Editorials
10 May 2012 - University
Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, and previously head of the UK’s Medical Research Council. This is a summary of the keynote speech he will give at the LERU 10th Anniversary conference in Barcelona on 10 May 2012.
20 Feb 2012 - Research and innovation
Scientific research and innovation are one of the challenges that will decide Italy's future. The 2003 Group (http://www.gruppo2003.org), which gathers scientists frequently quoted in international scientific literature, intends to contribute with its reflections and proposals to this critical...
17 Nov 2011 - Ethic and research
In recent days the Court of Justice of the European Union issued a somewhat surprising ruling. It concerned the case ( Judgment in Case C-34/10) Oliver Brüstle against Greenpeace, the former being a German scientist who patented a process in which human embryonic stem cells were also used in a...
13 May 2011 - Medicines
In 2010, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has approved the lowest number of new drugs in the last decade. This is not surprising, considering that it takes at least 10 years to register a drug, the total cost is about one billion dollars, and that at least 9 out of 10 of those for which clinical...
28 Apr 2011 - Biology
Are we alone - or is there life elsewhere in the universe? Everything in the way we are would change profoundly if we discovered that there is life on other celestial bodies. But how can we find out? And can we understand what kind of life would that be? And finally, how could we be sure that is...
18 Apr 2011 - Science and Society
Chemical and physical sciences have profoundly modified the living conditions of mankind, in particular chemistry has played a central role. Its creative power has made available a range of new materials and processes for the transformation of matter. Somehow, however, these have often been...
08 Apr 2011 - Health
On March 2, in Paris, the European Aphekom project, coordinated by the French Institute for public health surveillance (InVS), presented the results of a three-year study on air pollution and its impact on health, conducted by 60 researchers in 25 cities across Europe. Sorry for the sceptics, but...
08 Apr 2011 - Astronomy
Ichnology is the branch of paleontology that deals with the study of footprints left by animal organisms. Ichnology thus studies the width, length and shapes of footprints, stride (the distance between each one), the depth, possible asymmetries and more, in order to establish the size of the the...
14 Mar 2011 - Evolution
A un anno dalla pubblicazione del mio libro con Jerry Fodor, avendo noi via via risposto puntualmente alle molte (e spesso feroci) critiche, colgo ora il gentile invito dell’amico Ernesto Carafoli a scrivere una riflessione più generale. Jerry ed io non ci aspettavamo, e ancor meno ci aspettiamo...
15 Dec 2010 - Cognitive science
Much work has been carried out to identify the neural correlates of the appreciation of beauty of faces, visual art, dance and music. However, two important issues remain elusive. On the one hand, the possibility of differences between men and women, and on the other, the evolutionary forces that...
