It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Wednesday, April 03, 2024
SPACE
SLAC completes construction of the largest digital camera ever built for astronomy
Once set in place atop a telescope in Chile, the 3,200-megapixel LSST Camera will help researchers better understand dark matter, dark energy and other mysteries of our universe
DOE/SLAC NATIONAL ACCELERATOR LABORATORY
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RESEARCHERS EXAMINE THE LSST CAMERA. THE CAMERA WILL SOON BE SHIPPED TO CHILE, WHERE IT WILL BE THE HEART OF THE VERA C. RUBIN OBSERVATORY (RIGHT).
CREDIT: GREG STEWART/SLAC NATIONAL ACCELERATOR LABORATORY
Menlo Park, Calif. — After two decades of work, scientists and engineers at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and their collaborators are celebrating the completion of the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) Camera.
As the heart of the DOE- and National Science Foundation-funded Vera C. Rubin Observatory, the 3,200-megapixel camera will help researchers observe our universe in unprecedented detail. Over ten years, it will generate an enormous trove of data on the southern night sky that researchers will mine for new insights into the universe. That data will aid in the quest to understand dark energy, which is driving the accelerating expansion of the universe, and the hunt for dark matter, the mysterious substance that makes up around 85% of the matter in the universe. Researchers also have plans to use Rubin data to better understand the changing night sky, the Milky Way galaxy, and our own solar system.
“With the completion of the unique LSST Camera at SLAC and its imminent integration with the rest of Rubin Observatory systems in Chile, we will soon start producing the greatest movie of all time and the most informative map of the night sky ever assembled,” said Director of Rubin Observatory Construction and University of Washington professor Željko Ivezić.
To achieve that goal, the SLAC team and its partners built the largest digital camera ever constructed for astronomy. The camera is roughly the size of a small car and weighs around 3,000 kilograms (3 metric tons), and its front lens is over five feet across – the largest lens ever made for this purpose. Another three-foot-wide lens had to be specially designed to maintain shape and optical clarity while also sealing the vacuum chamber that houses the camera's enormous focal plane. That focal plane is made up of 201 individual custom-designed CCD sensors, and it is so flat that it varies by no more than a tenth the width of a human hair. The pixels themselves are only 10 microns wide.
Still, the camera's most important feature is its resolution, which is so high it would take hundreds of ultra-high-definition TVs to display just one of its images at full size, said SLAC professor and Rubin Observatory Deputy Director and Camera Program Lead Aaron Roodman. “Its images are so detailed that it could resolve a golf ball from around 15 miles away, while covering a swath of the sky seven times wider than the full moon. These images with billions of stars and galaxies will help unlock the secrets of the universe.”
And those secrets are increasingly important to reveal, said Kathy Turner, program manager for the DOE's Cosmic Frontier Program. "More than ever before, expanding our understanding of fundamental physics requires looking farther out into the universe," Turner said. "With the LSST Camera at its core, Rubin Observatory will delve deeper than ever before into the cosmos and help answer some of the hardest, most important questions in physics today."
Now that the LSST Camera is complete and has been thoroughly tested at SLAC, it will be packed up and shipped to Chile and driven up 8,900-foot-high Cerro Pachón in the Andes, where it will be hoisted atop the Simonyi Survey Telescope later this year.
Once it's up and running, the camera's essential purpose is to map the positions and measure the brightness of a vast number of night-sky objects. From that catalog, researchers can infer a wealth of information. Perhaps most notably, the LSST Camera will look for signs of weak gravitational lensing, in which massive galaxies subtly bend the paths light from background galaxies take to reach us. Weak lensing reveals something about the distribution of mass in the universe and how that's changed over time, which will help cosmologists understand how dark energy is driving the expansion of the universe.
The observatory is the first built for studying weak lensing on this scale, and the project led scientists and engineers to develop a number of new technologies, including new kinds of CCD sensors and some of the largest lenses ever made – and make sure all of those components worked well together, said Martin Nordby, a senior staff engineer at SLAC and the LSST camera project manager.
Scientists also want to study patterns in the distribution of galaxies and how those have changed over time, identifying clusters of dark matter and spotting supernovae, all of which can help further understanding of dark matter and dark energy alike.
Risa Wechsler, a cosmologist who directs the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at SLAC and Stanford University, said it was an extraordinary moment. "There are so many scientists here at SLAC and around the world who will find something valuable in the data this camera will produce," Wechsler said. "This is an exciting time to be studying cosmology."
What else do you do with a camera that big?
The same images that reveal details of distant galaxies will help researchers study something closer to home: our own Milky Way galaxy. Many of its stars are small and faint, but with the LSST Camera's sensitivity, researchers expect to produce a far more detailed map of our galaxy, yielding insights into its structure and evolution as well as the nature of stars and other objects within it.
Even closer to home, researchers are hoping to create a far more thorough census of the many small objects in our solar system. According to Rubin Observatory estimates, the project may increase the number of known objects by a factor of 10, which could lead to a new understanding of how our solar system formed and perhaps help identify threats from asteroids that get a little too close to the planet.
Finally, Rubin scientists will look at how the night sky is changing – for example, how stars die or how matter falls into supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies.
A team effort
SLAC Director John Sarrao said the camera is a "tremendous accomplishment" for the lab and its partners. "The LSST Camera and Rubin Observatory will open new windows into our universe, yielding deep insights into some of its greatest mysteries while also revealing wonders closer to home,” Sarrao said. “It’s exciting to see SLAC’s scientific and technical expertise, project leadership and strong global partnerships come together in such an impactful way. We can’t wait to see what’s next.”
Among the partner labs that contributed expertise and technology are Brookhaven National Laboratory, which built the camera's digital sensor array; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which with its industrial partners designed and built lenses for the camera; and the National Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics at the National Center for Scientific Research (IN2P3/CNRS) in France, which contributed to sensor and electronics design and built the camera's filter exchange system, which will allow the camera to home in on six separate bands of light from the ultraviolet to infrared.
