Aaron Swartz, open data and online civil disobedience
I never met Aaron Swartz, didn't know him. But that my Facebook timeline is full of the most brilliant activists I know grieving his premature death shows how brilliant he…
The Slow Squeeze on Science Funding
Following a campaign lead by high-profile scientists last year, the government agreed to protect funding for scientific research from the worst of the cuts inflicted by the Comprehensive Spending Review.…
On internet history and regulation
So, we learn that one of the big areas on which the US and the UK are supposed to still have a special relationship is that of 'cyberspace'. Or rather, I learned…
Another step forward in Green Party science policy
The basic aim of our Science and Technology policy is to encourage and promote research, development and application of science and technology which will: Increase knowledge and understanding Help to…
The Closing of the Net
Photo by Wysz via flickr The internet is a giant, sprawling exercise in democratic media. If you've got a connection, you have access to a greater store of human knowledge…
Because Climategate is still a thing?
By Sophie Lewis Anyone who Googles “Climategate” will find 832,000 results, the first of which is a Wikipedia definition of the phenomenon that suggests its accession to a state of…
Pale Blue Dot
To mark today's protest in London here's the late Carl Sagan reminding us how insignificant are our differences, how pointless is war and how important it is that we protect…
Conference Fragments – Science Funding
On Monday the Green Party of England and Wales kick-started next year's review of science policy with an excellent fringe session on "Science Funding in an Age of Austerity" with…
Time to join a union
In light of today's speech by Vince Cable, and several ominous articles in the press and on-line, it seems the UK's science community is beginning to formulate a response. Jennifer…
And they called us anti-science
Today Vince Cable continues his attack on science, and academic research more generally, as he announces we must abandon research which is "neither commercially useful nor theoretically outstanding". Cable will…