Nations breach methodology of science tests
The TIMSS exercise tests students at the end of secondary school education in four subjects: general science, physics, mathematics, and advanced mathematics. But according to Rotberg, only 6 of the 16...
Students sign up for physics with finance
Financial institutions already employ physicists because they are uniquely familiar with the mathematical and conceptual thinking needed to understand financial risk in, for example, currencies and pr...
Industry funds ‘son’ of Internet
Three companies are investing in the project. Qwest Communications, one of the world’s fastest growing telecommunications companies, is donating 16000 miles of fibre optic cabling to the project...
PhDs improve US job prospects
The report also found that the PhD unemployment rate varies with the age at which people received their PhD. The rate varies from 0.6 per cent for those receiving PhDs before the age of 26, to 5.8 per...
Students face hard choices
The University and College Admissions Service says that applications for undergraduate physics courses have fallen by just 1.2%, compared with a drop of 4.2% in all subjects. It has received 17 377 ap...
UK budget stresses R&D
The government is to contribute £20 million to a University Challenge Fund to help universities to exploit academic research. The Welcome Trust and the Gatsby Trust have contributed a further ...
Science fiction to the rescue of teaching?
At the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) meeting in Philadelphia today, Leroy Dubeck from Temple University presented a lecture on teaching science with the help of sci...
Budget falls in Denmark
Danish research grants and funds for postdoc training in the natural sciences will be halved next year
Students suffer with old equipment
Mercury manometers, out-of-date computers and pressure gauges calibrated in pounds per square inch. These are some of the pieces of obsolete equipment that UK students are using in undergraduate labor...
Australian physicists fight cuts in university budgets
Like their colleagues in many other countries, Australian physicists are in the midst of a funding crisis. Peter Pockley reports on their attempts to fight back
