Do you practise safe science, or are you prepared to take some intellectual risks when it comes to your research? If so, you are in the minority. "Doing the thing that isn't dangerous is becoming the norm," says Keith Gore from cosmetic company L'Oréal. To encourage more young scientists to buck the trend, L'Oréal and the Royal Institution (RI) launched the Science Graduate of the Year competitio...
BACK TO THE FEATURE INDEX The miniaturisation of electrical components may be causing a revolution in the electronics industry, but some scientists have their sights set on things much smaller than silicon chips. Nanotechnology is a rapidly expanding field that is starting to produce new devices that will transform the way we live. However, nature has already spent millennia developing its own ma...
Raising the Alarm Been to a good conference lately? If so, it was probably pretty tightly focused on your field of research. Maybe it is time for a change, time to broaden your horizons a bit. Sometimes hearing what's going on in the rest of the scientific universe can be good for the soul ... and help you focus on where your career might be heading by throwing up some new ideas. The annual Festi...
Have ethics ever influenced your choice of career? While the ethical questions raised by animal experimentation or weapons research are obvious, ethical problems can arise in any job. An Ethical Career in Science and Technology? aims to help by introducing scientists and engineers to some of the issues and ethical dilemmas they might face in both their current and future careers. The guide has be...
The relationship between science and society has changed. Much of our society now depends on technology, and although many technological advances are beneficial, there are also those that pose great risks. Whereas most people accept that technological advances should be carefully assessed before they're given the go-ahead, the question of who should control the direction that basic science takes ...
THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT So you want to be a science writer? A session organised by the Association of British Science Writers as part of the British Association Festival of Science showed that there are as many kinds of science writers as there are media to employ them, each type of writing with its own characteristics and requirements. The panellists also demonstrated that routes into such a ca...
Only a third of women graduates in science, engineering, and technology (SET) who take a career break return to a job that makes use of their university education and training. That's the shocking finding of a report, " Maximising Returns to Science, Engineering and Technology Careers," published by the Department of Trade and Industry ( DTI) last month. Launching the report, Trade and Industry S...
