Monthly Archives: January 2011

Bonnie Bassler is the recipient of the Richard Lounsbery Award

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Date:  Jan. 20, 2011

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Academy Honors 13 for Major Contributions to Science

 

WASHINGTON — The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) will honor 13 individuals with awards recognizing extraordinary scientific achievements in the areas of biology, chemistry, physics, economics and psychology.

 

The recipients for 2011 are:

 

“Bonnie L. Bassler, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, and Squibb Professor in the department of molecular biology at Princeton University, is the recipient of the Richard Lounsbery Award. Bassler is being honored for her pioneering discoveries of the universal use of chemical communication among bacteria and the elucidation of structural and regulatory mechanisms controlling bacterial assemblies. This $50,000 prize recognizes extraordinary scientific achievement by French and American scientists in biology and medicine.”

To see the whole list:

Source: What’s New @ The National Academies

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Open Access study in Europe shows ~10% of articles published in OA journals

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“ Study of Open Access Publishing project presents findings of two-year EC funded study on OA publishing – 17 Jan 2011

The SOAP (Study of Open Access Publishing) project presented the results of its two-year European Commission (EU) funded examination of open access publishing at an open symposium on January 13, 2011, in Berlin, Germany. Over the two-year study duration, the SOAP project performed a comprehensive study of open access journals, publishers and business models, including analysis of publishing houses, learned societies and licensing along with the overall supply and demand for open access.

The study surveyed over 50,000 researchers for their opinions on open-access journals, which make all their papers freely available online and usually charge authors a fee for each published paper. According to the study, while scientists like open-access papers as readers, as authors, they are still skeptical. The study found overwhelming support for the concept, with 89 percent of respondents stating that open access is beneficial to their field. However, this support did not always translate into action, the study noted. While 53 percent of respondents said they had published at least one open-access article, overall only about 10 percent of papers are published in open access journals.

The study found two main reasons as to why researchers do not submit their work to open-access journals. About 40 percent said that a lack of funding for author fees was a deterrent, while 30 percent cited a lack of high-quality open-access journals in their field.

Requiring authors to make sure the results of their work are freely available has reportedly had only partial success. Robert Kiley, head of digital services at the Wellcome Trust’s Wellcome Library in London, said at the symposium that open-access rates had risen from 12 percent to 50 percent since the funder began requiring its grantees to publish in open-access journals or deposit their papers in a freely available repository. However, Kiley acknowledged that Wellcome Trust had not imposed sanctions on researchers who failed to comply.

The study also makes it clear that open-access journals are proliferating, especially among small publishers. It was observed that one-third of open-access papers were published by the more than 1600 open-access publishers that publish only a single journal. The study also identified 14 ‘large publishers’ that publish either more than 50 journals or more than 1000 articles per year. The group accounts for roughly one-third of open-access publications, the study noted.”

Source:  Knowledgespeak Newsletter, 1/17/11

Alternative Energy eTrack — new database at Princeton

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Alternative Energy eTrack    

“Statistical reports on alternative power sources including wind, hydro, solar, geothermal, bio, ocean, transportation biofuels, fuel cells along with energy storage, efficiency, and infrastructure; and carbon. Also includes electricity power prices.”
Emphasis is on business, markets & products, & news.
Source: Database steering committee & Bobray Bordelon
Text from the Library’s Articles & Databases listings.
 
 

2011 — International Year of Chemistry — see ACS Calendar

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“ACS launches online calendar to mark International Year of Chemistry – 04 Jan 2011

The American Chemical Society (ACS) began a global, year-long observance of the International Year of Chemistry 2011 (IYC 2011) by launching an online calendar that serves as a virtual time machine, transporting the public back to some of the epic events and great intellects that shaped modern society through the magic of chemistry.

Called 365: Chemistry for Life, the calendar links almost 250 days of the year to events – triumphal and trivial – in chemistry, health, medicine, energy, the environment and related fields. They range from January 1 – which in 1907 saw the debut of the database that has fostered unprecedented scientific discovery – to December 31 and a scientific law about those New Year’s toasts with champagne. A mouse-click on the days in between revisits Joseph Priestley’s discovery of oxygen; the first successful treatment of diabetes with insulin; George Washington Carver’s discovery of hundreds of new uses for crops like peanuts; Marie Curie’s landmark research on radioactivity and much more.

ACS will hold a contest during the first quarter of 2011 in which visitors to the site can suggest topics for grayed-out dates – or better topics for active dates. The contents of filled-in dates are mere suggestions and not necessarily the final word. Individuals whose topics are accepted for inclusion in the calendar will be eligible for a drawing with prizes that include an iPad, an iPod Touch and an iPod nano.

The 63rd General Assembly of the United Nations proclaimed 2011 as the International Year of Chemistry, envisioning a worldwide celebration of the achievements of chemistry and its contributions to the well-being of humankind. Also being celebrated in 2011 is the centennial of the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Marie Curie for her work on radioactivity, and the 100th anniversary of the founding of the International Association of Chemical Societies.”

Source: Knowledgespeak Newsletter