Paul O'Connor, a senior physicist in Brookhaven's Instrumentation Division, said, "The team at Brookhaven Lab, some of whom have been working on the project for more than 20 years, is excited to see the completion of the LSST Camera. Our fast, ultra-sensitive CCD modules, which we developed with multiple collaborators, will contribute to the breakthrough science delivered by the Rubin Observatory over the next decade, and we look forward to collaborating on this flagship astronomical survey.”
A key feature of the camera’s optical assemblies are its three lenses, one of which at 1.57 meters (5.1 feet) in diameter is believed to be the world’s largest high-performance optical lens ever fabricated. “The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is extremely proud to have had the opportunity to design and oversee the fabrication of the large lenses and optical filters for the LSST Camera, including the largest lens in the world,” said Vincent Riot, a LLNL engineer and the former LSST Camera project manager. “LLNL was able to leverage its expertise in large optics, built over decades of developing the world’s largest laser systems, and is excited to see this unprecedented instrument completed and ready to make its journey to the Rubin Observatory.”
IN2P3/CNRS camera scientist Pierre Antilogus said, "To make a 3D movie of the universe, the camera had to take an image in about 2 seconds and change filters in less than 90 seconds. This is quite a feat for a camera of this size. And if the size of the LSST Camera's focal plane is unique, the density of the technology inside is even more impressive. By being in charge of the filter exchange system and contributing to the focal plane, our team is delighted to have taken part in this collective adventure to develop such a powerful camera."
Building the camera has also been a rewarding challenge for the SLAC team that built it and led the project, said Travis Lange, the camera's deputy project manager and camera integration manager. "I'm very proud of what we've built," he said. "This has been such a unique project that has exposed me to incredible experiences – who could have imagined that the Secretary of State and Speaker of the House would hold a press conference in front of the camera clean room? That will be a tough act to follow."
After two decades of work, scientists and engineers at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and their collaborators have completed the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) Camera. As the heart of the DOE- and National Science Foundation-funded Vera C. Rubin Observatory, the camera will generate an enormous trove of data on the southern night sky that researchers will mine for new insights about dark energy and dark matter, as well as the changing night sky, the Milky Way galaxy, and our own solar system.
SLAC is a vibrant multiprogram laboratory that explores how the universe works at the biggest, smallest and fastest scales and invents powerful tools used by scientists around the globe. With research spanning particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology, materials, chemistry, bio- and energy sciences and scientific computing, we help solve real-world problems and advance the interests of the nation.
Vera C. Rubin Observatory is a federal project jointly funded by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy Office of Science, with early construction funding received from private donations through the LSST Discovery Alliance. The NSF-funded LSST (now Rubin Observatory) Project Office for construction was established as an operating center under the management of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA). The DOE-funded effort to build the Rubin Observatory LSST Camera (LSSTCam) is managed by SLAC.
SLAC is operated by Stanford University for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.
A front view of the completed LSST Camera, showing the 3,200-megapixel focal plane within.
CREDIT
Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Built at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, the LSST Camera is the largest digital camera ever built for astronomy. The camera is at the heart of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's 10-year-long Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), which will capture the entire southern sky every 3 nights. Data from the camera will help address some of the most pressing questions in cosmology, such as the nature of dark energy and dark matter, as well as advancing the study of our solar system and the changing night sky.
Rubin Observatory and LSST Camera
The camera will sit atop Rubin Observatory’s Simonyi Survey Telescope high in the Andes of Chile.
An artist's rendering of the LSST Camera showing its major components including lenses, sensor array, and utility trunk.
CREDIT
Chris Smith/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Three-year study of young stars with NASA’s Hubble enters new chapter
NASA/GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER
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THE ULLYSES PROGRAM STUDIED TWO TYPES OF YOUNG STARS: SUPER-HOT, MASSIVE, BLUE STARS AND COOLER, REDDER, LESS MASSIVE STARS THAN OUR SUN.
THE TOP PANEL IS A HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE IMAGE OF A STAR-FORMING REGION CONTAINING MASSIVE, YOUNG, BLUE STARS IN 30 DORADUS, THE TARANTULA NEBULA. LOCATED WITHIN THE LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUD, THIS IS ONE OF THE REGIONS OBSERVED BY ULLYSES.
THE BOTTOM PANEL SHOWS AN ARTIST'S CONCEPT OF A COOLER, REDDER, YOUNG STAR THAT'S LESS MASSIVE THAN OUR SUN. THIS TYPE OF STAR IS STILL GATHERING MATERIAL FROM ITS SURROUNDING, PLANET-FORMING DISK.
CREDIT: NASA, ESA, STSCI, FRANCESCO PARESCE (INAF-IASF BOLOGNA), ROBERT O'CONNELL (UVA), SOC-WFC3, ESO
In the largest and one of the most ambitious Hubble Space Telescope programs ever executed, a team of scientists and engineers collected information on almost 500 stars over a three-year period. This effort offers new insights into the stars' formation, evolution, and impact on their surroundings.
This comprehensive survey, called ULLYSES (Ultraviolet Legacy Library of Young Stars as Essential Standards), was completed in December 2023, and provides a rich spectroscopic dataset obtained in ultraviolet light that astronomers will be mining for decades to come. Because ultraviolet light can only be observed from space, Hubble is the only active telescope that can accomplish this research.
"I believe the ULLYSES project will be transformative, impacting overall astrophysics – from exoplanets, to the effects of massive stars on galaxy evolution, to understanding the earliest stages of the evolving universe," said Julia Roman-Duval, Implementation Team Lead for ULLYSES at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland. "Aside from the specific goals of the program, the stellar data can also be used in fields of astrophysics in ways we can’t yet imagine."
The ULLYSES team studied 220 stars, then combined those observations with information from the Hubble archive on 275 additional stars. The program also included data from some of the world's largest, most powerful ground-based telescopes and X-ray space telescopes. The ULLYSES dataset is made up of stellar spectra, which carry information about each star's temperature, chemical composition, and rotation.
