Notes from conversations among early career researchers

Abstract. Outbreak sequencing provides insight into the origin and evolutionary processes acting on emerging pathogens. Sequencing a historic multihost out

Intense negotiations to stave off new levies by the Trump administration ended in an impasse as Mark Carney suspended talks. U.S. tariffs on Canada, and retaliatory tariffs on the U.S., will come into effect.

The scientific conference was invented to solve a transport problem we no longer have. What is it for now?

A central puzzle in the evolution of individuality is the origin of heredity. Egalitarian transitions integrate formerly independent replicators into a higher-level individual, but this requires the c...

Researchers are required to account for their time and money. Administrative procedures rarely include any account of the research time they consume.

"I don't know what to write to you, so I shall tell you a story about four little rabbits whose names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter." In 1893, when Beatrix Potter set these words, and the ...

Academic survival guides teach junior researchers how to live with the judgements of senior scholars. No corresponding genre gives young researchers authority to advise the people who judge them.

We live in a time of global crises: a deteriorating environment that is struggling to provide all the resources and services we demand of it, changing climate and its consequences for the biosphere, ...

Metrics can help decide where to look, but they turn dangerous when they replace contact with the work itself.

A conversation with George O'Toole on publishing, peer review, and the unwritten rules of a scientific life

The argument about research culture leaves out something personal, and no reform reaches it.

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is a driving force in microbial evolution that allows community members to rapidly evolve to cope with environmental stressors and competition. Despite the importance of...

The reward for reviewing has quietly become an asset on someone else's balance sheet.

Every submission helps shape the future of scholarly publishing

The capacity to adapt is essential for a population to avoid extinction in a changing world and is recognized as a global conservation priority. Ad...

Denis Bourguet and Thomas Guillemaud on Peer Community In, diamond open access, and why scholarly evaluation should be controlled by researchers

Taxonomically and functionally distinct communities assemble on cellulose and its monomer, glucose. Although single carbon sources were provided, high and comparable diversity was maintained in both ...

The ‘base editing’ technique that researchers used is far from ready for the clinic, but critics worry that it will spur a rush to commercialize the approach.

Warum wird Forschungsqualität zunehmend an Publikationszahlen gemessen? Ein Gespräch mit Paul Rainey über die Belohnung des Quantifizierbaren.

How money, visibility and reputation can be used to enforce public standards

What journals should demonstrate before receiving public APC funding

Temperature is a fundamental determinant of bacterial physiology and ecology. Optimal growth temperature (OGT) is highly variable across species, contributing to differences in where and when species ...

Abstract. Carbon use efficiency (CUE) is an important trait emerging from processes regulating biological growth. CUE can be computed either based on the growth of structural biomass or total biomass ...

Academic renewal cannot be a conversation among senior academics alone.

How journals could be assessed without favouring size, wealth or brand

Public money should support scholarly service, not unscrupulous publishers who rob the system