Editorial – I have worked for a learned society
The EPS hired me during the very cold winter 2012 and I am going to leave my position of communication coordinator by the end of this summer. I already cast a wistful eye on my desk. Amongst other fancy items that are arranged on the wall, my collection of badges best summarises my 38 months at the EPS. In particular, it reminds me of the early time, when I nervously asked myself: What is a learned society? Concretely, what does the EPS do?Badges are souvenirs of the people I have met during the many events that I attended. The EPS allowed me to meet a lot of people: my co-workers -of course-, physicists -of course again-, policymakers, teachers…
Editorial — The Complexities of Inter-societal Cooperation
The planning for the International Year of Light 2015 has brought to the fore the complexities of inter-societal cooperation. Each learned society has a geographically defined membership base. For example, the European Physical Society attracts mainly physicists from Europe. And while the American Physical Society has many international members, the majority of members are based in the USA. Moreover, each learned society defines its membership by scientific discipline, which can be more or less broad. The Optical Society of America…
Editorial — Reliable Research: Getting Science Right
Science is in the news a lot these days. This is not surprising, since there is interest from many quarters: from the public fascinated by contemporary research, to policy makers who wish to decide how best to allocate public funding to achieve particular goals.
A recent cover story of The Economist caught my attention and that of many in the scientific community. With the title of “Unreliable Research: Trouble at the lab”, the article makes the provocative and worrying claim that whilst we…