One type of stars studied under ULLYSES is super-hot, massive, blue stars. They are a million times brighter than the Sun and glow fiercely in ultraviolet light that can easily be detected by Hubble. Their spectra include key diagnostics of the speed of their powerful winds. The winds drive galaxy evolution and seed galaxies with the elements needed for life. Those elements are cooked up inside the stars' nuclear fusion ovens and then injected into space as a star dies. ULLYSES targeted blue stars in nearby galaxies that are deficient in elements heavier than helium and hydrogen. This type of galaxy was common in the very early universe. "ULLYSES observations are a stepping stone to understanding those first stars and their winds in the universe, and how they impact the evolution of their young host galaxy," said Roman-Duval.
The other star category in the ULLYSES program is young stars less massive than our Sun. Though cooler and redder than our Sun, in their formative years they unleash a torrent of high-energy radiation, including blasts of ultraviolet light and X-rays. Because they are still growing, they are gathering material from their surrounding planet-forming disks of dust and gas. The Hubble spectra include key diagnostics of the process by which they acquire their mass, including how much energy this process releases into the surrounding planet-forming disk and nearby environment. The blistering ultraviolet light from young stars affects the evolution of these disks as they form planets, as well as the chances of habitability for newborn planets. The target stars are located in nearby star-forming regions in our Milky Way galaxy.
The ULLYSES concept was designed by a committee of experts with the goal of using Hubble to provide a legacy set of stellar observations. "ULLYSES was originally conceived as an observing program utilizing Hubble's sensitive spectrographs. However, the program was tremendously enhanced by community-led coordinated and ancillary observations with other ground- and space-based observatories," said Roman-Duval. "Such broad coverage allows astronomers to investigate the lives of stars in unprecedented detail and paint a more comprehensive picture of the properties of these stars and how they impact their environment."
To that end, STScI hosted a ULLYSES workshop March 11–14 to celebrate the beginning of a new era of research on young stars. The goal was to allow members of the astronomical community to collaborate on the data, so that they could gain momentum in the ongoing analyses, or kickstart new ideas for analysis. The workshop was one important step in exploiting this legacy spectral library to its fullest potential, fulfilling the promise of ULLYSES.
The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, Colorado, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Observational study
First results from BREAD experiment demonstrate a new approach to searching for dark matter
UChicago, Fermilab research uses coaxial “dish” antenna to scan for mysterious particles
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
One of the great mysteries of modern science is dark matter. We know dark matter exists thanks to its effects on other objects in the cosmos, but we have never been able to directly see it. And it’s no minor thing—currently, scientists think it makes up about 85% of all the mass in the universe.
A new experiment by a collaboration led by the University of Chicago and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, known as the Broadband Reflector Experiment for Axion Detection or BREAD, has released its first results in the search for dark matter in a study published in Physical Review Letters. Though they did not find dark matter, they narrowed the constraints for where it might be and demonstrated a unique approach that may speed up the search for the mysterious substance, at relatively little space and cost.
“We’re very excited about what we’ve been able to do so far,” said UChicago Assoc. Prof. David Miller, co-leader for the experiment alongside Fermilab’s Andrew Sonnenschein, who originally developed the concept for the experiment. “There are lots of practical advantages to this design, and we’ve already shown the best sensitivity to date in this 11-12 gigahertz frequency.”
“This result is a milestone for our concept, demonstrating for the first time the power of our approach,” said Fermilab postdoctoral scholar and study lead author Stefan Knirck, who spearheaded the construction and operation of the detector. “It is great to do this kind of creative tabletop-scale science, where a small team can do everything from building the experiment to data analysis, but still have a great impact on modern particle physics.”
‘Something is there’
When we look around the universe, we can see that some kind of substance is exerting enough gravity to pull on stars and galaxies and passing light, but no telescope or device has ever directly picked up the source—hence the name ‘dark matter.’
However, because no one has ever seen dark matter, we don’t even know exactly what it might look like or even precisely where to look for it. “We’re very confident that something is there, but there are many, many forms it could take,” said Miller.
Scientists have mapped out several of the most likely options for places and forms to look. Typically, the approach has been to build detectors to very thoroughly search one specific area (in this case, set of frequencies) in order to rule it out.
But a team of scientists explored a different approach. Their design is “broadband,” meaning that it can search a larger set of possibilities, albeit with slightly less precision.
“If you think about it like a radio, the search for dark matter is like tuning the dial to search for one particular radio station, except there are a million frequencies to check through,” said Miller. “Our method is like doing a scan of 100,000 radio stations, rather than a few very thoroughly.”
A proof of concept
The BREAD detector searches for a specific subset of possibilities. It’s built to look for dark matter in the form of what are known as “axions” or “dark photons”— particles with extremely small masses that could be converted into a visible photon under the right circumstances.
Fermilab's Stefan Knirck with components of the BREAD detector.
Thus, BREAD consists of a metal tube containing a curved surface that catches and funnels potential photons to a sensor at one end. The entire thing is small enough to fit your arms around, which is unusual for these types of experiments.
In the full-scale version, BREAD will be settled inside a magnet to generate a strong magnetic field, which ups the chances of converting dark matter particles into photons.
For the proof of principle, however, the team ran the experiment sans magnets. The collaboration ran the prototype device at UChicago for about a month and analyzed the data.
The results are very promising, showing very high sensitivity in the chosen frequency, the scientists said.
Since the results published in Physical Review Letters were accepted, BREAD has been moved inside a repurposed MRI magnet at Argonne National Laboratory and is taking more data. Its eventual home, at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, will use an even stronger magnet.
“This is just the first step in a series of exciting experiments we are planning,” said Sonnenschein. “We have many ideas for improving the sensitivity of our axion search.”
“There are still so many open questions in science, and an enormous space for creative new ideas for tackling those questions,” said Miller. “I think this is a really hallmark example of those kind of creative ideas—in this case, impactful, collaborative partnerships between smaller-scale science at universities and larger-scale science at national laboratories.”
The BREAD instrument was built at Fermilab as part of the laboratory’s detector R&D program and then operated at UChicago, where the data for this study were collected. UChicago Ph.D graduate student Gabe Hoshino led the operation of the detector, along with undergraduate students Alex Lapuente and Mira Littmann.
