http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2012/sep/1...
Science more beautiful than art?

And here is a reply most probably from an artist who says scinece can't replace art:

http://www.elezea.com/2012/09/science-cant-replace-art/

How to Increase Intelligence

Scientists have long held that fluid intelligence—reflected not by what you know but rather how well you solve novel problems—is largely inherited and relatively impervious to improvement.
A raft of recent investigations, though, shows that some types of brain training—specifically those that exercise working memory and other so-called executive functions—can raise an individual's fluid intelligence.
Working memory training appears to boost fluid intelligence in children and adults alike. As training progresses, the brain regions taxed by working memory become less active when called on and more active at rest. This pattern suggests that certain training programs leave the brain better primed to perform a wide array of tasks.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=scientists-design-...

Parasite Linked to Personality Changes :

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=common-parasite-li...

http://www.scidev.net/en/science-and-innovation-policy/linking-huma...
Science and human rights

http://www.scidev.net/en/science-and-innovation-policy/linking-huma...

http://www.scidev.net/en/science-and-innovation-policy/linking-huma...

http://www.examiner.com/article/fraud-medical-journals-increasing
Fraud in scientific research is increasing!

A study reviewed 2,047 papers retracted from the biomedical literature through May 2012. The journals considered to be the most prestigious retracted tainted papers faster than did more-obscure journals, pointing to the close read these journals get by other researchers. Science is self-correcting, and there's certainly some truth to that- if results can't be replicated by other researchers, if a conclusion is wrong, it will be identified.

"But there's other stuff out there that doesn't come to wrong conclusions. It's just based on fraudulent data. It's in an area that isn't being intensively investigated by others, or people don't confirm those findings but they're not really sure why these are the results that tend to hang around to potentially influence future experiments. The vast majority of the papers retracted for misconduct dealt with biomedical or life-science research. Some, though, involved fields not directly related to life science – fields such as semiconductor research and psychology.

Sadly and perhaps not surprisingly, this is also a case where a few bad apples give the whole field a bad name. Scientific controversies over the last few years are littered with the corpses of multiple papers published by the same author or the same lab.

 
It was found that about 21 percent of the retractions were attributable to error, while 67 percent were due to misconduct, including fraud or suspected fraud (43 percent), duplicate publication (14 percent), and plagiarism (10 percent). Miscellaneous or unknown reasons accounted for the remaining 12 percent.

The percentage of scientific articles retracted due to fraud has increased approximately 10-fold since 1975, with a smaller increase in retractions due to error.

The United States, Germany, Japan, and China accounted for three-quarters of retractions due to fraud or suspected fraud, whereas China and India accounted for the majority of retractions due to plagiarism and duplicate publications.

Whether the increase is due to better reporting or to an actual increase in violations, or both, it tarnishes a community's image.

Reasons: Lower rates of funding, higher competition, and the potential for money patents, and perks that publishing in major journals can provide a researcher and of course lure for media stardom(!) are the major reasons for scientific fraud.

Suggestions to check it: Increasing funds for scientific research, especially in developing countries like India with private sponsorships from Industry etc. Scientists should do research for the love of science and finding out something - curiosity driven scientific research- should be encouraged not money driven research. Use plagiarism checkers (http://www.plagtracker.com/ or http://turnitin.com/), but editors of sciences research articles should use plagiarism detection software - Maybe it is the way to prevent these 10% of plagiarism.

Encouraging solutions like the Office of Research Integrity and regular courses on ethics and data presentation. Researchers, journal editors and referees need to be taught both the value and the methodology of honest research from day one of their careers.

Other articles related to this topic : http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=misconduct-is-the-...

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/the-curious-wavefunction/2012/1...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/opinion/retracted-science-papers....

http://littleofficeofintegrity.org/

Related to t he topic below

BEN Goldacre, doctor, columnist and author of the acclaimed bestseller Bad Science - in which he exposed and rubbished the "evidence" behind misleading and dubious claims from journalists, alternative therapists and government reports - is back with a controversial new book, Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients (Fourth Estate).

http://www.timeslive.co.za/opinion/columnists/2012/10/09/suspect-sc...

Once more, he claims, science has been distorted by the corporations; drug manufacturers run bad trials on their products, which extort and deliberately exaggerate their benefits. When the test results are unflattering, the data is simply buried. Government regulators, too, are at fault, as are doctors and patient groups who are bribed by the $600-billion global pharmaceutical industry.

