LABNOTESWeighed down with a torrent of information? We offer a sideways look at stories that caught the eye of Michael Kenward, our Editor at Large.
Who would have the southeast as a deprived area?
In the UK, there is a constant refrain about “fat cats” in the southeast of the country. The truth is that the bit of England between London and the south coast also has some run down areas, where unemployment is high and investment low. But the myth is so well engrained that policy rarely shines [...] [read more]
Oil the network with a GINNN and tonic
A new social network concentrates on "innovation and business development". [read more]
US urged to get more serious about knowledge imports
Should Europe start to worry when the USA starts to be systematic in plundering the world's scientific talent? [read more]
More Labnotes
Labnotes RSS
JOHN WYLESMost major political and economic issues pass through Brussels which makes it a good place to pick up on some of those that matter to the world of science. John Wyles is a partner in the Brussels consultancy GPlus Europe and a former Financial Times journalist.
Research may have to take the strain
Perversely, researchers may enjoy a richly rising harvest of government grants if the outcome of the intergovernmental climate change negotiations in Bali is an inconsequential as many critics argue. I suspect that the outcome is less of a disaster than claimed by that obsessive Cassandra of the Guardian newspaper, George Monbiot (“so far the Bali [...] [read more]
The lash of necessity
I am beginning to wonder whether many European countries will eventually be forced to drop their resistance both to the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and also to nuclear power for energy production. Objections to GMOs are culturally embedded far and wide in the EU, although a number have been approved under an extremely [...] [read more]
Can Amazon kindle an interest in e-reading?
I have just read an account of the “Kindle” – Amazon’s ebook device just launched in the US. My sense is that it warrants the time-honoured judgment delivered on virtually every invention from the bicycle to the iPod: “it will never catch on.” Not every innovation has a market; think of the Sinclair C5, the [...] [read more]
