#scientific-prizes

#scientific-prizes

Modern scientific societies are increasingly vulnerable due to their dependence on membership fees and journal subscriptions, which are being challenged by the rise of virtual networking and open-access publishing.

The news of the AI's medal win was published by thousands of media outlets and chosen as one of the year's biggest scientific breakthroughs by the journal Science. And this is where the story starts to get complicated. Because the news is a lie.

Computer programs that check mathematical arguments have existed for decades, but translating a human-written proof into the strict programming language of a computer is extremely time-consuming, often taking months or even years.

China's overall Share from September 2024 to August 2025 exceeded 38,000 and is on course to double that of the United States within the next two years.

Four of last year's 10 winners opted to skip the ceremony rather than travel to the US, and the situation has not improved. Nor is it just the Ig Nobels being affected by the hostile US environment for international travel. Many international gaming developers are choosing to skip this year's weeklong Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, citing similar concerns.

During the past year, it has become unsafe for our guests to visit the country. We cannot in good conscience ask the new winners, or the international journalists who cover the event, to travel to the USA this year. The move comes amid Donald Trump's sweeping crackdown on immigration, in which he has focused on deporting migrants illegally in the US, as well as holders of student and visitor exchange visas.

Known as ExStra, this is a permanent national funding programme designed to strengthen research at the nation's top universities and make them more competitive internationally. While the ExStra programme allows for up to 15 "Excellent Universities" (Exzellenzuniversitaten), only ten institutions have made the grade for the next round of funding.

Faltings was awarded the prize for work proving central results in the theory of algebraic equations linking whole numbers together. The prize highlights Faltings's work in 1983 on the theory of Diophantine equations, which are equations involving sums and powers of unknown numbers for which the solutions have to be rational - meaning they can be written as a fraction of two whole numbers, or integers.

Three economists jointly won a Nobel Prize in late 2025 for their groundbreaking quantitative work analyzing how, and why, economies grow. Their math is complicated - but their conclusion is simple: to foster economic expansion, policymakers need to promote technological innovation and stoke competition between rival firms. The surest way to foster that innovation and competition is to strengthen intellectual property rights.

Iranian researchers are in a difficult situation. Those in Iran face low wages, high inflation, sociopolitical instability, resource mismanagement, oppression by the authorities and long-standing international sanctions. High prices hinder conference attendance, as do difficulties obtaining visas. Unstable Internet connections, frequent power outages and lack of access to scholarly sources jeopardize collaborations. Scholars also have to contend with isolation, and sometimes biases, from the international community. And for those who work abroad, travelling to and from Iran is risky, even with visas and double citizenship.

For nearly 100 years, the United States has been the world's leader in a wide variety of scientific fields. No other country has: invested as much in fundamental scientific research, has made more scientific breakthroughs and scientific advances, has attracted more scientific researchers to move there to conduct their research, or has conducted more projects and been home to more scientists that have won Nobel Prizes.

Paris' Eiffel Tower features the names of 72 notable scientists - all men. But that is set to change with the addition of another 72 names, this time women who distinguished themselves in the field of science, mathematics or engineering. The city of Paris has revealed the name of 72 women who have distinguished themselves in the scientific field - their names will be written next to those of the 72 men whose names are engraved in gold on the monument.

Science@Cal is proud to present a series of free public science lectures on the third Saturday of every month. These talks are given by renowned UC Berkeley scientists and aimed at general audiences. Talks take place on the UC Berkeley campus at 11 am. Doors open thirty minutes before the talk and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Each talk is planned to last an hour, plus time for at least a few questions at the end.