Argonne National Laboratory maintains an important magnet facility that will be used for the next stage of the BREAD physics program. Other institutions, including SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Illinois Institute of Technology, MIT, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the University of Washington, Caltech, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, are working with UChicago and Fermilab on R&D for future versions of the experiment.
Funding: U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, University of Chicago Joint Task Force Initiative, Cambridge Junior Research Fellowship, Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology Porat Fellowship.
First Results from a Broadband Search for Dark Photon Dark Matter in the 44 to 52 μ eV Range with a Coaxial Dish Antenna
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
28-Mar-2024
Galaxies get more chaotic as they age
An international team led by Australian research centre ASTRO 3D reports that age is the driving force in changing how stars move within galaxies
ARC CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE FOR ALL SKY ASTROPHYSICS IN 3D (ASTRO 3D)
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A COMPARISON OF A YOUNG (TOP) AND OLD (BOTTOM) GALAXY OBSERVED AS PART OF THE SAMI GALAXY SURVEY. PANELS ON THE LEFT ARE REGULAR OPTICAL IMAGES FROM THE SUBARU TELESCOPE. IN THE MIDDLE ARE ROTATIONAL VELOCITY MAPS (BLUE COMING TOWARDS US, RED GOING AWAY FROM US) FROM SAMI. ON THE RIGHT ARE MAPS MEASURING RANDOM VELOCITIES (REDDER COLOURS FOR GREATER RANDOM VELOCITY). BOTH GALAXIES HAVE THE SAME TOTAL MASS. THE TOP GALAXY HAS AN AVERAGE AGE OF 2 BILLION YEARS, HIGH ROTATION AND LOW RANDOM MOTION. THE BOTTOM GALAXY HAS AN AVERAGE AGE OF 12.5 BILLION YEARS, SLOWER ROTATION AND MUCH LARGER RANDOM MOTION.
CREDIT: SUBARU CREDIT: IMAGE FROM THE HYPER SUPRIME-CAM SUBARU STRATEGIC PROGRAM
Galaxies start life with their stars rotating in an orderly pattern but in some the motion of stars in more random. Until now, scientists have been uncertain about what causes this – possibly the surrounding environment or the mass of the galaxy itself.
A new study, published in a paper today in MNRAS (Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society), has found that the most important factor is neither of these things. It shows the tendency of the stars to have random motion is driven mostly by the age of the galaxy – things just get messy over time.
“When we did the analysis, we found that age, consistently, whichever way we slice or dice it, is always the most important parameter,” says first author Prof Scott Croom, an ASTRO 3D researcher at the University of Sydney.
“Once you account for age, there is essentially no environmental trend, and it’s similar for mass.
“If you find a young galaxy it will be rotating, whatever environment it is in, and if you find an old galaxy, it will have more random orbits, whether it’s in a dense environment or a void.”
The research team also included scientists from Macquarie University, Swinburne University of Technology, the University of Western Australia, the Australian National University, the University of New South Wales, the University of Cambridge, the University of Queensland, and Yonsei University in the Republic of Korea.
The study updates our understanding from previous studies that have variously suggested environment or mass as more important factors. But the earlier work is not necessarily incorrect, says second author Dr Jesse van de Sande.
Young galaxies are star-forming super-factories, while in older ones, star formation ceases.
“We do know that age is affected by environment. If a galaxy falls into a dense environment, it will tend to shut down the star formation. So galaxies in denser environments are, on average, older,” Dr van de Sande says.
“The point of our analysis is that it’s not living in dense environments that reduces their spin, it’s the fact that they’re older.”
Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, still has a thin star forming disk, so is still considered a high spin rotational galaxy.
“But when we look at the Milky Way in detail, we do see something called the Milky Way thick disk. It’s not dominant, in terms of light, but it is there and those look to be older stars, which may well have been heated from the thin disk at earlier times, or born with more turbulent motion in the early Universe,” Prof Croom says.
The research used data from observations made under the SAMI Galaxy Survey. The SAMI instrument was built in 2012 by the University of Sydney and the Anglo-Australian Observatory (now Astralis). SAMI uses the Anglo-Australian Telescope, at Siding Spring Observatory, near Coonabarabran, New South Wales. It has surveyed 3000 galaxies across a large range of environments.
The study allows astronomers to rule out many processes when trying to understand galaxy formation and so fine-tune models of how the Universe has developed.
The next steps will be to develop simulations of galaxy evolution with more granular detail.
“One of the challenges of getting simulations right is the high resolution you need in to predict what's going on. Typical current simulations are based on particles which have the mass of maybe 100,000 stars and you can't resolve small-scale structures in galaxy disks,” Prof. Croom says.
The Hector Galaxy Survey will help Prof Croom and his team expand this work using a new instrument on the Anglo-Australian Telescope.
“Hector is observing 15,000 galaxies but with higher spectral resolution, allowing the age and spin of galaxies to be measured even in much lower mass galaxies and with more detailed environmental information,” says Professor Julia Bryant, lead of the Hector Galaxy Survey, University of Sydney.
Professor Emma Ryan-Weber, Director of ASTRO 3D, says, “These findings answer one of the key questions posed by ASTRO 3D: how does mass and angular momentum evolve in the Universe? This careful work by the SAMI team reveals that the age of a galaxy determines how the stars orbit. This critical piece of information contributes to a clearer big-picture view of the Universe.”
ABOUT ASTRO 3D
The ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) is a $40m Research Centre of Excellence funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) and nine collaborating Australian universities – The Australian National University, The University of Sydney, The University of Melbourne, Swinburne University of Technology, The University of Western Australia, Curtin University, Macquarie University, The University of New South Wales, and Monash University.
ABOUT the SAMI Galaxy Survey
The SAMI Galaxy Survey began in March 2013, with the intention of creating a large survey of 3000 galaxies across a large range of environment. The data for the SAMI Galaxy Survey was collected using SAMI, the Sydney-Australian-Astronomical-Observatory Multi-object Integral-Field Spectrograph. SAMI is an instrument on the 4-meter Anglo-Australian Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory. Integral-field spectroscopy (IFS) allows a unique view of how stars and gas zoom around inside distant galaxies because we collect dozens of spectra across the entire face of each galaxy.
