Global trust in scientists is high
The trust of scientists: a global study on the issue of science-based policymaking and political party partisanship in 17 different countries, aimed at educating policy makers
A survey of more than 71,000 people in 67 countries finds that people trust scientists and believe they should play a bigger role in policy making. A private Moon landing is possible.
The topic is about how political parties treat scientists. The concept of a right- or left-wing political orientation can also differ among people in different countries, making it hard to interpret the findings.
The trust score across all participants was a little higher than average. On a global scale, participants perceived scientists as having high competence, moderate integrity and benevolent intentions. The overall rating of openness to feedback was lower: 23% of participants think that scientists pay only somewhat or very little attention to other views. The vast majority of people agree thatscientific methods are the best method to find out if something is a lie.
Intuitive Machines vs. NASA: Making a big difference in the state of Indonesia’s scientific research spending and how to support it
The small US company Intuitive Machines could soon put the first private spacecraft on the Moon. There was an attempt by a US firm to deliver scientific equipment to private companies last month, but it failed and the expectation is that NASA will try again. Smaller and newer companies will build US spaceships, says mechanical engineer Christopher Dreyer. I don’t know how many failures we can tolerate, because they are going to make mistakes.
Scientists in Indonesia are hopeful that the presidential election there will increase research spending — no matter who wins. The result was still unclear as this newsletter was being finalized, but all three candidates have promised to increase funding, to between 0.4% and 2% of GDP. In 2020, research and development spending stood at just 0.28% of GDP. Some Indonesian researchers still think that a restructuring of the country’s science super-agency would make research more cumbersome.
Source: Daily briefing: Global trust in scientists is high
Changing the lives of wildlife: The legal battle against the mismanagement of wildlife records and applications to cancer cell development in the lab (Delta/Paudel)
Conservationist Kumar Paudel embarked on a five-year legal battle to advocate for equitable enforcement of wildlife laws. He had done many interviews with people who had been convicted of a crime and was shocked to see that a politician was showing off a trophy. “The disparity struck me,” he says. The official had threatened Paudel with dire consequences if he filed the petition. The government had to acknowledge it didn’t keep records of who owns who parts of some species. “The court order brings thousands of illegal wildlife parts under enforcement, regardless of who owns them,” Paudel says.
Researchers are blasting patients’ cancer cells with dozens of drugs in the lab to see what sticks. Personalized drug screening results in treatments that offer longer remission periods than standard therapies, and it could work for more cancers than genome-guided approaches. “This is a revolution,” says cancer biologist Christopher Kemp. Researchers are trying wildly different methods to reduce the cost and time it takes to grow cancer cells outside of the body.
Source: Daily briefing: Global trust in scientists is high
How do we see the world in the colour? A geneticist’s perspective on leeches and the phanoebis philea
Environmental genetic material is analysed to find ancient flora and fauna, or to track elusive animals. Leeches, for example, carry the DNA of the animals they interacted with in their stomach contents, explains biologist Elizabeth Clare. She says that it is more convenient to collect 1,000 leeches rather than find the animals that they feed on. “It’s like having a bunch of field assistants out surveying for you.” The scientists are trying to figure out how to ensure that the eDNA results are legit without resorting to traditional field methods. Some of the scenarios are very hard to prove, according to a geneticist. That is the nature of the beast.
This is what an orange-barred sulphur (Phoebis philea) looks like to bees, birds, reindeer, mice and other animals that can see ultraviolet light. Researchers have created a camera system and software package that allows us to see the world in animal-view colours. The study co-author, Vera Vasas, says they went to film the birds in the trees and the skies were very bright. “The sky is a different colour to most of the animals than it is to us.” (New Scientist | 3 min read)
Hedi Sevestre is a researcher with the Geological Survey of India and said that globalwarming is making local weather changes even more violent. “The bashing you get when you go there!” 13 min read.
