Science

Book of the week: The Sun’s magnetic fields make it much more than a dull ball of hot gas, says Marcus Chown

Gaining a PhD is a tough act for most students, so how do those with new babies cope while having the additional demands of parenthood?

It’s not all selfishness: Charalambos Kyriacou on how genes cooperate and combine forces to preserve their DNA dynasties

Aaron Huertas offers advice on how to overcome perceptions of being cold but competent 

Angela Eagle says that EU membership is vital for the future of universities and the economy

Richard Joyner on who is ahead in the race for dominance between science and religion

Jeremy Singer on a manifesto for maximum impact and insight based on addressing real-world problems in multidisciplinary teams

Landmark documents and artefacts in the history of science and religion go on public view for the first time

Researchers set out how academic insights can build trust between different groups

Conference hears that fundamental skills, rather than specific languages, will serve graduates throughout their careers

Non-EU citizens took one in five new posts over past decade, leaving 40 per cent of posts for UK researchers, Hefce figures show

Simon Underdown on the novel notion that four walls were key to our development as a species

A captivating study of Canadians’ national game skates over one element, says Andrew Robinson

Janet Sayers on an engaging work taking in Freud, Meynert and Penfield

A new law to support early career researchers has reopened arguments over limits on the use of short-term contracts in the country

Might mass polls by live audiences actually be a better way to choose the right applicant?

But authors of original paper hit back, saying latest assessment is ‘very optimistic’

Female researchers now account for 37 per cent of first authors in medicine’s top journals, says US study

UK among the worst performers in analysis of 69 national academies

Blogging is now an essential weapon in most scientists’ armoury

Like the Scottish independence referendum, the uncertainty of a post-Brexit negotiation makes fact-checking very difficult

The invention might be a ‘world first’ in robotics, says the university

Times Higher Education hears how Wu's career encompassed filming Tiananmen protests and sending China’s first email

But universities warned to beware the predicted fall in China’s student population

Higher education must look beyond financial gain to help solve the Middle East crisis, says Zahir Irani

BMJ editor in chief raises alarm over drug trial research funded and often controlled by manufacturers themselves

Robyn Arianrhod on how Enlightenment android-builders and modern biologists shaped the sciences of life and artificial intelligence

Book of the week: In an extraordinary voice, a neurosurgeon wrestles with his looming untimely death, says Jennifer Rohn

The good, the bad and the offbeat: the academy through the lens of the national press

From the Ebola outbreak in West Africa to special needs education in the UK, more mid-career professionals are taking professional doctorates

Researcher recommends reassessing selection criteria for PhD funding as several great scientists did not gain a first or a 2:1

The House of Representatives approves legislation that dictates NSF grants can be awarded only to projects in the ‘national interest’

Biology lecturer Anne Osterrieder reflects on the importance of solitude for academics

Cait MacPhee on back-of-envelope calculations and other tools to assess value and assumptions

Book of the week: Exquisite images trigger the sensations of terror and wonder that nature inspires, says Philip Hoare

From Mrs Roentgen’s ring to Fukushima fears: Richard Joyner on an informative popular history

Luna Centifanti on the important role that emotions play in our ability to assimilate knowledge

Broader-based education addresses concerns over graduate skills, conference hears

Baroness Vadera explains how Santander hopes to encourage entrepreneurialism in graduates

Drug company hopes to provide a new home for studies that try to replicate previous experimental results

A focus on basic cell biology and statistical population health studies means that understanding how living systems operate has been neglected, they claim

Kingston study finds that less affluent learners are more concerned about debt, and unlikely to be able to rely on their parents for support

Chief scientist at UK arm of French electronics giant Thales says big business is frustrated at retention rates for such students

Giulia Miller on a study of anti-Semitism in the academy and the struggle of displaced scholars

Inga Zeisset on an engaging, beautiful and absorbing collection of tales

Committee of MPs hears that effort to conduct vaccine and treatment trials during outbreak in West Africa was ‘uncoordinated’

Louis Rivoire explains why he shunned the research giants in favour of a more intimate setting

Egyptian government also provides details of higher education reforms

Warning comes after stories about Coca-Cola’s spending on science hit the headlines last year

Tiffany Taylor on a thought-provoking view of the forces acting to ensure survival

Book of the week: An invisible force causes extinctions – science or sci-fi? Nature will decide, says Marcus Chown

Authors argue this means universities should spend less on senior academics and give promising younger scholars more of a chance

After a man dies following a clinical trial in France, Christopher Roy-Toole asks whether lessons were learned after a similar incident in the UK

But higher education was mentioned only briefly in the US president’s speech, finds Ellie Bothwell

Analysis of seven prominent medical journals finds randomised controlled trials are far less likely to receive a press release than weaker observational studies

Plos Biology launches new section looking at how experiments are run and incentive systems for scientists

We talk to the Princeton research scholar about being a fighter pilot, mindfulness and the existence of little green men

Major survey looks at experiences of 72,000 UK postgraduates

Simon Underdown relishes an engaging study of evolution that delights in breaking the fourth wall

The former university rector has been praised as one of the country’s most effective politicians for driving his ambitious reform programme forward