clung to with certainty are cracking. Take gender, nationality or religion: these concepts no longer sit comfortably in the stiff linguistic boxes of the last century. Simultaneously, the rise of AI presses upon us the need to understand how words relate to meaning and reasoning. A global group […] … learn more→

Competition for jobs and grants in academia has never been tougher. The constant drive to “publish or perish” can make you feel like your career will end unless your output is superhuman. Sometimes, it’s even before graduation as some programs demand publication before awarding a PhD. Adding to those worries are people whose output is […] … learn more→

Our planet is getting hotter at an alarming rate. Climate change is one of the most serious global issues today. Its consequences affect every single human being on Earth. So it seems perfectly logical that scientific publications about global warming are written in the global language: English. And yet, it is precisely because it is written in English, that climate […] … learn more→

Teachers report thinking that if girls do better in math than boys, it is probably because of their innate ability and effort. But they also report that when boys do well in math, it is more likely due to parental support and society’s higher expectations for their success. That’s what we discovered from 400 elementary […] … learn more→

On October 16 1843, the Irish mathematician William Rowan Hamilton had an epiphany during a walk alongside Dublin’s Royal Canal. He was so excited he took out his penknife and carved his discovery right then and there on Broome Bridge. It is the most famous graffiti in mathematical history, but it looks rather unassuming: i […] … learn more→

The deep learning machine AlphaFold, which was created by Google’s AI research lab DeepMind, is already transforming our understanding of the molecular biology that underpins health and disease. One half of the 2024 Nobel prize in chemistry went to David Baker from the University of Washington in the US, with the other half jointly awarded to Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper, both from […] … learn more→

This post is an edited interview transcript of our discussion with the wonderful Tamika Heiden for the 2024 Research Impact Summit  Tamika Heiden:  People can feel like research engagement is an add-on. I think it should be starting to feel like business-as-usual, but the piece that isn’t business-as-usual would be the fact they have to track it ongoing. […] … learn more→

Critics of diversity, equity and inclusion programs, commonly referred to by the acronym DEI, are increasingly using boycotts and bans to fight against their use. People often argue that this anti-DEI backlash is motivated by race-neutral concerns – for example, that DEI practices are irrelevant to work performance or are too political. But our recent research, published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Occupational and […] … learn more→