Caltech: Introducing the Caltech Science Exchange. “Through the Caltech Science Exchange, the Institute aims to help visitors make sense of scientific issues that capture public interest and attention, but often are the subject of confusion or controversy. The site currently features multimedia content explaining the science behind COVID-19 and other viral threats. New topics, including voting and elections, sustainability, earthquakes, and genetics, will be added in the months ahead.”
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BuzzMachine: The open information ecosystem
BuzzMachine: The open information ecosystem. “Media are no longer the deliverers of information. The information has already been delivered. So the question now for journalists is how — and whether — we add value to that stream of information. In this matter, as in our current crisis, we have much to learn from medicine. In microcosm, the impact of the new, open information ecosystem is evident in the COVID-19 pandemic as scientists grapple with an avalanche of brand new research papers, which appear — prior to peer review and publication — on so-called preprint servers, followed by much expert discussion on social media. Note that the servers carry the important caveat that their contents ‘should not be reported in news media as established information.'”
Phys .org: Women are getting less research done than men during this coronavirus pandemic
Phys .org: Women are getting less research done than men during this coronavirus pandemic. “Before COVID-19, I used to spend a lot of time feeling like the Cat in The Cat in the Hat. I was holding a cup, the milk, the cake and a little toy ship, while bouncing up and down on a ball. I am a tenured professor and a scientist. I have a lab, grants and grad students. I write academic articles and I teach, and I’m in the midst of writing a book. I am also a mom. So, I cook, clean and nurture.”
NewScientist: How to sniff out the good coronavirus studies from the bad
NewScientist: How to sniff out the good coronavirus studies from the bad. “With researchers, journals, politicians, journalists and social media influencers all capable of espousing misleading or unverified scientific findings, it pays to be able to recognise the telltale signs of a study that might be poor. Here are seven potential warning flags.” A quick roundup of things to think about.
Berkeley Lab: Machine Learning Tool Could Provide Unexpected Scientific Insights into COVID-19
Berkeley Lab: Machine Learning Tool Could Provide Unexpected Scientific Insights into COVID-19. “A team of materials scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) – scientists who normally spend their time researching things like high-performance materials for thermoelectrics or battery cathodes – have built a text-mining tool in record time to help the global scientific community synthesize the mountain of scientific literature on COVID-19 being generated every day. The tool, live at covidscholar.org, uses natural language processing techniques to not only quickly scan and search tens of thousands of research papers, but also help draw insights and connections that may otherwise not be apparent.”
News-Medical: A new website launched to track landmark coronavirus studies
News-Medical: A new website launched to track landmark coronavirus studies. “The Company of Biologists is delighted that a group of early-career researchers in the preLights community have launched a new website, covidpreprints.com, to track landmark coronavirus studies throughout the ongoing pandemic.”
Phys .org: TED group backs pandemic response effort
Phys .org: TED group backs pandemic response effort. “The big-ideas TED Conference said Thursday it was allocating prize funding this year to a project aimed at tackling pandemics like the COVID-19 outbreak and related health initiatives. The organizers said the ‘Audacious Project’ fund aimed at supporting innovation to deal with global problems would provided unspecified grants from the multimillion-dollar pool.”
