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Hello Nature Index readers, Many summer research internships are being cancelled due to the pandemic, but the online alternatives can be just as good - if not better - for certain students, according to a study we report on this week. It says virtual research programmes are proving their worth as another pathway to research careers for those who might be marginalized in lab or fieldwork settings. Also this week, how a UK funder intends to drive innovation through new opportunities. |
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Women in science are less likely to win prestigious awards, such as the Nobel Prize and Fields Medal, despite gains in professorships, as shown in the graph below. A new study by information scientist Lokman Meho analysed 141 top prizes awarded over the past two decades and found that the gender gap is greatest in disciplines including life sciences, computer science and mathematics. "Although the study did not examine causes of gender bias, [Meho] argues that women are not receiving fewer awards because of the quality or quantity of their research," Nature reports. "Instead, he puts it down to implicit bias, coupled with a lack of proactive efforts to address inequities in science." | ||||||||||||||||||
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What’s not to love about the analysis of "hot streaks" in a researcher’s career? A hot streak is a burst of high-impact work that most people experience at least once, but just when – early, middle or late in a career - is anybody’s guess, the doyen of "hot streaks", Dashun Wang of the Center for Science and Innovation at Northwestern University, Illinois told Nature Index back in 2018. Now, after looking further into the question for artists and film directors as well as scientists, Wang and colleagues conclude in a just-published Nature Communications paper that the onset of a "hot streak" is characterised by a "particular sequence" of diverse exploration and experimentation followed by exploitation - where individuals "go deep", sticking to a narrower topic. The Guardian has a take on it here. |
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You have been sent this email because you have signed up to receive the Nature Index newsletter. You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time. Nature | The Springer Nature Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW, United Kingdom Nature | Shiroyama Trust Tower 5F, 4-3-1 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan Nature Research, part of Springer Nature. © 2020 Springer Nature Limited. All rights reserved. |