Blogs
In 1999, historian Londa Schiebinger summed up two decades of feminist analyses of science by asking Has Feminism Changed Science? (1). The answer was “yes, but…” there was still work to do. Indeed, the study of sex and gender continues to affect scientific thought, and in 2023, Science will explore some of these influences in a limited podcast series. The team behind the series
I’ve always found the idea of covalent organic framework crystals to be interesting. When we look at a crystalline substance, we’re either seeing a latticework of alternating positively and negatively charged ionic species (sodium chloride, at the simplest, all the way up to complex minerals and metal-organic frameworks) or some packing arrangement of individual noncharged species (pre
The GLP-1 agonist drugs impressed me very much when the clinical trial results in obesity came out for the latest versions. They were already performing well for Type II diabetes, but the obesity data were honestly the best I’d ever seen. These drugs (such as semaglutide, which is Ozempic/Rybelsus/Wegovy) are famous now because of the huge impact they’ve made in the obesity market, and
Editor's Blog
In 1999, historian Londa Schiebinger summed up two decades of feminist analyses of science by asking Has Feminism Changed Science? (1). The answer was “yes, but…” there was still work to do. Indeed, the study of sex and gender continues to affect scientific thought, and in 2023, Science will explore some of these influences in a limited podcast series. The team behind the series
Ottoline Leyser has not only had an outstanding career in plant biology at the Regius Professor of Botany at the University of Cambridge, but she has been the Chief Executive Officer of UKRI (United Kingdom Research and Innovation) since 2020. Today’s editorial in Science highlights her hopes for UK science, expressed to me in a recent conversation and shown below (lightly edi
Most of the ills that attend science today—racism, sexism, and homophobia in the science workforce; underrepresentation of marginalized groups in science; scientific misconduct; political naïvety of scientists; and more—originate in problems with teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). For decades (or longer), faculty and administrators in US institution
Alondra Nelson stepped down last month from her role as leader of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Today’s editorial in Science highlights her accomplishments while she served in the Biden administration. I interviewed Nelson to talk about the challenges she faced as the first Black woman in many instances throughout her career. A transcript of my conversation
Much uproar and confusion has attended the apparent loss of £1.6 billion from research in the United Kingdom owing to the inability of the government to guarantee UK collaborations with European Union (EU) researchers that are funded by Horizon Europe. The government had initially set aside £2.35 billion to fund the UK’s portion of these collaborations, but because Brexit tension
Last night, a gunman killed three students and injured five others on the campus of Michigan State University. This comes only a few months after a similar tragic shooting at the University of Virginia. And it occurs in the long wake of mourning for the 21 victims of last spring’s mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. At that time, I wrote an editorial titled “We know
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Visuals
The design team at Science works with a vibrant, talented community of illustrators every week. Their work captures the complex, often nuanced stories of research findings, policy changes, and the scientific community at large. Here are a few of the illustrations that stood out in our team’s minds from 2022.
2022 was a banner year for the Science family of journals′ social media: We hit 3 million followers on Science Twitter. News from Science Twitter reached half a million followers, and Science Instagram grew to 200K (and then some). We experimented with new ways to accurately communicate science in visually engaging ways, promoting short-form video and audio for the first time, as well as Twitter threads.
The graphics team at Science creates scientific visualizations that convey complex concepts with the highest standards for both accuracy and aesthetics. Using a multitude of creative disciplines and visual resources, we use graphic design, cartography, and data visualizations to tell beautiful and informative scientific stories. Our favorites from 2022 covered a range of research areas, from astro
The multimedia team produces the Science Podcast; creates videos on research, news, and original stories; and helps enrich Science content with audio and video. We asked the team to choose a few memorable highlights from throughout the year. Here are their picks for 2022.
Audio
After looking back through the year, Science Podcast host Sarah Crespi produced an entire segment of her favorite podcas
In the Pipeline
I’ve always found the idea of covalent organic framework crystals to be interesting. When we look at a crystalline substance, we’re either seeing a latticework of alternating positively and negatively charged ionic species (sodium chloride, at the simplest, all the way up to complex minerals and metal-organic frameworks) or some packing arrangement of individual noncharged species (pre
The GLP-1 agonist drugs impressed me very much when the clinical trial results in obesity came out for the latest versions. They were already performing well for Type II diabetes, but the obesity data were honestly the best I’d ever seen. These drugs (such as semaglutide, which is Ozempic/Rybelsus/Wegovy) are famous now because of the huge impact they’ve made in the obesity market, and
Update: the Appeals Court has for now rejected the ruling that the FDA's original approval is void, but they have also rolled back the loosened access to mifepristone (mail order, etc.) My belief that this is inevitably headed to the Supreme Court remains.
Current events time, unfortunately. As those who follow the news will know, we’re in a very tangled regulatory and judicial situation rig
I’ve written several times about Birch reductions here over the years, and also about mechanosynthesis, so there’s no way that I can not write about this recent paper. A team at Hokkaido reports that they have completely removed the liquid ammonia from the reaction, and have removed most other solvents as well. Their protocol is to take the starting aromatic compound, 3 to 6 equivalent
Bullvalene is a pretty strange molecule. It was first reported in 1963 from the lab of William Von Eggers Doering at Yale, and it was made with just that strangeness in mind. The name, by the way, comes from Doering’s nickname of “Bull”, in case you were wondering. The molecule looks a bit odd, but symmetrical and seemingly innocuous. But that arrangement of double bonds and the
Now this right here is a pretty weird paper. As an organic chemist, the most elemental and magical reaction has always been the direct functionalization of a just-plain-alkane. Unactivated C-H bonds are the pennies of the science - they’re everywhere, and they aren’t worth much. Turning one into an actual functional group just seems bizarre, even though there are several reactions that do it, star