China is using financial incentives and appeals to national pride to reverse the drain of top science and engineering talent to the West. China’s spending on research and development (R&D) has steadily increased over the last 10 years and now amount to 1.5 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). The United States spends 2.7 [...]

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) president Susan Hockfield notes that the majority of the 2009 Nobel Prize winners for physics, chemistry, and medicine are immigrants who came to the United States as scientists or as graduate or post-doctoral students. She writes that they were drawn by the openness and prestige of the U.S. system of [...]

Bangor University computer scientists Nigel John and Jonathan Roberts are developing a “virtual cocoon” that will enable users to experience virtual sites using all of their senses. The scientists say their research could be the first step toward an immersive experience similar to Star Trek’s holodeck. The virtual cocoon also could help the environment by [...]

The Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences’ Center for Research on Computation and Society (CRCS) and scientists at the University Catholique de Louvain in Belgium deployed a Web-based, secure, verifiable-voting system for the Belgium presidential election that was held in early March. Called Helios, the system was developed by CRCS fellow Ben Adida. “Helios [...]