The SAMI Galaxy Survey: galaxy spin is more strongly correlated with stellar population age than mass or environment
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
3-Apr-2024
The 2024 Career Optimism Index® study highlights shift from the great resignation to a great talent stagnation – and how employers can break through
The study was conducted by the University of Phoenix Career Institute®, part of the University’s College of Doctoral Studies, which examines workforce dynamics to inform solutions that help break down barriers to career advancement
UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX
IMAGE:
STATIC IMAGE OF CAREER OPTIMISM INDEX® STUDY FINDING HIGHLIGHTS
Today the University of Phoenix Career Institute® released its 2024 Career Optimism Index®, a comprehensive study examining the state of American workers' career trajectories and sentiments about the future of their job and career opportunities. This year's Index, the fourth consecutive year it has been fielded, reveals that workers and employers are facing a critical moment of talent stagnation in the workplace.
More than half (53%) of Americans report feeling easily replaceable in their job position and 64% of workers say their company does not offer opportunities for internal mobility. Meanwhile, 44% of employers say their top challenge to finding talent in the past year is a lack of well-qualified applicants. These findings indicate that employers are not looking internally and, thus, overlooking the potential to upskill and elevate their existing workforce to solve business needs, hindering talent progression for both workers and organizations.
What The Workforce is Saying
The last year of layoffs, strikes, and economic uncertainty has caused tension for workers: 42% reportedly worry about losing their job due to a bad economy and 38% of workers agree that their salary or wage has not increased at the same rate as inflation. Additionally, Americans have a negative outlook on their financial security, with 42% saying they can afford less now than they could two years ago.
More than half (53%) of Americans say they are easily replaceable - a third of workers don’t feel recognized by their company’s leadership for their contributions (30%) and 27% do not feel empowered in their current job.
Thereis a wide disconnect between employer perceptions and worker realities on opportunities for advancement: While 62% of employers say their company currently offers opportunities for internal mobility, only 36% of workers agree. Additionally, 90% of employers say their company provides workers with opportunities for career development, but only 69% of workers agree this is their experience.
However, workers do see a need to continue acquiring skills and they highly value employer investment in skilling: 74% say they must continuing learning new skills to stay ahead in their career and most say if their company did more to upskill (66%) or reskill (65%) them, and gave more opportunities to apply new skills (69%), they would be more likely to stay throughout their career.
Yet, with a lack of career support, workers are feeling stagnant: Workers are more than twice as likely to feel like they do not have the ability to advance in their career at their current job when their company does not currently provide a mentorship program (49% vs. 18%), skills development opportunities (55% vs. 23%), internal mobility (55% vs. 19%), or career path guidelines (53% vs. 19%).
Despite stagnation, workers continue to feel optimistic about their abilities—a belief in themselves to propel the future of their careers— which is an opportunity for employers to capitalize on that optimism: 78% of Americans are hopeful about the future of their career and 72% feel in control of their professional future.
What Employers are Saying
Employers today are making fewer hires, so when they are recruiting, they are seeking the perfect match for the skills they require. However, they are struggling to find the right fit externally:
62% say their company has experienced slowed or declining hiring over the past year through hiring freezes, layoffs, restructuring, etc. Only 19% say their company expects to hire 51+ people over the next year (vs. 25% in 2023).
51% of employers report that in the past year, it took one month or more to fill an empty position at their company.
Employers report the top challenge to finding talent in the past year was a lack of well-qualified external applicants (44%).
“As U.S. companies cut jobs and reduce expenses, they are fixating on the next best thing available to them outside of their organization to drive growth. This perspective is perpetuating a stagnant talent environment,” said John Woods, Provost and Chief Academic Officer, University of Phoenix. “Our Career Optimism Index® illustrates that business leaders are overlooking the immense potential of the workforce within their own organizations, who remain resilient and optimistic despite the macro environment. These workers possess a significant desire to advance and acquire the skillsets employers are seeking to fortify their businesses for the future.”
What Employers Can Do
By providing clearer and more flexible opportunities for their existing workforce to advance internally, employers have the opportunity develop the dynamic talent they need from within, serving business objectives and workers’ career ambitions.
Close Gaps in Awareness Around Internal Growth Opportunities: While there is a vast disconnect between employer perceptions and worker realities regarding opportunities for advancement, workers who do have awareness of career support options report high levels of satisfaction with them.
This is reflected across opportunities for internal mobility (82%), conversations with their manager/boss about their career path (86%), visibility with upper management/leadership (88%), networking opportunities (86%), and help/mentoring in their careers (87%).
Create a More Personalized Workplace Experience: Workers benefit from enhanced job performance and career advancement when their workplace experience is highly tailored to the ways they want to work and learn.
51% of Americans need support in setting career goals.
40% of Americans would prefer the flexibility of learning on their own without a course (e.g., reading a book about skills, personal projects, videos/tutorials on YouTube) when it comes to getting the skills they need for their career.
Workers who do have the flexibility to choose what they work on at their job are more satisfied at their current job than those who don’t (86% vs. 66%).
78% of workers feel they are more productive at their job when they have more flexibility.
The Value of Optimism
What’s more, the addition of statistical modeling to this year’s report reveals that if employers don’t adjust to solve talent stagnation, they’ll miss out on significant business savings: up to $1.35T across businesses and organizations in the U.S.
By investing in low-cost, high-impact tools and resources for employees to achieve their career goals including career pathing, skilling, and mentorship, employers can save up to $6,521 through increased productivity, $916 through decreased turnover, and $616 through decreased healthcare costs per employee per year.
Workers can similarly add up to $5,270 to their annual salary by investing in their own career pathing, skilling, and mentorship.
Housed within the University's College of Doctoral Studies, the University of Phoenix Career Institute® conducts research to inform problem-solving, and partners with leading organizations such as Jobs for the Future (JFF) to break down systemic barriers that Americans face in their careers. The Institute has committed to fielding the Career Optimism Index® study every year, sharing the results broadly to help inform societal solutions to career advancement and workplace equity, including a recent partnership with Motherly to study the unique career support required to uplift lower-income working mothers and ongoing work with Give An Hour to breakdown workplace mental health challenges through the creation of a workplace mental health toolkit.