Early reports on the book suggest that Goldacre has uncovered "a fascinating, terrifying mess".

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/scientists-to-get-extra-p...

Scientists and academics are to be given extra protection from bullying corporations that use Britain's libel laws to suppress legitimate criticism and debate, the Government has indicated.

Ministers are to look at amending the Defamation Bill, which is currently being debated in the House of Lords, after strident criticism that their plans do not go far enough.

Scientists have warned that under current proposals there nothing to stop companies and the rich and powerful “silencing criticism” even if it is in the public interest.

They point to a string of recent cases where experts have been threatened with hugely expensive legal actions for raising legitimate concerns about medical products and allegedly unscrupulous practices by companies.

Lessons to a scientist

"If you want to be good in Science, you have to start asking good questions. You cannot ask good questions if you don't have good training. You have to be open to other fields. You have to feel it. Team up with others and remain very motivated to work hard. You have to love and live your Science." - Prof Jules A Hoffmann ( The Nobel Prize winner for discoveries on 'activation of innate immunity'. )

http://findingada.com/

Celebrating the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths

http://directory.findingada.com/stories/

Pseudo-science and myth busting:
http://riaus.org.au/articles/in-defence-of-pseudo-science/?goback=....

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=antiscience-belief...

Antiscience Beliefs Jeopardize U.S. Democracy

The United States faced down authoritarian governments on the left and right. Now it may be facing an even greater challenge from within

A large number of major party contenders for political office this year took antiscience positions against evolution, human-induced climate change, vaccines, stem cell research, and more.
Such positions are surprising because the economy is such a big factor in this election, and half the economic growth since World War II can be traced to innovations in science and technology.
Partisans at both ends of the political spectrum have been guilty of science denialism. But the Republican version is particularly dangerous because it attacks the validity of science itself.
U.S. voters must push candidates and elected officials to express their views on the major science questions facing the nation or risk losing out to those countries with reality-based policies.

http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/magazinedetails/magazine/culturaldi...

Do you think that a scientific focus on art runs the risk of reducing its emotional impact and stripping it of some of its necessary enigma? If not, why?

Only if you get into the details of the research itself. Science is cold only in the laboratory, but the ideas that come out of a laboratory are more enthralling than anything I've come across. Think of the fact of evolution, the fact that all of life evolved from single-celled organisms around three billion years ago. Scientists, after much work, discovered this, but why shouldn't poets and artists celebrate these eye-opening truths, the same way they have celebrated religious myths for countless centuries? The image of science as something mechanical needs to be done away with.

Let’s ignore science at our peril

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/lets-ignore-science-at-ou...

This is a great page to visit:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/0/

How dumb and stupid people ( sometimes law ) can get!

Despite hundreds of years of old wives' tales and, more recently, serious research, even the most devastating earthquakes are pretty much as unpredictable in 2012 as they were in prehistoric times.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/trial-and-error-s..." target="_blank">http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/trial-and-error-s...

http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/10/22/us-science-manslaughter-it...

http://rt.com/news/italy-scientists-earthquake-jail-972/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/oct/23/laquila-quake-scienti...

http://rt.com/news/italy-jail-scientists-reaction-061/
'We won’t advise the state again': Scientists outraged at Italian seismologists' jailing

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/across-the-universe/2012/oct/24/g...

The Italian earthquake trial, in which six seismologists and a civil servant were found guilty of manslaughter, has an eerie resonance with the Galileo trial of 1633.

The question is: was this trial about science or communication? While the media are filled with stories about science being on trial, claiming that the scientists have been convicted of failing to predict the earthquake, New Scientist points out that the conviction was actually for errors in communication.

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/big-cracks-in-the-science...

Big cracks in the science of communicating risk

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20097554

L'Aquila ruling: Should scientists stop giving advice?

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/10/24/successful-scientists-wha...

Successful scientists: What’s the winning formula?

http://www.nature.com/news/global-reach-1.11592?WT.ec_id=NATURE-201...

The increasing internationalization of science offers many benefits, but also has limitations.

It may sound like something straight out of a horror movie, but many animals can come under the zombie-like control of parasites. So what about humans? Scientific American editor Katherine Harmon fills us in on the ghoulish side of Nature. More here: http://www.scientificamerican.com/report.cfm?id=zombie-science&...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444868204578064960544...

