Many of the world's top media outlets, including The New York Times and The Economist, have reported on the issue of reproducibility in scientific research. It's an issue that's being tackled directly by Science Exchange, who have launched the Reproducibility Initiative - a collaboration with PLoS and others to publish validated results.  

There is now an an opportunity to get involved with the Reproducibility Project: Cancer Biology, which is independently replicating key results from 50 cancer biology studies. They're looking for volunteers to help extract the methodology, statistical information, and checklist adherence of the identified key experiments for each of the papers. This process will help us understand how current practices of publishing this information influences the ability to independently replicate experiments. 

This is a great opportunity for graduate students, postdocs, and industry professionals to get involved. Contributors will receive co-authorship on each individual replication report they help with (published in PLoS ONE's reproducibility collection) and the final report.

If you are interested or know other researchers who would be interested in helping with this process please share this information and view this document, which contains the specifics of what is involved. If you want to contribute please contact Tim Errington.

I am delighted to announce that the 3rd RSC Younger Members Symposium (organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry Younger Members Network) will be held at the University of Birmingham on the 24th of June 2014. I have been fortunate enough to have been involved in the organisation of all the YMS to date, and I must confess to be extremely excited about YMS2014.
 
This year’s organising committee is made up of young volunteers from across the UK and employed in a variety of industrial, academic and educational roles. We are working really hard to ensure YMS2014 is the biggest and best so far. We have space for up to 300 delegates and we’re really keen to have a full-house.
 
The RSC and the University of Birmingham have recognised the importance of this career-development event by providing our keynote speakers for the day: Prof. Lesley Yellowlees (President of the Royal Society of Chemistry) and Prof. Alice Roberts (Head of Public Engagement at the University of Birmingham).
 
YMS 2014 aims to facilitate the development of young chemists by providing them with the opportunity to:  

• Present at a national conference
• Interact with emerging talent from academia and industry
• Network specifically with their peers

There will be four parallel sessions held over the course of the day, covering all aspects of chemistry: Education & Outreach, Organic & Biochemistry, Physical & Analytical and Inorganic & Materials. Each session will have two invited speakers representing the cream of young talent from industry and academia. Invited speakers will showcase not only their excellent research, but also their career progression. There will also be several oral presentation opportunities and considerable poster space for each session.
 
We are confident that this symposium will build upon and surpass the achievements of the previous symposia, and bring the next-generation of talent from across the UK and internationally together for a day of science and networking. I would like to invite and encourage early-career chemists from all disciplines and backgrounds to register and submit abstracts for oral and poster presentation. Registration for this event includes complimentary Affliate membership of the RSC (if required).

In addition to the symposia already highlighted, here is a call for young chemists to participate in a joint RSC-Croatian Chemical Society symposium:

Are you a young researcher (postgraduate student, postdoctoral fellow or young academic (appointed since 2009)?

Are you working in the synthesis, biological activity or medicinal chemistry of Macrocycles?

Yes, then this is your chance to present your work at a major international symposium

The Royal Society of Chemistry, Biological and Medicinal Chemistry Sector and the Croatian Chemical Society are holding a joint meeting in Zagreb, Croatia on the 28^th and 29^th April 2014 on the topic of ‘ Macrocycles:   synthesis, medicinal chemistry and biological activity’.  The organising committee are currently looking for up to SIX young researchers to give a short (15 minute) oral presentation on their research at this symposium.  If you wish to be considered for one of these slots, please send a brief abstract (no more than one side of A4) to Andreja Simunic at andreja [dot] simunic [at] glpg [dot] com

For more information on this symposium please go to http://www.fidelta.eu/index.php/conferences/macrocycles/

I feel I have to disagree with the Curious Wavefunction on expanding Nobel prize awards to teams.

The example discussed in the recent award in Physics for the discovery of the Higgs boson. The argument is that many other scientists and engineers were involved in both the theory and practical discovery of the particle, at CERN and elsewhere around the world.

But where do you stop tracing back? Does all of chemistry start with Robert Boyle?

The best scientists, like Prof. Higgs, recognise that science is usually not a single moment of genius, but rather a long hard slog building and drawing upon the works of hundreds of other scientists. I shall refrain from quoting Isaac Newtown.

But what is wrong with giving scientists a prestigious, inspirational goal to strive for? What is wrong with highlighting the substantial contributions of a few who make a larger than expected impact on the history of science?

Teams deserve credit. But if Prof. Higgs hadn’t postulated the existence of the Higgs boson, what would those teams at CERN been working on in the first place?

Let’s kick off the New Year with a bit on controversy, shall we?

This article on the BBC details the outrageous response by certain elements of the animal rights movement to a Facebook message from a seriously ill Italian woman, Caterina Simonsen . This woman’s horrific crime was to be thankful for her life and acknowledge that it was due in part to research conducted on animals.

Despite this woman merely taking advantage of the benefits that science brings, perhaps without even knowing at the time how such breakthroughs come about, some comments on her post suggested the world would be better off if she were dead.

I wonder just how many of these “brave” defenders of the animal kingdom have never taken a medicine or used a cosmetic in their lives? How many would deny their parents and children life-saving medicine if it were offered? Only a person willing to accept the real consequences of their beliefs is worthy of any respect, and I have yet to meet a single person who fulfils either of the above two criteria.

I am a medicinal chemist. The discovery of new drugs requires animal testing. I am not brave or foolish enough to offer my body or anyone else’s to test drugs without prior testing on a variety of animal species. The risk of disaster is just too high and I’m in the business of helping people, not hurting them.

If an alternative to animal testing arises, I will gladly take it. Until then, I will continue to work within the established regulations to save people’s lives, a single one of which I feel is more important than countless animals. People like Caterina Simonsen and Donal Walsh are the reason I do what I do. I will not apologise for this and certainly they should not have to apologise for trying to live.

If you disagree, don’t come at me or innocent patients with taunts from the internet. Instead, should the time come, deny yourself or someone you love medicine. Face the consequences of such an act and I hope your principles comfort you.