For more information about the University of Phoenix Career Institute® and the complete Career Optimism Index® Study, visit www.phoenix.edu/career-institute.
ABOUT THE CAREER OPTIMISM INDEX® The Career Optimism Index® study is one of the most comprehensive studies of Americans' personal career perceptions to date. The University of Phoenix Career Institute will conduct this research annually to provide insights on current workforce trends and to help identify solutions to support and advance American careers and create equity in the workplace.
For the fourth annual study, fielded between December 5, 2023-January 2, 2024, surveyed more than 5,000 U.S. adults who either currently work or wish to be working on how they feel about their careers at this moment in time, including their concerns, their challenges, and the degree to which they are optimistic about their careers. The study was conducted among a nationally representative, sample of U.S. adults and includes additional analysis of the workforce in the top twenty DMA markets across the country to uncover geographic nuances. The study also explores insights from 501 U.S. employers to provide comparison between the workforce and those who hire, train, and retain them.
Additionally, for the first time, a statistical modeling analysis was conducted to illustrate how employers and employees can benefit financially from investing in career optimism.
To determine Worker Value, “The Value of Career Optimism,” analyzed survey data metrics from the 2024 Career Optimism Index® study to measure the worker’s financial value of optimism and used econometric analysis to identify the boost in employee income that comes from having optimism.
To determine Employer Value, the report connected survey data from the 2024 Career Optimism Index® study with external, third-party data about the US workforce to link optimism to employer costs and compared the differences between employer costs for optimistic versus non-optimistic employees.
The total US opportunity cost was determined by looking at the full-time employee population in U.S. workforce and extrapolating the proportion who are unoptimistic from the 2024 Career Optimism Index survey results. The benefit for employers is calculated by taking the full-time employee population and applying the per employee annual savings from career optimism.
Additional details about methodology can be provided upon request.
ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX CAREER INSTITUTE® University of Phoenix Career Institute™ was created to address broad, persistent, and systemic barriers to career advancement through research-based solutions and impactful partnerships that break down barriers Americans face in their careers.
About University of Phoenix
University of Phoenix innovates to help working adults enhance their careers and develop skills in a rapidly changing world. Flexible schedules, relevant courses, interactive learning, skills-mapped curriculum for our bachelor’s and master’s degree programs, and a Career Services for Life® commitment help students more effectively pursue career and personal aspirations while balancing their busy lives. For more information, visit phoenix.edu.
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Survey
SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
People
Study finds Netflix misses the mark by trivializing teenagers’ pain
UCalgary led research discovers movies and TV series aimed at adolescents reinforce gender and racialized pain stereotypes
“Media is one of the most powerful engines of influence on children’s development and could be harnessed to address pain and suffering in the world. Stories matter,” says Dr. Melanie Noel, PhD, principal investigator and professor of clinical psychology at the University of Calgary. “Youth learn by watching and fictional stories can matter more in some cases than real life stories.”
Researchers analyzed 60 hours of Netflix content including popular movies such as Spiderman: Homecoming, and the TV series including Stranger Things. Their study found that most of the media showed pain arising from violence and injuries, and not other kinds of pain that teens also experience in real life (e.g., medical procedures, chronic pain). They also found that most of the media showed boys and white people experiencing pain; there was a lack of pain represented in girls, gender diverse people, and people with racialized identities.
“If we’re not showing the types of pain that adolescents might typically experience like back pain and menstrual pain, then we’re trivialising pain,” says Dr. Abbie Jordan, PhD, co-author and senior lecturer at The University of Bath. “We’re not doing a great job of enabling them to think about how to manage pain, how to talk about pain and how to show empathy when other people experience pain.”
Researchers said they would welcome the opportunity to work with Netflix and other content producers on scripts that reflect the pain this age group experiences. Adolescence is the developmental period when chronic pain often emerges, affecting one in five youth.
“I believe understanding how pain is portrayed in popular media- the societal and cultural narratives about pain- is among the most powerful influences on children’s developing understanding of not only their pain experiences, but how they show up for others who suffer,” says Noel.
Boys and a person from a racialized identity are more likely to experience pain caused by others
Most pain instances were witnessed by at least one observer (85 per cent).
Observers had more empathy and willingness to help boy sufferers' distress than girl sufferers' distress
Observers commonly responded to sufferers with criticism (24 per cent) and humour (10 per cent)
“Children and teens tell us they relate more to their favourite characters than people in real life that they don’t know. So, we should hope those characters are teaching them well about how to live in the world, and in this case, what to expect for themselves and others when they hurt and suffer,” says Allison Cormier, BA’23, first author on the study. “We believe there is a real opportunity for Netflix to create stories to reflect the world we want to see: A humane, diverse, inclusive, equitable, empathic, compassionate, and caring world.”
Cormier is starting a Master of Science degree soon, specializing in school and applied child psychology.
It turns out that money isn’t the only thing sports gamblers are risking. According to a new study, bettors who wager on sporting events, esports, and daily fantasy sports are much more likely than other individuals to binge drink.
The findings, compiled by a research team from UNLV and the University of New Mexico, were published this week in the journal JAMA Network Open.
Over the course of three weeks in spring 2022, researchers surveyed more than 4,300 adults across the U.S. Nearly 3,300 self-reported past year alcohol use, while about 1,800 identified themselves as gamblers who had bet on sports in the past year.
Researchers found that sports gamblers were 1.9 times more likely to report consuming an excess of alcohol — defined as five or more drinks for men and four or more drinks for women at a single time — when compared with nongamblers and gamblers who don't bet on sports.
The study bolsters previous research into the association between substance misuse and sports wagering. Sports gamblers often use substances while gambling and tend to be more inclined toward risk taking, which researchers fear may also translate to bettors’ alcohol habits.
