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Jan 17, 2025 | 
physicsworld.com | Michael Allen
The darkest, clearest skies anywhere in the world could suffer “irreparable damage” by a proposed industrial megaproject. That is the warning from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in response to plans by AES Andes, a subsidiary of the US power company AES Corporation, to develop a green hydrogen project just a few kilometres from ESO’s flagship Paranal Observatory in Chile’s Atacama Desert.
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Nov 26, 2024 | 
physicsworld.com | Michael Allen
For all of us concerned about the climate, 2023 was a grim year. One of the biggest uncertainties in predicting future climate change is the impact of clouds.
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Nov 15, 2024 | 
physicsworld.com | Michael Allen
The European Union should more than double its budget for research and innovation in its next spending round, dubbed Framework Programme 10 (FP10). That’s the view of a report by an expert group, which says a dramatic increase to €220bn is needed for European science to be globally competitive once again. Its recommendations are expected to have a big influence over the European Commission’s proposals for FP10, due in mid-2025.
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Nov 13, 2024 | 
physicsworld.com | Michael Allen
Further details have emerged over the UK government’s pledge to spend almost £22bn on carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the next 25 years. While some climate scientists feel the money is vital to decarbonise heavy industry, others have raised concerns about the technology itself, including its feasibility at scale and potential to extend fossil fuel use rather than expanding renewable energy and other low-carbon technologies.
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Oct 4, 2024 | 
physicsworld.com | Michael Allen
Biased collaboration and citation patterns are responsible for driving the gender gap in physics. That is according to a new study, which finds that poor female representation persists due to established male physicists preferring to work with early-career male researchers. The study’s authors say that integrating young female physicists into established networks could help to tackle the underrepresentation of women (Communications Physics 7 309).
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Sep 27, 2024 | 
physicsworld.com | Michael Allen
Scientific knowledge is growing at a linear rate despite an exponential increase in publications. That’s according to a study by physicists in China and the US, who say their finding points to a decline in overall scientific productivity.
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Sep 5, 2024 | 
physicsworld.com | Michael Allen
Are you keen to advance your scientific career? If so, it helps to have a big network of colleagues and a broad range of unique collaborators, according to a new analysis of physicists’ publication data. The study also finds that female scientists tend to work in more tightly connected groups than men, which can hamper their career progression. The study was carried out by a team led by Mingrong She, a data analyst at Maastricht University in the Netherlands.
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May 24, 2024 | 
physicsworld.com | Michael Allen
Papers introducing concepts that have since become common knowledge are often under cited by researchers, skewing those articles’ true impact. That’s the conclusion of new study using machine learning to identify “foundational” work in science that is often not properly cited. Being able to count such hidden citations could provide more accurate bibliometric measures of impact, the study says. (PNAS Nexus 3 pgae155).
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May 14, 2024 | 
physicsworld.com | Michael Allen
New research suggests that laser-treated cork could be used to tackle crude oil spills. In a study published in Applied Physics Letters, researchers from China and Israel found that femtosecond laser processing alters the surface structure of cork so that it heats rapidly in sunlight and absorbs oil. Oil spills are ecological disasters that wreak havoc on marine ecosystems, with devastating, long lasting effects on marine animals and their habitats.
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May 9, 2024 | 
physicsworld.com | Michael Allen
Travel to more than 350 astronomy meetings in 2019 resulted in the emission of 42 500 tonnes of carbon dioxide. That’s the conclusion of the first-ever study to examine the carbon emissions from travel to meetings by an entire field. The carbon cost amounts to about one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) per participant per meeting – roughly Africa’s average per capita carbon footprint in 2019 (1.2 tCO2e) (PNAS Nexus 3 pgae143).
