Great article from yesterday’s Sunday Times about the Science behind Ronaldo’s 40 yard screamer on Wednesday vs Porto. We’ll do a few more Sports-related articles over the next few days, starting with the Science behind Tim Wakefield’s timeless knuckleball-pitch in baseball.

-Brian

We here at ScienceBlog love the Science Gallery. For a number of reasons. Anything that popularises science and encourages people to discover more is a great thing. It is a quite unique proposition worldwide, an interesting concept which is simply somebody thinking outside the box. And it works.

In the hopes of fending of the current economic down turn, President Barack Obama signed in to law on February 17th the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), more commonly referred to as the “Stimulus Package”. Along with tax relief and investments in infrastructure, healthcare, and education, the law includes funding for scientific research. Within the $787 billion dollar package is $111B designated for infrastructure and science.

Dublin is to be the European City of Science in 2012, a morsel of recognition at least we cheer!!! It is a great accolade to receive considering the level of competition for the title…

In probably one of the worst financial crises in the history of the capitalist world, the question that is pondered is if the depression-inducing-recession is affecting the scientific industries here in Ireland. Well if the job stats are anything to go by then the answer is YES. Here at LifeScience we have noticed that the number of scientists (including senior scientists / management scientists) out of work and joining the dole queues is quite high. The market is teeming with wasted talent, idle phalanges and suppressed neurons. But that is a minor problem compared to the number of science graduates having to join the queues outside the dole office - over 1,000 PhD students graduated in 2008…