Open articles in all categories

If we assume that our universe has an infinite number of stars and that they are evenly distributed, then the aggregate of many stars shine you should not depend on the distance and the night sky would be black, but bright. Like in any direction we look, the sky should appear just as bright as when we look at the Milky Way Galaxy. In addition, because each line of sight would end on the surface of a star, being so many, every point in the sky would be even brighter than the surface of a star. This problem is Olbers's paradox.

In love with Mihai Eminescu's writings, which he believes belong to everybody not only to the Romanians, South African theologian, philosopher and poet James Moulder together with Professor Mariana Nicolae and Ph.D. candidate Ela Nicolae from ASE Bucharest, launched the Romanian-English bilingual volume  -"47 Poems by Mihai Eminescu". The authors say that the book is the end result of a soul project.

GIS1 is a single-chamber system simulating the human gastrointestinal tract. It was developed by Lecturer Dr. Emanuel Vamanu, in order to test in laboratory certain categories of products, without involving human subjects or laboratory animals.

December 1 is the National Day of Romania. It is also the International Day of the Antarctic, known as ANTARCTICA DAY. On this occasion The National Authority for Scientific Research (ANCS) pays homage to the leader of the Romanian modern polar research Teodor Gheorghe Negoiță (1946-2011).

It is true that physicists have turned to the cosmos as the true nuclear physics laboratory, but to hire astrophysics experiment on Earth is something else. Therefore, first, I would like to make a small foray into astrophysics. This to highlight the difference we found so far in using scientific experiment, where we trained, we humans, on this occasion.

The 2010 Athens International Science Film Festival is over now. There were 7 days, and each of them faded out in the beauty of the 7^th art and there was science in 7 sections. What I really liked during the festival was that I've saw people in the cinema hall who were taking notes; they were writing on their hands, on a piece of paper, they were using the cell or PDA's. For example, seven is the last digit of the Graham's number; the octopus learns fast; much of beauty and structure in the natural world is hidden in the laws of physics; or the way of communicating science of robots worth a prize.

Instead of using a speed camera for its normal function - to detect and fine speeders - a speed camera register drivers who keep the legal speed limit and give them the chance to win a cash prize. The project was launched just a few weeks ago in Sweden by The National Society for Road Safety (NTF) and Volkswagen Group Sweden. They hope to encourage drivers to slow down the pace of vehicle traffic in Stockholm. It seems that the project is unique in the world as it aims to improve both the environment and traffic safety. We've tried to find out more about the initiative from representatives involved in the project, Marcus Thomasfolk, Communications Manager, Volkswagen Sweden - initiator of the project - and Jan Sandberg, President of NTF, Sweden.

At present there are over 8000 disciplines of which only some might be studied at academic level, and much more less in the pre-universitary education, especially after coming into effect of the Bologna program in Europe, so also in Romania. For solving various problems posed by contemporary society it is increasingly used inter-and multidisciplinarity. These two methodologies cover just a small part of the problems within society.

Recently, a few Romanian and foreign experts from Europe, Asia and U.S. gathered in Bucharest to launch the first wiki platform for the global community of foresight experts: ForWiki. The international online platform - in English - has been developed by the Romanian foresight specialists, as a result of the project "Quality and Leadership for Romanian Higher Education". The launching event took place at the workshop "Jointly Shaping and Launching the Foresight Wiki".  We have tried to find out more details about the subject from two of the participants: Dr. Philine Warnke (Germany), workshop coordinator, and Dr. Ziauddin Sardar, writer, journalist, editor (Futures, multidisciplinary journal published by Elsevier) and professor at The City University, London, United Kingdom. Tomorrow's science and transdisciplinarity, the attitude toward future, the role of history in the study of the future, and what is to be done for shaping a future closer to our desires - these were the topics discussed. Finally, both discussions have the very same conclusion: the group intelligence is shaping the future.

Although the theory of evolution is widely accepted in science, whether it comes to biology, medicine or psychology, public opinion still holds some prejudices and imprecisions related to this process. These are mainly caused by philosophical and religious views of the world, but sometimes it amounts to an inaccurate teaching of the theory of evolution or reflecting it in the media. On the one hand, the cause may be the ignorance, but on the other hand, there are certain misunderstandings. Some of it will be discussed next.

Within the Solar System, surfaces of the atmosphere less bodies are strongly influenced by factors often associated with the expression "space weathering" (*). Recent scientific evidence has shown that the aging process surface due to space weather has a very strong momentum (of the order of one million years) relative to the age of the solar system (about 4.5 billion years).

"Science and journalism - friend or foe?" gathered at the British Council's genuine friends of knowledge. They represent many fields including media, IT, architecture, education, psychology, theology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, engineering, linguistics and climate. The story of the event continues now with the second part, and this precedes the one dedicated to few of the email questions and aspects addressed by friends of the Science Newspaper.

The celebration of the International Year of Astronomy 2009 involved 148 countries, a number that confirms that the IYA2009 network is the largest ever in science. Activities and events from these participating nations paint a picture of professional and amateur astronomers bringing the Universe down to Earth through countless projects, opening the eyes of the public to the wonders above.

Although we do not have instruments to measure the degree of boredom or the properties of time, one thing is for certain: the science cafe on the relationship between science and journalism lasted two hours. Two times more than the initial planned programme. The topics, the discussions between participants and video dialogues with partners from UK, Greece and Romania seem to have dilated time. In a pleasant way and for all those who were or wished to be present at this event. That's because we have received email requests from young researchers and science communicators from abroad.

University Open Days is one of the news that caught the attention of participants at the 2009 edition of the European Week of Regions and Cities that took place in Brussels, Belgium, between 5-8 October. Open Days 2009's motto was "Global Challenges, European Responses" and attracted thousands of national and regional policymakers, experts and representatives from business, civil society and academia. Discussions focused around four main topics but the pride of place was the perspectives that can offer creativity and innovation. That's because the field of RDI (Research, Development and Innovation) is a matter of high priority for European regions. These were the topics that we addressed in a discussion with Luc Van den Brande, Committee of the Regions' (CoR) President.

Disarming the flu virus has become a key strategy in the battle against the flu. Scientists in Grenoble in France have made a breakthrough in research into how the virus attacks the human body.  Powerful X-ray imaging has enabled them to learn more about its main weapon  - a so called "knife"  used by the virus to access and hijack human proteins  which it needs to reproduce. Deprive the virus of its knife and the battle is won so the theory goes.

Imagine for a moment that you could peer into the future what would you look for? Perhaps in your excitement, you'll want to know how things will turn out tomorrow or even five years from now. As your glance moves from family to friends and business relations, the thrill continues with one delightful discovery after the other until all of a sudden and with a screech, you are stuck in traffic. You think to yourself for a moment:  "why didn't I look out for the traffic". This is the real world, welcome to Lagos.

Cancer. Obesity. Robot. Astronomy and peace. Premier League. Life and comet. These are the keywords for the week that has just passed.

Another week has passed. The Science Newspaper's editor wants to provide the readers with a very short brief from the subjects that were announced during the past week. Just for the benefit of the interested readers. Some of these made the headlines, some not; but that doesn't mean the latters are less important. Now, it's time for presenting the very first RESULTS & LINKS for the week July 20-26, 2009.

The 'New Zealand Virtual School' proposal, led by the 163 student The Catlins Area School, Owaka, has been shortlisted by the Ministry of Education to become one of five new national Trade Academies. The Virtual School would be the first of its type; delivering vocational training to young New Zealanders through online learning.