Just like that, it’s almost July. With the students gone, Corvallis is settling into its sleepy summer season, and that means a slowdown in events around town. Luckily, our local nonprofits step up this time of year, to fill in some of the gap left as the university goes quiet. This week, volunteers are needed…

 Image: Mark Thomas When salaries don’t keep pace with inflation, a passion for science doesn’t pay the bills On Thursday 20 June, the science journal Nature published its 8,017th issue. Like its 8,016 predecessors, this latest issue contained cutting-edge papers from across the disciplines of science. But last Thursday was historic for the journal not because of…

Abstract How to prevent and resolve COVID-19 pandemic and similar public health crisis is a significant research topic. Although research on science literacy has been involved in dealing with public health crisis, there is a lack of empirical tests between the mass public’s science literacy and co-production during COVID-19 pandemic. With the empirical evidence from…

Model PI? Leonardo DiCaprio plays astronomer Randall Mindy, with Jennifer Lawrence as his graduate student Kate Dibiasky, in the disaster satire Don’t Look Up.Credit: Bluegrass Films/Entertainment Pictures/Alamy It’s a well-trodden path for most people who aspire to a career in academic research: you first earn a PhD, then take a succession of fixed-term contract jobs.…

Labour leader Keir Starmer (left) and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak face off in a televised debate.Credit: Jonathan Hordle/ITV via Getty Next week, voters in the United Kingdom will head to the ballot box in a general election that polls predict will result in the Labour party, led by Keir Starmer, winning a comfortable majority over…

The Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge, UK, is a world leader in basic biology research. The lab’s list of breakthroughs is enviable, from the structure of DNA and proteins to genetic sequencing. Since its origins in the late 1940s, the institute — currently with around 700 staff members — has…

Success as an academic doesn’t have to come at the expense of family.Credit: Getty How do you become successful in academia? At numerous international conferences, I’ve heard eminent scholars emphasize the necessity of prioritizing work above everything else, including family and children. One memorable instance occurred in 2018, at a large international conference in my…

Nobel laureate Morten Meldal (with blue lanyard) has learnt from the young scientists at the 2023 Lindau meeting.Credit: Julia Nimke/Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings Each year, more than two dozen Nobel laureates attend a meeting in Lindau, Germany, at which hundreds of early-career researchers from all over the world can network with them and each other.…

Women have taken to social media to report unplanned pregnancies while taking weight-loss and diabetes medications such as Wegovy.Credit: Michelle Gibson/Getty Injectable weight-loss and diabetes drugs Ozempic and Wegovy have become household names across the world. But, amongst the buzz surrounding these medicines, reports of a serious side effect soon surfaced. Women described unplanned pregnancies…

Protests are erupting around the globe. Thousands have broken out since October over the Israel–Hamas conflict. Farmers massed this year in Germany, Belgium, India and many other countries in clashes over new rules. And demonstrators last month set fire to the trademark Olympic rings in Paris to protest against the games being held there this…