How to keep microbes away from your gadgets:

http://www.wgbhnews.org/post/art-telling-science-stories

The Art of Telling Science Stories

Among those who make a living communicating science to the public, there are two main groups. There are those who began as writers, journalists, film makers, what have you, and somewhere along the way discovered a particular affinity for the subject of science. Increasingly, though, there’s a second group who received formal training in science, may even have made a career as a scientist, but somewhere along the way discovered that research wasn’t quite the right fit and instead turned to telling the stories of science.

http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2012-11/07/content_15884818...
China Science

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/11/opinion/lotto-ted-science-play/?h...

Why science is like play

http://www.rescorp.org/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20640625

Science week on PM

A listener to Radio 4's PM programme got in touch recently asking why it did not get more scientists involved directly in its output.

So, for a each day this week, the programme has spoken to one scientist about the work they are doing, to try to learn more about what impact their work might have, and why a scientist chooses their particular field of inquiry.

The idea was to break out of the topical habit of only ever inviting scientists on to explain a particular story just because it is in the news, and learn about what scientists are up to when they are not being talking heads on a particular programme.

http://esciencenews.com/articles/2012/12/07/antibiotic.eating.bug.u...
Antibiotic eating bug unearthed in soil

https://www.agronomy.org/story/2012/dec/thu/antibiotic-eating-bug-u...

https://www.ratemypi.com/Default.aspx

What they do: As scientists, we understand career development is difficult. That’s why RateMyPI.com was developed with the research professional and aspiring professionals in mind. You don’t start an experiment without a thorough knowledge base; why should choosing a principal investigator, collaborator, or employee be any different? It’s your career…take control of it!

http://esciencenews.com/articles/2012/12/11/more.3000.epigenetic.sw...

http://www.rubriq.com/?goback=.gde_4404405_member_195563455

Independent peer review system to publish your scientific research papers without much bother. For details watch the video posted below.

http://esciencenews.com/articles/2012/12/17/new.form.cell.division....
New form of cell division found!

Science Journalism: Blogspot:

http://richa-malhotra.blogspot.in/

http://othersideofscience.com/

Ambient noise of the International Space Station

https://soundcloud.com/colchrishadfield/space-station-noise

http://malina.diatrope.com/2012/12/26/the-visioneers-and-the-market...

THE VISIONEERS AND THE MARKETING OF SCIENCE

The Visioneers: How a Group of Elite Scientists Pursued Space Colonies, Nanotechnologies, and a Limitless Future

http://www.amazon.com/The-Visioneers-Scientists-Nanotechnologies-eb...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121230143021.htm

http://www.theweeklings.com/dnobacon/2013/01/02/science-art-and-the...
The story of an artist who was helped by and therefore inspired by science.

http://www.news.wisc.edu/21392

Researchers: Online science news needs careful study

http://www.buzzfeed.com/donnad/27-science-fictions-that-became-scie...

27 Science Fictions That Became Science Facts In 2012

We may never have our flying cars, but the future is here. From creating fully functioning artificial leaves to hacking the human brain, science made a lot of breakthroughs this year.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=does-constant-goog...
Some studies suggest that the best way to retain information is to write it out in longhand, which activates a tactile connection between the words and the brain that might be skipped by typing.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9797948/Fish-cannot...

Fish cannot feel pain say scientists

Cubic boron nitride, a material that in many ways resembles diamond. Boron nitride can be compressed into a superhard, transparent form—but unlike diamond and many other materials known for their extreme hardness, it is based not on carbon but on a latticework of boron and nitrogen atoms. Computer simulations have indicated that a rare crystalline form of boron nitride would resist indentation even better than diamond if it could be synthesized into large samples, and laboratory experiments have shown that more attainable forms of the stuff already approach the hardness of diamond.

Now a new set of experiments on a nanostructured form of boron nitride have yielded even greater measures of hardness than before. The new material exceeds that of some forms of diamond, according to the authors of a study reporting the findings in the January 17 issue of Nature.

The samples had a measured hardness of up to 108 gigapascals—slightly harder than synthetic diamond but less hard than polycrystalline diamonds made of nanoscale grains.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=nanotwinned-cubic-...

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2013/01/17/5-famous-...

5 Famous Scientists That Started Their Work as Young Teens