“Our study suggests that sports bettors appear to use alcohol in particularly risky ways," said study co-author Shane W. Kraus, a professor of psychology who serves as director of the UNLV Behavioral Addictions Lab. "Therefore, more education is needed to inform people around the possible risks of heavy alcohol use while also wagering on sports."
About the study
“Binge Drinking Among Sports Gamblers,” by Joshua B. Grubbs of the University of New Mexico and Shane W. Kraus of UNLV, was published April 1, 2024 in JAMA Network Open.
Dr Grubbs reported receiving research grant funding from the Problem Gambling Network of Ohio outside the submitted work. Dr Kraus reported receiving personal fees from New York Council on Problem Gambling, the International Center for Responsible Gaming, the California Council on Problem Gambling, and Massachusetts General Hospital Psychiatry Academy, serving as editor-in-chief for Taylor & Francis journals, and receiving Summer research support from the Nevada Project on Problem Gambling during the conduct of the study. No other disclosures were reported.
Even moderate alcohol usage during pregnancy linked to birth abnormalities, UNM researchers find
University of New Mexico researchers have found that even low to moderate alcohol use by pregnant patients may contribute to subtle changes in their babies’ prenatal development, including lower birth length and a shorter duration of gestation.
In a new paper published in the journal Alcohol Clinical & Experimental Research, a team led by Ludmila Bakhireva, MD, PhD, MPH, professor and assistant dean for Clinical and Translational Research in the UNM College of Pharmacy, also reported some sex-related differences in the effects of drinking during pregnancy on the developing baby.
“In exploratory analyses, the effect on gestational age was more pronounced in male infants, and for birth length it actually was stronger in females,” Bakhireva said. She cautioned that these effects should be interpreted with caution because of the study’s limited statistical power to conduct sex-specific analyses and the challenges of accounting for other contributing factors.
The paper reported on three prospective studies conducted at UNM over the course of 10 years that followed 281 participants, most of whom were recruited in the second trimester of their pregnancies and then followed, along with their children, for some time afterward, she said.
There is a good deal of research on the prenatal effects of heavy alcohol use, usually defined as 14 drinks per week, or binge drinking, defined as four drinks or more per occasion, Bakhireva said.
“We know quite a bit from these earlier studies of heavy alcohol use about the effect on prenatal outcomes, especially preterm delivery and growth restriction, as well as neurodevelopmental outcomes, but we specifically focused on more moderate alcohol exposure because it’s much more prevalent,” she said.
Early pregnancy is a critical period for the formation of organs in the developing fetus, making it a particularly vulnerable window for alcohol exposure, Bakhireva said.
“Almost everybody drinks before they know they are pregnant, and risky drinking before pregnancy is predictive of drinking later on,” she said. “That’s a unique aspect of the study. We carefully looked at the patterns of drinking around conception and early pregnancy.”
Most of the participants substantially reduced their drinking or stopped altogether once they learned they were pregnant, Bakhireva said. Even with reduced alcohol there were some deficits seen in both male and female infants, however.
She emphasizes that larger studies that combine samples across the country are needed to replicate the findings and examine sex-specific effects further.
Bakhireva is the principal investigator of the HEALthy Brain and Child Development study at UNM, part of a national initiative that will recruit 7,500 parent-child pairs and follow them for up to 10 years. “With that type of multi-site study, we’ll have sufficient power to look at the effects of different patterns and timing of alcohol use in even a more nuanced way,” she said.
The paper underscores messaging from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism – that no amount of drinking during pregnancy is safe, she said.
“I think this study, as well as prior preclinical studies, show that even moderate alcohol use might have negative effects. The degree of negative effects might vary, and it is important to address alcohol use without the stigma often associated with it, but overall, if we try to encourage abstinence from alcohol during pregnancy, we will maximize positive health and developmental outcomes for the children.”
Dose–response effect of prenatal alcohol exposure on perinatal outcomes
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
30-Mar-2024
Dogs provide new insights into aging and cognition
Dogs may possess a key component of intelligence known as the 'g factor'. Importantly, this factor shares many characteristics with its human counterpart, including its ageing patterns.
EÖTVÖS LORÁND UNIVERSITY
IMAGE:
THE QUEST TO UNDERSTAND INTELLIGENCE AND UNRAVEL THE WORKINGS OF THE MIND HAS ALWAYS BEEN CONSIDERED THE HOLY GRAIL OF NATURAL SCIENCES. WHILE WE'RE STILL UNCOVERING MANY MYSTERIES, ANIMALS CAN PROVIDE VALUABLE INSIGHTS INTO THE ORIGINS AND ORGANISATION OF BOTH MIND AND INTELLECT.
CREDIT: PHOTO: KUBINYI ENIKO / EÖTVÖS LORÁND UNIVERSITY
The quest to understand intelligence and unravel the workings of the mind has always been considered the holy grail of natural sciences. While we're still uncovering many mysteries, animals can provide valuable insights into the origins and organisation of both mind and intellect. In their latest, study researchers at the Department of Ethology at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) discovered that dogs may possess a key component of intelligence known as the 'g factor'. Importantly, this factor shares many characteristics with its human counterpart, including its ageing patterns. These findings could bring us closer to understanding how dog (and human) cognition is organised, and how cognitive decline progresses with age.
In humans, success in various cognitive tests tends to correlate positively; individuals who e.g. excel in math may also ace their literature essay. Human cognitive abilities are thus somewhat centralised, but also organised hierarchically, from specific task performances to broader cognitive domains. At the apex of this hierarchy lies the so-called general cognitive factor, or the 'g factor'. This 'g factor' is a fundamental component of intelligence, it encompasses and influences all underlying cognitive abilities, and is also closely related to academic, workplace, and career success.
In their latest research, researchers at the Department of Ethology at ELTE inquired about the existence of such a general cognitive factor in the case of dogs.
'The cognitive and socio-cognitive performance of dogs is a highly popular topic in scientific literature, yet most studies are comparative, focusing on how well dogs perform as a species. Surprisingly, these studies have largely overlooked the individual differences in specific skills and the reasons behind them. As a result, we know very little about how dogs' cognitive abilities are structured,' said Borbála Turcsán, one of the lead authors of the study published in GeroScience.
