Opinion in 2002

Europe's huge particle-physics laboratory is now in need of both brilliant science and outstanding management.

Against a background of declining public trust in traditional institutions, scientists must work to retain their high public-confidence ratings. There are warnings and lessons to be learned from the events of 2002.

Proteomics is delivering results that pose new problems in data management and compatibility.

Australia's researchers have been set national goals by their government. The underlying agenda is to ensure that the country's institutions spend scarce funds more wisely and in a way that reflects joined-up thinking.

Researchers need to be more active in explaining the value and necessity of their work.

Last week's announcement by the German government of budget cuts in research are unwelcome but hardly surprising. The leaders of the research community need to focus on long-term restructuring to make the most of declining funds.

Too much of malaria research is piecemeal, and the organizations that are supposed to support it are insufficiently effective. Better focusing could yield more funds.

The failure to provide appropriate career structures for young scientists persists.

A law passed by the US Congress shows unprecedented bipartisan support for basic scientific research at the NSF.

The Federation of American Scientists for Experimental Biology and the Association of American Medical Colleges lead the 'heads-in-the-sand' school on the scientific misconduct issue.

There are lessons to be learned from scientists' responses to the European Commission's latest research programme.

The news that a child in a gene-therapy trial has developed cancer has cast a cloud over the technique. But this has more to do with the field's chequered history than the particular circumstances of this tragic case.

The government of Silvio Berlusconi apparently wants to restructure Italian science, but seems uninterested in consultation.

In the United States, assisted reproduction and embryo research in the private sector have been left largely unregulated, whereas federally funded labs face stringent controls. The distinction makes little sense.

Many Japanese researchers are concerned that they don't compete on a level playing field when it comes to international science. Language and cultural barriers may be partly to blame. But the perception is more forbidding than the reality.

A merger of University College London and Imperial College, the top two research universities in Britain's capital city, may not in itself create a combined institution that is more internationally competitive.

Sending people into space for science is questionable and expensive. But a new proposed location for space telescopes, and the inevitable maintenance missions they will require, could provide a boost for the astronaut programme.

A meeting last week showed that Europe's science ministers should now focus on the bigger picture.

Whether in energy generation or environmental protection, materials research has already made many contributions. But the community has further to go to reduce the impacts of entire cycles of materials use.

The fight against the disease needs not only money but also coherence.