World View in 2013

Fast-growing economies can learn from the West's mistakes and couple social and 'hard' sciences to address their own societal needs, says Colin Macilwain.

The revelation that US and British spy agencies have undermined a commonly used encryption code should alarm researchers, says Charles Arthur.

A change in European Commission management styles under Horizon 2020 must not end the funding agency's focus on excellence, says Helga Nowotny.

As a flurry of interest in workplace discrimination subsides, efforts to raise awareness and eliminate abuses continue, says Kathleen Raven.

Fans at next year's World Cup in Brazil may be exposed to a nasty and incurable tropical disease, warns Simon Hay.

In the film Gravity, Sandra Bullock plays Everywoman, and reminds Colin Macilwain how inspiring science and discovery still can be.

Global assessments need to adopt more rigorous and focused processes for collation and review, says William J. Sutherland.

Exposure therapy helps some people affected by compulsive washing, but often the contaminant is intangible, says Stanley Rachman.

Science policy must concentrate less on how much money is spent, and more on how to translate investments into public good, says Daniel Sarewitz.

Education in the Arab world must equip students with more than textbook learning as they go forward into an uncertain future, says Rana Dajani.

Public policy is too often derailed by assessments based on faulty data, says Martin Rees, as he calls for the formation of an international data watchdog.

The cost of genome sequencing has fallen drastically, says George Church, so why are so few people opting to have their genetic secrets revealed?

Humanity has wrought an age of ecological transformations. It is time to rethink our irrational dislike of invading species, argues Chris D. Thomas.

Governments should embrace the scientific approach and use controlled trials to test the impact of policies on people’s behaviour, says Olivier Oullier.

Climate change and human activities are pushing the fragile ecosystem ever closer to instability, warns Maharaj K. Pandit.

The effects of federal budget cuts provide an opportunity to revisit the funding structure of the National Institutes of Health, says Frederick Grinnell.

Industry interests should not be allowed to derail a European Union vote on whether to prohibit a destructive fishing technique, says Les Watling.

Cooperation and a clear set of aims are essential for Europe to be a front runner in making research freely available, says Christoph Kratky.

Government reforms to the Russian Academy of Sciences have met with controversy, but some form of change is needed, argues Mikhail Gelfand.

The increasing dominance of quantitative research assessment threatens the subjective values that really matter in academia, says Colin Macilwain.