To investigate this, researchers compiled a series of seven tasks to assess the cognitive performance of 129 family dogs aged between three and fifteen years, tracking them over two and a half years. The performances in these tests formed a hierarchical structure similar to the one seen in human cognition. Researchers identified two broad cognitive domains: Independent problem-solving, which included tests of persistence, problem-solving, and memory, and Learning ability, which encompassed associative learning and one-trial learning tests. These domains were interconnected, indicating that dogs with better problem-solving skills generally learned new tasks more quickly, confirming the existence of a higher-order, general cognitive factor that ties them together. Drawing from human literature, the authors referred to this as the 'canine g factor.'
The researchers were not satisfied with just finding the 'canine g factor'; they also wanted to confirm if it has a predictive power similar to that described for g in humans. 'To confirm that we have indeed identified the general cognitive factor, we examined whether this factor correlates with individual characteristics known from the literature of humans and other animal species to be associated with the 'g factor,' explained Tamás Faragó, researcher at the ELTE Department of Ethology.
The results revealed that
dogs with high 'g factor' scores were more inclined to explore unfamiliar environments, showed greater interest in novelties, and performed better in new learning situations
than dogs with lower scores. Moreover, the dogs’ g score was also related to their personality which was measured using a questionnaire filled out by the dog owners. High 'g factor' score was associated with higher levels of activity, training level, and trainability. These findings confirmed that the 'canine g factor' resembles the human g factor not only in the structure but also in external correlations.
In addition to the numerous parallels between canine and human g factors, exploring the correlations of canine cognitive abilities has opened new perspectives in the field of ageing research. ‘It is well-known that as dogs age, their attention, learning ability, and memory naturally decline. However, if cognitive abilities are interconnected, it's plausible that their decline with age is not independent but rather linked to a common underlying factor behind the deterioration of various abilities,’ - emphasised Zsófia Bognár, PhD student, the other lead author of the study.
The researchers also tracked the changes in the dogs’ cognitive performance over two and a half years and based on this longitudinal assessment they demonstrated that indeed, there is a global cognitive decline, the 'canine g factor' score decreased with age. However, this decline was influenced by the health status of the dogs: dogs in poorer health exhibited a faster decline in the 'g factor' value with age, whereas no significant change with age was observed in dogs in good health. While this global decline affected all cognitive abilities, the results also revealed that age-related changes in memory and associative learning abilities are influenced by other factors, leading to diverse ageing dynamics.
This ageing-pattern resembles human ageing, and it is an important finding for later efforts to identify the molecular and neurological causes of cognitive decline.
‘This new research highlights intriguing parallels between human and canine ageing, further strengthening the argument that dogs serve as an excellent model species for ageing research,’ - emphasised Enikő Kubinyi, leader of the MTA-ELTE Companion Animal Research Group and the Senior Family Dog Program. ‘Moreover, our findings support the existence of the 'canine g factor', suggesting that dogs can also help in understanding the evolution and background of human intelligence.’
In their latest, study researchers at the Department of Ethology at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) discovered that dogs may possess a key component of intelligence known as the 'g factor'. Importantly, this factor shares many characteristics with its human counterpart, including its ageing patterns.
CREDIT
Photo: Kubinyi Eniko / Eötvös Loránd University
These findings could bring us closer to understanding how dog (and human) cognition is organised, and how cognitive decline progresses with age.
Age-related effects on a hierarchical structure of canine cognition
Methods sections often lack critical details needed to reproduce an experiment, and the practice of citing previous papers instead of describing the methods in detail may contribute to this problem
Analysis of >750 papers shows that >90% of papers use at least one shortcut citation, that these significantly impair reconstruction of the original method, and that <25% of journals have policies relating to previously described methods
Methods sections often lack critical details needed to reproduce an experiment, and the practice of citing previous papers instead of describing the methods in detail may contribute to this problem
Analysis of >750 papers shows that >90% of papers use at least one shortcut citation, that these significantly impair reconstruction of the original method, and that <25% of journals have policies relating to previously described methods
Article Title: Shortcut citations in the methods section: Frequency, problems, and strategies for responsible reuse
Author Countries: Germany, France
Funding: This study was completed through a participant guided, learn-by doing meta-research course funded by the Berlin University Alliance within the Excellence Strategy of the federal and state governments (301_TrainIndik to TLW). VK received salary support from the Berlin University Alliance grant. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
PLOS and Eurodoc partner to advance Open Science principles
PLOS
Brussels, Belgium, and San Francisco, United States - The Public Library of Science (PLOS) and the European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers (“Eurodoc”), today announced a strategic partnership between the organizations to increase awareness of Open Science, its principles, and its implementation into research practices.
“In addition to supporting researchers, we also strive to support the implementation of Open Science principles and increase the adoption of Open Science practices,” said Sebastian Dahle, Eurodoc President. “We are excited to work with PLOS on Open Science initiatives, and the creation of policies to better serve early-career researchers.”
“This strategic partnership with Eurodoc will ensure that early-career researchers can inform and help to shape PLOS’ continuing efforts to increase equitable participation in Open Science,” said Roheena Anand, Executive Director of Global Publishing Development, PLOS. “Eurodoc’s input will be fundamental to ensuring that our Open Science solutions will serve the needs of early-career researchers across the globe.”
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About Eurodoc
Eurodoc is an international, non-profit federation of 24 national organizations of PhD candidates and junior researchers from 22European Union countries and the Council of Europe. Eurodoc represents researchers in matters of education, research, and professional development; advances the quality of doctoral programs and the standards of research activity in Europe; and organizes events and takes part in debates regarding policies about higher education and research in Europe. For more information, visithttps://www.eurodoc.net.
About the Public Library of Science
PLOS is a nonprofit, open access publisher empowering researchers to accelerate progress in science and medicine by leading a transformation in research communication. Since our founding in 2001, PLOS journals have helped break boundaries in research communication to provide more opportunities, choice, and context for researchers and readers. For more information, visithttp://www.plos.org.
