Challenges of training graduate students in interdisciplinary science

Brian Vastag (Nature) reports on the large increase in interdisciplinary projects and initiatives and highlights the challenges for graduate students. Graduate students are increasingly creating the 'bridges' between disciplines but their efforts may not be fully recognized when it comes to promotion and even-handed interdisciplinary peer review among funding bodies.

Calls for massive investment in computer and research capabilities

A four-day summit was held last week at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts in Reading, UK, the scientists made the case for a climate-prediction project that would increase current computer capacity by 10,000 times. This is required to meet the finer resolution predictions required by policy makers (Reported in Nature, 15th May 2008).

writewith: another great way to help us work more effectively together

From an initial look this free application has a large amount of potential to assist multi-author papers etc.