iTunes for research papers

Thanks to Victor Keegan in the Technology Guardian for bringing attention to this great looking piece of software...

Mendeley is a "research management tool for desktop & web" that's free and network enabled. My favourite feature? The way you can keep tabs on what other people who do research in your area are reading - all anonymously, of course:

Explore research trends and statistics

Mendeley allows you to discover and aggregate anonymous statistics about research trends. You can view the most popular authors, papers, journals and tags in your academic discipline, and discover interesting statistics about your own research paper library. These include viewing the number of papers by specific authors, most frequently used tags, the number of articles in your library, the number of authors and the number of references cited by these papers. You can also view your top publication outlets by topic. These statistics allow you to have a good overview of what your research habits and priorities are at this time.

The Mendeley team were among the organisers of the Science Online London 2009 event recently. The programme looks really impressive - and hopefully some of the presentations will make their way online soon...

Real coffee cup chemistry

Reaching new heights of geekiness, the nice people at Firebox.com have brought us the amazing technicolor Periodic Table Mug...

Can science create jobs?

This video is a trailer for a BusinessWeek article that is all about the need for basic scientific research to be supported in order for jobs to be created.

I'm a big fan of BusinessWeek magazine and they often have great articles about the business of science and technology. This piece focusses on the US but with initiatives like the Irish Government's innovation taskforce ramping up, this is a must watch/read for everyone interested in the area here in Ireland...

But the big question is, can we speed up how science creates jobs?

BBC science roadshow heads to Belfast

Great to see Ireland' s very own Liz Bonnin fronting the BBC's new flagship science show "Bang Goes The Theory." And they even covered some Irish research in the latest episode!

Plus their next roadshow hits Belfast from 13-15 August as part of the Belfast Maritime Festival. It includes:

• Get hands-on with science in the Interactive Arena

• Catch the live Bang Goes The Theory science shows

• Experience Dr Yan's amazing street science

• Ask experts your science questions

• Discover what science centres in your local area offer

The programme's website is impressive too - a good example of "360 degree commissioning" including mobile phone text alerts. It's just a pity that the iPlayer videos can't be watched outside the UK... oh well!

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