News by Subject Policy & Ethics

Scientists have developed a large-scale economical method to extract hydrogen (H2) from oil sands (natural bitumen) and oil fields. This can be used to power hydrogen-powered vehicles, as well as to generate electricity; hydrogen is regarded as an efficient transport fuel, similar to petrol and diesel, but with no pollution problems. The process can extract hydrogen from existing oil sands reservoirs. Interestingly, this process can be applied to mainstream oil fields, causing them to produce hydrogen instead of oil.

New research featured in Nature Biotechnology studies the impact of the funding by the National Institutes of Health in the field of cancer research. Using patents as proxies, it finds evidence for a productivity slowdown around 1995. The study suggests that the results are in line with an incremental, rather than a high-risk high-rewards funding strategy by the federal agencies.

US hospitals wait over a year on average to begin prescribing newly developed antibiotics, a delay that might threaten the supply or discourage future development of needed drugs, according to a University of Wisconsin-Madison study.

A quantitative analysis going back over a period of more than 90 years shows that almost a third of patents in the US rely on federal research funding.

We investigated the history of Japanese black tea, its decline, the manufacturing technology and the components of tea. We found that the main reasons for the revival and spread of Japanese black tea were production and manufacturing innovation. Fermentation is an especially important process because it determines tea quality. Fermentation technology was established by entrepreneurial farmers and transferred to other Japanese black tea farmers, resulting in the rapid market creation of Japanese black tea.

A team of researchers examined post-advisory financial relationships between US physicians who advised FDA committees during dermatological drug approval processes. Critics of these industry-physician relationships claim these types of payments could incentivize advisors to alter their voting habits.

Scientific research usually takes months to be published by academic journals, and once it is, many of the papers can only be read by scientists from wealthy institutes that subscribe to the journals. Over the years, there have been various attempts to make research more widely available, but most papers remain behind paywalls and scientists complain that the peer review process at journals now takes longer than ever.

Collaboration between government and startups could help meet the climate challenge while growing small businesses. Findings could inform discussions on Green New Deal or any 'forward-looking policy package,' say researchers.