International Conference on Science, Health and Engineering

Dr Elsie Widdowson . In the final of our series to celebrate Women’s History Month, we look at the remarkable career of Elsie Widdowson. Born in 1906, she was one of the first women to graduate from Imperial College, London, and went on to earn her first PhD from there. Following an early research interest in plants, she became an expert in human diets, going on to provide invaluable input into the UK’s rationing project after World War II. In this short series of blogs, Digital Science is using modern tools to assess three women and their research legacies to amplify their achievements during Women’s History Month. We saw earlier this month the major contributions made by Marie Maynard Daly and Rita Levi-Montalcini , and in the final part we review the impact made by Dr Elsie Widdowson in her long career.  The first remarkable thing to note about Dr Widdowson is the change in disciplines she covered in her early work. At first she was interested in plants, and her first P...

Over the last few years, many things were put on hold only to come back bigger and better; the Academy Awards, COP26, and of course Liverpool FC’s eventual triumph over the rest of the Premier League. However, none have been so hotly anticipated as #FuturePub – Return of the Research Tech Innovation Social! We’re really excited to announce that #FuturePub is BACK ! We’ll be at the Royal Institution (the Ri to its friends) on May the 4th (be with you) for everything you know and love and SO MUCH MORE. Don’t worry, the sky isn’t really spinning – you’re just experiencing the excitement of #FuturePub! Join us for food, drinks, lightning talks from cutting-edge innovators in research tech, networking with a bunch of like-minded people, and even explore the historic building that is hosting us. Hosted by Digital Science, the evenings are designed to be fun and informal – we aim to give opportunities to those working on new ideas and innovations a chance to present and get feedback...

Analysis reveals disparities in funding to combat global impacts of climate change on health “Climate change is one of the biggest threats to health.” —Dr Beth Thompson, interim Director of Strategy, Wellcome Trust (7 February 2023). Laboratory worker in the Rodolphe Mérieux laboratory of Bamako, Mali. This lab is known for its work to help diagnose Ebola virus, Zika virus and Lassa fever. Photo credit: Mérieux Foundation . This blog addresses the impact of climate change on infectious diseases, in particular infectious diseases with the potential to transmit from animals to humans, also known as zoonotic diseases. To set the scene for this, we first consider the wider context of how global warming has far-reaching consequences for humans and the planet. The global changes that we are currently experiencing have never happened before, with climate change representing one of the principal environmental and health challenges. We use Dimensions to explore published research,...

Former US President Jimmy Carter, in Austin, Texas, 2014. Photo by the LBJ Library, courtesy of the Carter Center . “There’s our Jimmy,” said an excited Southern woman at a rest stop heading to Plains, Georgia, from Atlanta. I thought it was odd to think of former US President Jimmy Carter as ours . No one should be possessed by another. Yet, the phrase stuck with me through the past four years. This woman and I were part of a group involved with the Carter Center as donors or volunteers, and we were heading for a weekend in Plains with Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter (and other Carter family members and a few US Secret Service agents). I do not remember his presidency, but I remember my Texan family’s resentment towards him. And the jokes at his expense, especially the ones about peanuts . But what I know after being more aware of the Carter Center is his commitment to global health and peace that transformed millions of lives worldwide. And he and Rosalynn have touched my heart an...

  On March 7, 2023, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully carried out a  controlled re-entry for the decommissioned Megha-Tropiques-1 (MT1) . The satellite, launched more than a decade ago, was designed to study clouds in the tropical regions of the world. It was expected to make a final impact in the Pacific Ocean. ISRO said the satellite was brought down as a part of its commitment to reduce space debris, especially in the much-crowded Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Orbital debris is not just India’s problem. All the countries and several private companies which have invested billions of dollars in space assets need innovative solutions to tackle the issue.

Daniel Hook, one of the co-founders of Symplectic and now CEO of Digital Science, reflects on the past 20 years of growth and change at Symplectic – and what makes it such a special partner within the research community. Twenty years is a long time in tech but a short time in the world of research. There are other, perhaps more appropriate measures by which to measure the age of Symplectic : in UK terms, Symplectic is ‘three REFs ’ old, from a New Zealand perspective it is just two PBRF s, and in an Australian context it is four (and a bit) ERA s old. From a software development perspective, Symplectic is six major versions old. From a client perspective, it is more than 120 installations old. From a personal perspective, it is two CEOs old – indeed, around Christmas this year, I will become the second-longest serving CEO of Symplectic, having moved into the Digital Science leadership team in 2015 and handed the reins of Symplectic over into the capable hands of Jonathan Breeze. ...

Marie Maynard Daly. Photo by Queens College, New York, sourced from the Science History Institute . For many researchers, the data behind their work often only tells half the story. This is the case with Marie Maynard Daly, a trailblazer in so many different ways, and the subject in the first of our March series to celebrate Women’s History Month. Left-wing historian Eric Hobsbawm once said that, “History is being invented in vast quantities.” Indeed, one need only look at the groaning History section in any good bookshop to realise there’s an almost infinite number of perspectives and realisations of every facet of human history. As we celebrate Women’s History Month in 2023, it is perhaps time we took the opportunity to utilise new technology in trying to understand more about those who led the way for women scientists of today. In this series of blogs we look at three women and their research legacy to understand what they achieved – and continue to achieve – through their r...