Spanish R&D in Science Policy Forum

The article Dark Clouds over Spanish Science, which addresses the Spanish R&D policy, came out today in Science Policy Forum. It is a small contribution to improve the analysis of the productivity and quality of Spain's research and innovation systems.
A number of media are commenting on the paper, such as:
- Contra la ciencia orientada al sector privado, at El País
- 'Science' ve 'nubarrones' sobre la ciencia española, at El Mundo
 - La revista ‘Science’ critica el giro de España hacia la investigación “de mercado”, at Es Materia

- Science se hace eco de las "nubes negras" sobre la ciencia española, at ABC.

There are more details on the implications in these two interviews (both in Spanish):

- La Tertulia de Luis Herrero, esRadio, minutes18:22 to 27:13

- Balears fa Ciència, IB3, minutes 09:25 to 20:02

You can find more details on the devastating budget cuts suffered by Spain's R&D during the last years in this post of the blog ""Critical Science" (in Spanish).

Ants that ambush pollinators on flowers in JoE's blog

One of the great things of doing science in the possibility to collaborate with really cool researchers and learn together to appreciate the amazing intricancies of the living world.

A recent paper lead by Miguel A. Rodríguez Gironés and other researchers from the EEZA-CSIC in Almería explored the effectof weaver ants, which ambush insects on flowers, on plant-pollinator interactions. The paper is now available in early view and an summary illustrated  with cool pics has been published in Journal of Ecology blog.

As a small taster, find here a pic of weaver ants capturing a bee on Turnera flowers, at Sri Lanka.