You are here
NHM Science Strategy - All
-
A PNAS paper explores the way in which new species of plants are described from specimens that may already have been in herbarium collections for many years, and underlines the importance of collections for discovering diversity. Also on NHM science news blog.
-
The official text of the Access and Benefit Sharing Protocol agreed at the CBD COP10 has now been published and is open for signature by parties for the next year.
-
Two papers on science in public policy. The first from Nancy Baron on scientists as communicators and the second from Roland Schenkel on the complexities of scientific input into policy.
- Baron, N. (2010). "Stand up for science." Nature 468(7327): 1032-1033.
- Schenkel, R. (2010). "The Challenge of Feeding Scientific Advice into Policy-Making." Science 330(6012): 1749-1751.
-
Useful overview in Science of the UC Museum of Paleontology initative Understanding Science.
Science 101: Building the Foundations for Real Understanding. Anastasia Thanukos, Judith G. Scotchmoor, Roy Caldwell, and David R. Lindberg Science 24 December 2010: 330 (6012), 1764-1765. Published online 2 December 2010 [DOI:10.1126/science.1186994]
-
A new US COMPETES Act was agreed in late December - an umbrella law that covers a wide range of scientific initiatives and coordination. There will be quite a lot of haggling to come on the money to implement some of these elements, but some reorganise existing allocations and it is an interesting expression of direction and ambition. Of specific interest is section 104 on collections which gives responsibility to OSTP and reads /.....
.../
SEC. 104. FEDERAL SCIENTIFIC COLLECTIONS.
-
RCUK commissioned a review of implementation of the agenda arising from Sir Gareth Roberts' 2002 report SET for Success, developing careers and skills for PhD students and research staff. This will continue to have a substantial influence on the policies of research funders and creates expectations and frameworks for the responsibilities of research institutions. Recomm
-
Cameron et al. in PNAS Early Edition - widespread decline of some bumblebee species in the US was shown by the comparison of current ranges from a three-year observation on 16,000 specimens with ranges inferred from 73,759 museum specimens. Higher Nosema and lower current genetic diversity in declining species than in stable species. Would be good to look at genetics of museum specimens, but not covered in this paper.
-
Robbirt et al (2011) looked at recent field records of flowering date and temperature (1975-2006) for the UK Early Spider Orchid, Ophrys sphegodes, and compared these with historical temperature records and dated flowering specimens in collections (1848-1958), including NHM collections. /....../
-
The UK Department of Business, Innovation and Skills is funding a new project Science, Trust and Public Engagement –
exploring future pathways to good governance, looking at the experience of public engagement in the governance of science in the UK since 2000. An element of this has been launched, led by TNS-BMRB with the Royal Society, UEA and others. -
The EU-funded Fauna Europaea project has upgraded its website: names of European organisms, together with links to taxonomic expertise and other resources.