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Showing posts from January, 2023

White House OSTP public access recommendations: Maturing your institutional Open Access strategy

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While the global picture of Open Access remains something of a patchwork (see our recent blog post The Changing Landscape of Open Access Compliance ) , trends are nevertheless moving in broadly the same direction, with the past decade seeing a move globally from 70% of all publishing being closed access to 54% being open access .  The White House OSTP’s new memo (aka the Nelson Memo) will see this trend advance rapidly in the United States, stipulating that federally-funded publications and associated datasets should be made publicly available without embargo. In this blog post, Symplectic ‘s Kate Byrne and Figshare ‘s Andrew Mckenna-Foster start to unpack what the Nelson Memo means, along with some of the impacts, considerations and challenges that research institutions and librarians will need to consider in the coming months. Demystifying the Nelson Memo’s recommendations The focus of the memo is upon ensuring free, immediate, and equitable access to federally funded re...

SpaceX’s most powerful rocket returns to flight and nails synchronized landing

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   4th Edition International Research Awards on Science, Health and Engineering, New Delhi, india, 23-01-2023 Online Nomination: https:// x-i.me/veershen https:// shen.sciencefather.com/awards/ https:// youtube.com/channel/UCzfY7 0L-3ea7FgVo3opHDVQ … And USSF-67 will make use of the same type of spacecraft   deployed on USSF-44, called LDPE, which is essentially a bus for outer space that can carry smaller satellites. The Falcon Heavy also carried a   communications satellite , called the Continuous Broadcast Augmenting SATCOM, for the US Space Force. Additional details about the satellites on Sunday’s mission were not immediately available. With each launch, the Falcon Heavy rocket puts on a dramatic show back on Earth. SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket, world's most powerful rocket, launches after three-year hiatus After Sunday’s mission, the company recovered two of the Falcon Heavy rocket’s first-stage boosters — the tall white sticks strapped together to give th...

SpaceX’s most powerful rocket returns to flight and nails synchronized landing

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  4 rd Edition International Research Awards on Science, Health and Engineering, New Delhi, india, 23-01-2023 Online Nomination: https:// x-i.me/veershen https:// shen.sciencefather.com/awards/ https:// youtube.com/channel/UCzfY7 0L-3ea7FgVo3opHDVQ … Joe Skipper/Reuters CNN  —  SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, the towering launch vehicle known for its boosters’ aerial acrobatics and synchronized landings when returning to Earth, took to the skies Sunday, delivering national security payloads to orbit for the US military. The mission, called USSF-67, took off at 5:56 p.m. ET from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, marking the fifth successful flight of the rocket recently dethroned as the world’s most powerful operational launch vehicle. This mission was initially  advertised  to launch on Saturday, and the reason for the one-day delay was not immediately clear. The Falcon Heavy debuted to much fanfare in 2018 when SpaceX CEO Elon Musk  attached his personal ...

Will we only ever dream of endless energy?

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The National Ignition Facility (NIF) has achieved fusion ignition using powerful laser systems and x-rays. Image credit: NIF, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory , US. The recent nuclear fusion ignition event at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California is a triumph of modern science and of the persistence of scientists who continue to strive to solve some of the most difficult technical and engineering challenges of a generation. However, it is important to see this development in a broader context of global events as well as the research environment that has been created to support the nuclear energy developments upon which society is increasingly likely to depend in the coming years. Did we vote for this? It may be argued that geopolitics has been driven by an energy agenda since the late 19th century, when the industrial revolution had moved solidly beyond the borders of the UK and countries began competing for global r...

A Conflict of Interests – Manipulating Peer Review or Research as Usual?

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In seeking to define morality and moral actions, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states in paragraph 1753 that, “A good intention (for example, that of helping one’s neighbor) does not make behaviour that is intrinsically disordered, such as lying and calumny, good or just. The end does not justify the means.” Stephen Sammut, PhD Science, Scientific Method, and Politics  It is tempting to think of science in the abstract as objective and pure based on rigorous analysis of empirical evidence. Conversely, politics might often appear less structured and more chaotic, based on subjective values and driven by interest groups and compromises. However, both are human endeavours – neither science nor politics functions solely in the abstract. Both are influenced by biases that are often not evident or transparent to the external observer. The scientific method is one mechanism of checks and balances used to curtail undue, inappropriate, or political influence on science. ...