The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced that it will implement a policy that requires grant holders to monitor the lab notebooks, raw data and all documentation underpinning research carried out by collaborators based outside the US. The policy is slated to take effect from 1 January, 2024, despite researchers’ concerns that it may represent overreach by the […]

Europeans are exposed to levels of the endocrine disruptor bisphenol A (BPA) that surpass acceptable health thresholds, according to new analysis released by the European Environment Agency (EEA). The levels of total urinary BPA for 92% of the adult participants from 11 European countries exceeded the European Food Safety Agency’s (EFSA) safe level of 11.5 […]

What was once Scotland’s most radioactive beach has been re-opened to the public, after a multi-million-pound clean-up operation. Contractors have been sifting through 10,000m3 of sand and soil – the equivalent of four Olympic swimming pools of material – at Dalgety Bay in Fife since 2021 in a bid to identify particles of radium-226 and […]

With less than two weeks to go until the 2023 chemistry Nobel prize is announced, Web of Science provider Clarivate has published its annual list of citation laureates – researchers whose work ranks among the 0.01% of most highly cited publications, with 2000 citations or more. This year, the list includes 23 researchers from institutions […]

The Royal Society Career Development Fellowship will open to applications from scientists with Black heritage – a largely underrepresented group in UK Stem academia – this November with the aim of kickstarting their research careers. Up to five fellowships will be awarded in the first year to outstanding candidates who are completing or have recently […]

No, she bleedin’ weren’t! That was my buddy the HISTSCI_HULK expostulating whilst he was indulging in his annoying habit of peering over my shoulder whilst I’m reading. She never was! That’s simply wrong! Hulky was getting his nickers in a twist about the following claim: Hypatia was by all accounts, a fine astronomer and a […]

Much-anticipated positive clinical results for psychotherapy assisted by MDMA, otherwise known as ecstasy, in people with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) could prompt a major shift in the mental health drug sector. Findings from a US phase 3 trial open the way to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) potentially approving MDMA-Assisted Therapy (MDMA-AT) […]

A new sustainably sourced adhesive producing using soy oil and other plant-derived ingredients performed as well or better than the best commercially available petroleum-based options like epoxy resins. Most adhesives are made from petroleum products and are difficult to recycle. They don’t break down in landfill and cannot be separated from the material sent for […]

In 1995, Dava Sobel, a relatively obscure science writer, published her latest book, Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time[1]. Sobel is a talented writer and she relates with great pathos the tale of the humble, working class carpenter turned clock maker, John Harrison, who struggled for […]

On 20 July, a tornado tore through a Pfizer plant in Rocky Mount, US, destroying part of a large facility in that makes sterile injectable drugs. The twister caused extensive damage to warehouses storing critical hospital supplies such as dopamine, potassium acetate and vitamin K1 for babies. The facility manufactures a quarter of Pfizer’s sterile […]