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It all started with a tweet from @NatureNews (the news team of Springer Nature): In general, academics welcome Open Access (OA) initiatives; however, this particular tweet has been met with stiff criticism. Unethical profit-seeking, financial gatekeeping, academic elitism, and straining scientific budgets were commonly raised concerns among the many retweets and replies. Unfortunately, these conce ...[Read More]

On August 4, 2020, the coast of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, was rocked by an explosion caused by the blowing up of 2750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate, a chemical used in fertilizers (Figure 1). It resulted in at least 181 casualties, 6,000 injuries and 10-15 billion US dollars in damage [Ref 2]. Footage of the explosion has circulated widely: a large fire near the port’s warehouses and an in ...[Read More]

  I imagine that in a couple of months European countries will give the green light: the restrictions and social-distancing will be relaxed and people will step out of their houses. Blinking into the bright summer sunlight in the Northern Hemisphere, they will lift a hand towards the sun to shield their sensitive eyes unaccustomed, after weeks and months of lockdown, to the natural light.  Pe ...[Read More]