It will soon be six months since European Scientist launched. Since the first publication in late December 2017 over 600 articles have been published in English, French and German. The concept is simple: day to day coverage of topical science and technology issues, regulation and science policies, mainly on the European continent. It’s carried out by our team: Rebecca Ochs, Anna Lederle, Graeme Beaton and Niels Linden, who comb the news every day for the most relevant subjects for the European science community. In addition to keeping you informed, European Scientist wants to start debates by giving a platform to opinion leaders who are keen to express their point of view on scientific or science policy issues with a topical slant.
For example, following the WHO World Malaria Day we published two contributions on the subject: one on “The reality of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa” by Thomas Lavreys and the other on “Plant genetic engineering contributes to the fight against malaria” by André Heitz. In addition to current events, the site privileges interdisciplinarity and aims to feature diverse contributions from all fields.
From health with “How the low-fat obsession enabled the obesity epidemic” by Guy-André and Alexandre Pelouze, agriculture with “The Organic Boom” by Gil Rivière Wekstein, physics with “Electromagnetic waves and health: when lawyers think they are physicists” by Sébastien Point, to neurobiology with “Our brain’s sixth sense“, by Edgar Gärtner.
We’ve also run interviews with energy specialists such as Samuel Furfari or Philippe Charlez. Background papers have been published such as “What AI is, and what it is not” by Marc Rameaux and “What does the National Toxicology Programme’s study of radio frequency fields reveal?” by Anne Perrin, Isabelle Lagroye and Catherine Yardin. The theme of “science vs pseudo-science” has been well covered with “O Spirit of Critical Enquiry, are you there?”, a text by Vincent Laget on zetetics, and “Biodynamics, a very strange theory”, by Jean-Charles Estoppey. Finally, “science policies” have been widely covered with “Foodwatch’s report on Coca-Cola: an example of paternalism posing as science” by Bill Wirtz, Claude Debru’s “The progress made by science and the progress made by society” ,”Are European science and economics outdated? Or in the grip of ideology?” by Marcel Kuntz or “Guaranteeing an environmentally responsible agricultural supply chain” by Pierre Bois d’Enghien.
Finally, the history of science has not been left out with “Marie Curie’s other invention ‘The Curie Model’ by Claude Huriet. Regular readers will notice that this little overview, while representative, is far from exhaustive. As for those readers who have just discovered the site, we hope you will find this small sample sufficiently alluring to encourage you to dig deeper. I myself have had the pleasure of contributing some twenty editorials to review the latest in science news: from an analysis of “Enlightenment now” by Steven Pinker to “French Scientists in revolt” via, last but not least “European Dietary Revolution”, “The precautionary principle in three languages”,“The sheep-man chimera” or “Polemics at the IARC”.
To date, European Scientist is delighted to have had authors from many European countries contributing: Germany, Britain, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, and Switzerland… No doubt this community of nationalities will expand very quickly as our reputation spreads. Most recently, we’ve worked to bring you an opinion piece by Professor Aleksander Nawrat, Deputy Director of the Polish National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR), which explains how Poland finances research. This contribution inaugurates a new series on research in Europe and how various countries of the Union promote science, technology and R&D. So keep informed, participate in the debate and feel free to forward us your contributions.
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