“A computational biologist describes the elation of making a breakthrough – and the misery of not doing so – while three other scientists tell us how their work plays on their emotions …” (more)
[Ewan Birney, Observer, 10 February]
“THE READERS: What you said on irishtimes.com this week. Irish Times Science Editor Dick Ahlstrom wrote on Wednesday that we may never again see a genius of the likes of Einstein, Newton or Galileo …” (more)
[Irish Times, 2 February]
“Dream jobs, 6 reasons science needs you and Profiles of women in science are three of the areas on a website launched last year by the European Commission to encourage teenage girls to consider science as a career – a website called Science: It’s a girl thing! …” (more)
[Curt Rice, Inside Higher Ed, 29 January]
“An American blog site has taken upon itself to inform readers of scientists and institutions which bend or break the rules so that their projects ‘succeed’ or outcomes appear how they want them to …” (more)
[Mary Mulvihill, 15 January]
“One of the owners of the whistleblower site Science Fraud, which went dark yesterday in response to legal threats, has identified himself, and explained what happened …” (more)
[Ivan Oransky, Retraction Watch, 3 January]
“To prevent science from continuing its worrying slide towards politicization, here’s a New Year’s resolution for scientists, especially in the United States: gain the confidence of people and politicians across the political spectrum by demonstrating that science is bipartisan …” (more)
[Daniel Sarewitz, Nature News & Comment, 2 January]
“Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week’s programme I spoke to Dr Eemer Eivers, research fellow, and Aidan Clerkin, research associate, at the Educational Research Centre at St. Patrick’s College about the performance of Irish fourth class children on the PIRLS and TIMSS tests …” (mp3)
[Inside Education on 103.2 Dublin City FM, 1 January]
“Due to budget constraints and unsustainable price increases by the publisher, it is with regret that IReL will be unable to renew its subscription to Taylor and Francis Science and Technology Collection for 2013 …” (more)
[IReL News, 19 December]
“Sir, – Your Editorial ‘Teaching time at primary level’ (December 14th) echoes Ruairí Quinn’s misguided supposition that the amount of time allocated to religion in our primary phase of education somehow influences the mediocre performance in mathematics and science …” (more)
[Alan Whelan, Irish Times, 19 December]
“Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week’s programme I spoke to Dr Eemer Eivers and Aidan Clerkin from the Educational Research Centre. They are authors of PIRLS & TIMSS 2011: Reading, Mathematics and Science Outcomes for Ireland. The report documents how Irish students performed on the PIRLS and TIMSS tests compared to fourth grade students in up to fifty other countries.” (podcast)
[Inside Education on 103.2 Dublin City FM, 18 December]
“Sir, – Seán Flynn’s (December 11th) report on the rankings of Irish students in reading, mathematics and science paints a far more negative account of the facts than the actual report …” (more)
[Shane Bergin, Irish Times, 17 December]
“A session on scientific reproducibility today quickly became a discussion about perverse incentives. Robust research takes more time and complicates otherwise compelling stories. This turns scientists who cut corners into rising stars while discouraging the diligent. It also produces highly-cited scientific publications that cannot be reproduced …” (more)
[Monya Baker, Nature News Blog, 17 December]
“Ireland had a mixed result in the international rankings in reading, maths and science published this week. The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS ) tested primary school pupils in the equivalent of fourth class in more than 60 countries …” (more)
[Irish Times, 14 December]
“Prof Desmond Fitzgerald, vice-president for research, University College Dublin, on the global reach of Irish scientists.” (video)
[Silicon Republic, 12 December]
“The time allocated to maths and science in primary schools may have to increase. In absolute terms, Ireland has performed well in the new international rankings. Irish children in fourth class are performing at above average levels in literacy, maths and science …” (more)
[Seán Flynn, Irish Times, 12 December]
“Irish primary pupils have performed well in a major international test in reading but the results in maths and science are much less encouraging. In reading, Ireland ranked 10th out of 45 countries with only five countries performing significantly better …” (more)
[Seán Flynn, Irish Times, 11 December]
“Here are the main points in relation to science in Budget 2013 announced by Minister for Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation, Richard Bruton, yesterday …” (more)
[Maria Delaney, Science Calling!, 6 December]
“The European Commission produced a video recently called Science: It’s a girl thing!, as part of its campaign to encourage more young women to choose science in their future careers. The original video was dropped after very mixed reactions to it …” (more)
[Science.ie, 4 December]
“The great success of the ESOF2012 event (and all credit to the organisers, especially the former Chief Science Adviser, Prof Patrick Cunningham) stimulated a lot of reaction in the local scientific community and pointed criticism of national science funding policy …” (more)
[Luke Drury, Science Calling!, 27 November]
“‘Dublin Talks’ is a series of talks by and about Irish people with big and interesting ideas. The talks were organised recently by Dublin City Council and the Royal Irish Academy as part of Innovation Dublin 2012, and are supported by Dublin City of Science 2012 …” (more)
[Science.ie, 27 November]
