In these interviews, scientists talk to ScienceWatch.com and
offer behind-the-scenes insights into their research: reflections on
what led them to their chosen field, the motivation driving their work
in a given direction, and the challenges encountered along on the way.
These authors also offer their views on why their work has wielded
particular influence in the scientific community, as indicated by
Clarivate
citation data, and on how research in their respective fields has
progressed over time and will likely unfold in the future.
Featured interviews for January 2009 are listed below.
To view featured interviews from past months/years, visit the
Featured Interviews Main Menu.
Excerpt from the
interview: "In our paper, we
demonstrated one of the first
graphene nano-ribbon devices with
channel width down to 20nm and
showed the possibility of opening
up a band gap in this semi-metal
material. We also discussed the
impact of the ribbon edges on
device transport. Opening a band
gap, which can strongly impact the
technological..."
View Article
Graphing and comparing the
year-by-year percentage share of
world scientific papers for the
United States, the Asia Pacific
region, and the European Union
since 1993 indicates that the U.S.
is continuing to lose world share,
particularly to the collective
Asian nations. Nevertheless, the
citation impact of U.S. research
remains strong when compared to
world baseline figures in the main
fields of science, particularly in
physics, chemistry, and
materials.
View
Article
Excerpt from the
interview: "We know that
around 1 in 10 new TB cases in
former Soviet countries is
multidrug resistant (MDR-TB); that
is, resistant to (at least) the two
main first-line drugs used in
combination therapy, isoniazid and
rifampicin. The numbers of
multidrug-resistant cases are also
high in India and China. Within the
last year, patients have been found
with..."
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Excerpt from the
interview: "I always knew that
CGH was a high-quality
publication that provided practical
and applicable content for our
physicians. What I didn’t
know was how often the content was
being cited. So, in that sense, I
guess I was somewhat surprised by
our first impact factor. Now that
we have an impact factor, I’m
curious to know how..."
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Excerpt from the
interview: "This article
presented a comprehensive
classification of the Fungi, based
on recent molecular evolutionary
studies. The article had over 60
authors, representing 13 nations.
This paper is being cited because
1) Fungi represent a huge and
tremendously important group of
organisms, which impact human
affairs through their
activities..."
View Article
Excerpt from the
interview: "Our paper presents
the first calculation, based on
screened-hybrid density functional
theory, of the electronic and
structural properties of
semi-conducting graphene
nanoribbons. Our findings reveal
important differences between
previous calculations, based on
lower-level theories, and our more
accurate results obtained..."
View Article
Excerpt from the
interview: "The paper focuses
on the issue of coral reefs and
climate change, synthesizing our
current understanding of past,
present, and future trajectories
for these biologically diverse
marine ecosystems. I believe that
this paper has attracted a lot of
attention given the importance of
coral reefs to over 100 million
people worldwide..."
View Article
Excerpt from the
interview: "Our paper offers a
solution to an important problem in
statistics and data analysis: how
to perform data reduction when the
observations may be contaminated
with outlying values. This problem
is especially important for the
analysis of high-dimensional data
sets, such as spectral data in
chemometrics and genetic
data..."
View Article
Kenneth J. Livak is a Senior
Scientific Fellow at the Fluidigm
Corporation in San Francisco, whose
general area of research is
molecular genetics. He discusses
his highly cited paper: "Analysis
of relative gene expression data
using real-time quantitative PCR
and the
2-??CT
method," (Livak KJ, et al.,
Methods 25[4]: 402-8,
December 2001).
Read an interview with Kenneth
Livak and coauthor Thomas
Schmittgen. Podcast added Jan.
2009.
Listen:
MP3|WMA
Excerpt from the
interview: "Nationally, on
average, one out of every five
college students is a frequent
binge drinker. That means
they’re getting drunk several
times a month. Fifty-five percent
have had at least one binge in the
last 40 days. And a lot of students
die every year from alcohol-related
accidents and problems. NIAAA says
1,200 to 1,400 students
die..."
View Article
Andre Nel is a tenured Professor
and practicing
allergist/immunologist at UCLA. He
runs the Cellular Immunology
Activation Laboratory in the
Johnson Cancer Center at UCLA. He
discusses his highly cited paper:
"Toxic Potential of Materials at
the Nanolevel," (Nel A, Xia T,
Mädler L, Li N,
Science 311 (5761):
622-27, February 3, 2006). Podcast
added Jan. 2009. This was a
Current
Classics paper selection for
Oct. 2008 (Multi.) Podcast
added Jan. 2009.
Listen:
MP3|WMA
Excerpt from the
interview: "Photonic crystals
are a kind of nanostructures for
light with a periodic refractive
index distribution described above.
A photonic bandgap, which blocks
photons in certain wavelengths, is
formed as an analogy of solid-state
crystals. By controlling the
photonic crystal structures, novel
manipulations of photons in all
aspects of optical ..."
View Article
Excerpt from the
interview: "My main focus is
genomics, both at the host and
pathogen level. Many of the
investigators that we support are
specifically interested in either
the host response to infection or
the pathogen response during the
infectious process, and sometimes
both at the same time. We also
support those working on genetic or
immunological..."
View Article
Excerpt from the
interview: "The main aim
of this review was to categorize
some of the extensive literature on
endogenous purine receptors
according to the new nomenclature
developed around cloned receptors.
In the 10 years before the review
was published, 16 out of 19
different receptors for purines and
pyrimidines were cloned, including
all four..."
View Article
Excerpt from the
interview: "The article
summarizes and critically discusses
the use of click chemistry in
macromolecular science, which has
found widespread adaptation within
just a few years. Doing chemistry
with large macromolecular building
blocks provides a major challenge
in purification if the
transformation does not..."
View Article
Excerpt from the
interview: "This survey paper
provides a broad overview of
medical robot systems used in
surgery. As such, it provided a
very useful guide to researchers
wishing to enter the field.
Although intended for an
engineering audience, it is written
in a way that should make it
accessible to clinicians and
non-specialized readers as
well...."
View Article
Last monthScienceWatch.com presented
its annual "Top 20" listings of
countries (across all 22
fields), which as of the latest
bimonthly update of
Essential Science
IndicatorsSM, achieved
particular distinction based on
their papers published in
Clarivate-indexed
journals from January 1998 through
August 31, 2008, a 10-year plus
8-month period. This month we
present the highest-cited paper
from each of the top 20 countries.
In this ranking, all of the paper's
authors are based in the given
country, as opposed to
multinational collaborations.
Addresses have been
truncated.
View Article
Excerpt from the
interview: "There has been a
deliberate plan at the University
level to move up the international
rankings, and research has been a
major focus of this effort. At the
level of the Business School,
initiatives have been taken to
continue to provide a good research
environment, to ensure adequate
study leave, and to reward
researchers in terms of..."
View Article
(Additional
interviews/commentaries may be
added during January 2009.)