Science

How do you prepare students for the impossible? asks Kevin Fong

By joining forces, scientists and politicians can pack a policy punch, argues Keith Humphreys

Pro v-c ‘deeply disappointed’ after diary column on scientists’ appearance on Newsnight

The government will outline options to increase postgraduate student numbers later this year, according to today’s Budget statement.

The UK is to commit £290 million to three international microscope and telescope projects.

Comedians and academics aim to make scientific principles exciting and fun

Chancellor George Osborne has announced a £67 million investment for four science business incubator projects in the Oxford area.

Milton and Alex Mermikides’ AHRC-funded work fuses music, dance and medicine

How has 16 years of growth in enrolment affected the fortunes of different disciplines?

A group of scientists remain trapped on a boat in the Antarctic after another attempt to rescue them stalled due to poor weather

Russell Foster on how to reply to the question ‘And what do you do?’ at Christmas cocktail parties

Forcing students to choose sides leaves them, and society, poorer, says Christopher Bigsby

Enthusiasm for ‘neuroeducation’ risks blinding people to its potentially limited efficacy, argues Steven Rose

Bird numbers in Britain and Ireland - monitored with the aid of citizen scientists - are falling. Tim Birkhead calls for action

Peers criticise ‘ad hoc’ spending announcements on infrastructure

But niche learning may not play well in jobs market, expert warns

Symposium considers drawing’s role in refining and communicating knowledge, from geology to surgery to unicorns

2013-14 figures assuage fears of course closures

In Cara lecture, Iraqi-born physicist calls for revival of region’s thirst for knowledge

Our cultural values, media and education system are pushing science to the margins, Dame Athene Donald warns

Engineering departments bidding for £200 million of new capital funds for teaching should only be eligible if they are signed up to Athena SWAN

The extraordinary forgotten story of a university science club which put the first Arab rockets into space is the focus of a new documentary film.

Nicolas Gompel explains how his pet obsession has inspired his investigations into biological diversity

The UK is the “biggest biosciences cluster in Europe” a report by the BioIndustry Association has said.

Scientists need to lose their “excessive fastidiousness” to make London the scientific capital of the world, the city’s mayor Boris Johnson has said.

Three scientists have won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for laying the foundations for the computer modelling of chemical processes.

Scientists who developed a theory describing the origin of mass have won the 2013 Nobel Prize for physics.

Three scientists who elucidated a fundamental process in cell physiology have been awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine.

Schools should teach the limits of scientific certainty so the public better understand scientific debate, says president of the Royal Society

Earthquake experts must communicate public risk more effectively to avoid a repetition of the Italian media fiasco that a year ago culminated in jail terms for the academics involved

Fee loans will be offered to students studying engineering and technology part time as second degrees in a bid to attract more women to the subjects.

Scott Armstrong’s 2013 Max Perutz Prize-winning essay on xenon’s potential to save lives

A career in science is built on hope and naviety as well as intellect, argues Russell Foster

A university has asked for a journal paper to be retracted after an investigation found no evidence that the study it described had been carried out.

Half of scientific papers published in 2011 can be accessed online for free, a new study has suggested. 

In a significant victory for data miners, the open access publisher BioMed Central is to waive all copyright over datasets it publishes.

Smart thinking on efficiencies funnels cash to research

Data show how much work conservation biologists do outside office hours

Female academics aim to boost women’s interest in computer science

The former chief scientific adviser is relishing his new advisory role at the Oxford Martin School, tackling global challenges

Laura Frost on the paradox of women’s lust that science struggles to comprehend

Research into replacing and reducing animal use in scientific experiments is to benefit from £4.8 million in public investment in 2013-14

Academics at King’s College London and the universities of Edinburgh and Oxford have won prizes in a heart science image competition

The pre-registration of study designs must be resisted, says Sophie Scott

A £30 million investment in research and innovation campuses from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) has been unveiled.

The Royal Institution has scrapped efforts to ask academics to sign an agreement if they want to use its trademarked term “Christmas Lectures”.

David Willetts has announced £85 million in funding to provide equipment in three of the “eight great technologies” being targeted to drive growth.

The number of scientific procedures started on animals in the UK has risen sharply, increasing by 8 per cent.

The South East Physics Network, created five years ago to counteract a decline in the subject in the English region, has launched its second phase.

Female researchers take to the streets to entertain the public with cutting-edge research

The £1.1 billion annual investment in science capital announced in last month’s spending round is the biggest “for decades” and must not be wasted.

Girls are outperforming boys in the sciences but are still not choosing to take such subjects ahead of university, a study on vocational qualifications has found.

A paucity of suitable sites, a “stand-offish” attitude and a lack of coordinated, long-term planning are all to blame for the scarcity of large international scientific facilities on UK soil, the Lords Science and Technology committee has been told. 

The scientist who developed the first-ever prototype for an “invisibility cloak” has been given a top award by the Institute of Physics.

We are paying too high a price for 100,000 genomes more, warns Bill Amos

Students offered ‘fun, novel’ way to learn how to write paper ‘abstracts’

Pat Monaghan and Tim Birkhead call for variation to be the theme once more in university biology

The capital budget for science will be increased to £1.1 billion in 2015-16 and maintained in real terms until the end of the decade, the chancellor George Osborne has announced.

Science should be able to bid against other spending areas such as road-building for capital investment, the chief executive of the Science and Technology Facilities Council has argued.

For many a creationist or devout religious believer, it is a scene straight from a nightmare