Science News in Brief – April 8th, 2017
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Conatus News/Uncommon Ground Media Inc.
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/08
25th annual Malofiej International Infographics Summit and awards
According to Jen Christiansen in Scientific American, there was a contest with 1300 entries from over 130 media companies and more than 30 countries. Participants in the context submitted written material.
“The 25th annual Malofiej International Infographics Summit—hosted in Pamplona, Spain by the Spanish chapter of the Society for News Design and the School of Communication at the University of Navarra—concluded last week with award announcements.”
Scientific American won a silver medal for the print category in January 2016. Some of the “Best of Show awards were bestowed upon La Lettura (Italy) for “The Journey of Foreign Fighters” (print), and The New York Times (U.S.) for “Olympic Races Social Series” (online).
Research community let down by Budget 2017 in Canada
The Calgary Herald reported that the university research community has not received as much is it would like from the new budget proposed by the federal government. However, there are “notable investments in higher education” for the coming years.
Nevertheless, the universities were in “anticipation mode” for the funding. The current announcements are that the investments added to the previous years’ investments will be $2 billion for various research spaces in addition to infrastructure.
The budget 2017 from the Canadian federal government has also been heavily invested in “research excellence such as artificial intelligence.” An additional $221 million for research internships will be had through the MITACS program, which is a “major investment in young people.”
American hard power as science power, and vice versa
Peter J. Hotez in Scientific American talked about hard power and soft power. The typical phraseology in the international community is soft power and hard power. Science, Hotez argues, or America’s science, is its hard power and, therefore, its greatness.
It is “vital to our homeland security.” With reflection on World War II and the expansion and building of the military in United States, the scientific infrastructure that was built at that time even through the Cold War.
However, the infrastructure in the United States for science are at a point of decay with many people giving second thought to the possibility of embarking on a career in science. The author of the article is an academic dean and stated that we are “losing or may have lost a generation of young scientists.”
License
In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.
Copyright
© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.
In-Sight Publishing 