The Return to Science at The Turn of Modernity
Jayat Joshi on the role of science as a guiding principle of political and societal action in extraordinary situations like the COVID-19 pandemic
How to empower a Culture of Failure in Science
Mafalda Sandrini and Kata Katz on the need for a culture of failure in academia and its productive potential for the scientific community.
Field research with a baby
Alena Sander on her field work abroad and the challenges and opportunities of international mobility for young mothers in academia.
How science communication can challenge conspiracy theories in times of Covid-19
Mike Schäfer & Jing Zeng on the particularities of conspiracy theories on COVID-19, how to face them, and what role science communicators play while doing so.
How Conspiracy Theorists Get the Scientific Method Wrong
Philipp Hübl on the characteristics of conspiracy theories the motivation behind their spread, and rational thought as a shield against it
Communicating Science in Covid Times
Stefanie Molthagen-Schnöring on science communication in times of a global pandemic and why communication with “the public” shouldn ´ t be its goal
Science Without a Question
Fabian Stephany on the CoRisk-Index, its development during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic and the role of implicit theory
The Great Update of Research
Our editor, Benedikt Fecher on research in post-COVID-19 times and the prospective falsificationist rationale
Could this be the start of a new era in scholarly communication?
We need to learn from the practices during the corona pandemic to shape the “new normal” of scholarly communication instead of falling back into old patterns, says our Advisory Board member Rebecca Lawrence
When your lab is the world but the world is closed down
Samantha Ruppel on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the researcher and her field, the ethical standards guiding her work, the cooperation among scientists and the topics they´re working on.
The impact of bioenergy research
Glaucia Souza on the introduction of BioFuels in Sao Paulo and all over Brazil, her activities at BIOEN and the transfer of technologies for more sustainable forms of mobility into practice.
The Science Must Go On
In this opinion-piece Katharina C. Cramer discusses the impact of the Corona-Crisis on large scale research infrastructures and their limits of performance in the current situation.
Communicating COVID-19: Prospects for a bolder Science?
In this piece, Mafalda Sandrini and Kata Katz shed light on the current state of science communication in times of the COVID-19 pandemic, phrase questions on its future and derive fields of action
Not back to normal
After his interview with Elephant in the Lab on 22 March 2020, Wander Jager develops his thoughts on the time after the COVID-19 pandemic
Corona as Curator: How museums are responding to the pandemic
The COVID-19 is prompting many museums to reconsider how they communicate their research to the public, says our editor Rebecca Kahn
Social control systems and Covid-19
Dispite the cruelty of the current situation, Agata Komendant-Brodowska calls for a more optimistic view on the side effects of the COVID-19 crisis.
Open Data can be advanced by the COVID-19 pandemic, but will still require a comprehensive approach
Sharing research data openly is becoming more common, but only slowly. Here, I will discuss whether the COVID-19 pandemic will accelerate the adoption of open data as a common academic practice.
Embracing complexity: COVID-19 is a case for academic collaboration and co-creation
As serious as the COVID-19 pandemic is, it could be an opportunity for science, says our editor Benedikt Fecher.
Improving software infrastructure in multidisciplinary research
Dealing with code, robots and specific domain knowledge is a huge challenge. How can we improve the technical infrastructure?
Challenges in Building Innovative, Sustainable and Open Research Infrastructures
A number of social, technical and political-economic problems call to rethink the current practice of funding and governing research infrastructures.
Critical research infrastructure: The importance of synthesis centers
In this piece, Specht, Corrêa, Belbin and Loescher elaborate their thoughts on the role of synthesis centers in facing today’s challenges of research.
Ideas as Infrastructure
Øyvind Paasche on the immaterial kinds of infrastructure in science and the fundamental role of trust, transparency and openness.
Responsible Innovation: Universities and public research institutes have to be radically adapted
René von Schomberg on Responsible Innovation and its dimension of societal impact.
What’s the Value of Social Science?
Prof. Lupia on the value of social science, its responsibilities, potentials and application.
An Accelerator for Science in Latin America: FAPESP
A driving force for Latin America’s research infrastructure: The São Paulo Research Foundation
Why are infrastructures of infrastructure important for research?
Pascale Ehrenfreund on the role of maintenance-intensive infrastructures, CC licenses, and the internet in the research of the DLR.
The Need for an African Lightsource
Setting up new infrastructures would play an important role in preventing best-trained African researchers from emigrating. The physicist Prosper Ngabonziza states that having a synchrotron light source would be very beneficial for the continent as a whole.
Towards a Global Research Infrastructure
We would all like a truly global research infrastructure, in much the same way as many would like world peace and global democracy. The point really is that we wouldn’t just like it, we need it.