Phys .org: As shutdown drags on, scientists scramble to keep insects, plants and microbes alive. “Three days a week, Don Weber shows up to work at the U.S. Department of Agriculture campus in Beltsville, Md. The parking lot is empty and the hallways are dark. Like other federal facilities across the country, the lab is closed because of the partial government shutdown. ‘It’s like a ghost town,’ said Weber, an entomologist. But he has to perform an important task: feeding the hundreds of insects he raises in his lab, which keep hatching, mating and dying, oblivious to the political showdown in Washington, D.C.”
research
South China Morning Post: Tens of thousands in Hong Kong to have their DNA sequenced in government-backed genome project
South China Morning Post: Tens of thousands in Hong Kong to have their DNA sequenced in government-backed genome project. “Tens of thousands of Hongkongers will have their entire genetic code decrypted in a government-backed project aimed at building a database to boost diagnoses of rare illnesses and aid bespoke cancer treatments.”
Chronicle of Higher Education: If History Is Any Guide, End of Federal Shutdown Won’t Bring Quick Relief for College Researchers
Chronicle of Higher Education: If History Is Any Guide, End of Federal Shutdown Won’t Bring Quick Relief for College Researchers. “Neal F. Lane didn’t mince words when he spoke at the 1996 American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting, in Baltimore. On the heels of a 21-day government shutdown, then the longest in U.S. history, the National Science Foundation’s director was reeling. Funds for many continuing grants had run out. He expected funding gaps for renewals and delays in funding new awards. New programs could be pushed back significantly — perhaps six months to a year — or canceled. The shutdown, he said, had ‘demoralized our work force and destroyed any efficient timetable for our already pressured work.'”
PubChem Blog: More than a million chemical-article links from Thieme Chemistry added into PubChem
PubChem Blog: More than a million chemical-article links from Thieme Chemistry added into PubChem. “The Thieme Chemistry information in PubChem covers nearly 700,000 chemical substance records, nearly 700,000 scientific article descriptions, and over 1.2 million links between chemicals and articles. The document descriptions include information such as a digital object identifier (DOI), publication title, name of the journal or book, publication type, language, and publication year.”
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality: Searchable Database Provides AHRQ-Funded Articles
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality: Searchable Database Provides AHRQ-Funded Articles. “More than 4,600 recently published articles on nurse-patient partnerships, compliance with infection control practices in home health care, and racial/ethnic differences in end-of-life cancer than 4,600 Agency-supported articles are now available in the AHRQ Research Studies database.”
Nature: Crowdfunding research flips science’s traditional reward model
Nature: Crowdfunding research flips science’s traditional reward model. “No papers? No problem. Scientists who have historically been at a disadvantage when pursuing traditional funding sources — for example, those who lack extensive experience or who do not demonstrate a good publication record — are now the most successful at sourcing money from the public.”
Intellectual humility: the importance of knowing you might be wrong (Vox)
Vox: Intellectual humility: the importance of knowing you might be wrong. “Julia Rohrer wants to create a radical new culture for social scientists. A personality psychologist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Rohrer is trying to get her peers to publicly, willingly admit it when they are wrong. To do this, she, along with some colleagues, started up something called the Loss of Confidence Project. It’s designed to be an academic safe space for researchers to declare for all to see that they no longer believe in the accuracy of one of their previous findings. “
