Deep-sea trawling smoothes out the wrinkles of canyons on the continental slope, making marine mountainsides look more like ploughed fields, changing the habitat of deep-sea creatures. The process rivals landslides and storms as a shaper of the deep sea, according to work published today in Nature. Continue reading Fish trawling reshapes deep-sea canyons
Category Archives: Nature
Grant applications: Find me the money
The e-mails were arriving in Pete Kissinger’s inbox almost every day: “TODAY ONLY: Extra 25% Off … Craft your R01 Grants Management … Only 1 Day Left.” They were from consultants trying to charge him to do something that scientists have long done for themselves: search for research-grant opportunities, write proposals and, in some cases, manage the grant once it has been won. Eventually, Kissinger’s curiosity got the better of him.
Argentine legislators approve open access law
Argentina is nationalising its science output, following last month’s nationalisation of energy company YPF. Only this time, the benefits should be international. On 23 May the house of representatives, Argentina’s lower house, approved a bill that would require the results of all scientific research conducted at the Argentina’s National System for Science and Research or by researchers funded by it to be made freely available in an online depository. Continue reading Argentine legislators approve open access law
UK drug development
A £250-million (US$397-million) investment in venture capital for translational research in the United Kingdom could create jobs. The European Investment Fund in Luxembourg City and Cancer Research Technology (CRT), the commercial arm of the London-based charity Cancer Research UK, are jointly investing £50 million in the development of potential cancer drugs. A separate £200-million initiative by the Wellcome Trust in London will support early-stage biotechnology firms. Keith Blundy, chief executive of CRT, says that experts in drug development should find opportunities as the funding helps to take more drug candidates through to clinical trials.