Climate change & poverty are "The two defining challenges of this century." The world is concerned with two things: mitigation and adaptive measures. Both require political will and technological know-how. The poor condition of these two is the main cause of poverty in the country. There is hardly anything the Philippines can do to prevent climate change. But we can increase our chances of survival by reducing poverty through improvements in research and education. [Read More]

Whereas Filipino artists are not only busy with their artistic work but also advance national art and defend its institutions, Filipino scientists have been largely concerned only with doing research to advance their name in science. Perhaps Jose Rizal was thinking of our scientists when he said, "Our talented men have died bequeathing to us nothing more than the fame of their name." [Read More]

The Bahay Kubo Research (BKR) team, a group of young Filipino researchers working voluntarily to promote S&T in the Philippines, re-launched its database of Filipino researchers' website this week. The new database can be found in this URL: http://db.bahaykuboresearch.net/. [Read More]

Academic excellence has always been the dream of every UP official and faculty member. Effort has been directed to improve teaching and research as far back as many alumni can recall. Programs include curriculum revision, institution or abolition of academic degrees, providing incentives through honorariums and chairs, policy reform, opening of campuses throughout the country, and giving equal opportunities for admission of students from all sectors of society. [Read More]

Development depends on the quality of the research output, which in turn relies on correct research practice. Two ways to improve research: (a) by leaving to scientists the job of performance evaluation or (b) by using the established and objective indicators (e.g., journals and publication citations in Science Citation Index or Social Sciences Citation Index). [Read More]

Darwin gave us a scientific paradigm by which we can understand the origins of the biodiversity that sustains our own species. Filipinos live in a country known throughout the world as a center of biodiversity - the product of millions of years of evolution. Sadly, the Philippines is also known worldwide as an ecological disaster. [Read More]

The Philippine Star reports yesterday (11 Sept) the 8 new members of NAST. It says, "Academician is a title given to Filipino scientists whose significant scientific works have considerably contributed to the progress of the country and the Filipino people." [Read More]

Fifty years after putting up an S&T agency (Department of Science and Technology) and 30 years after a national science academy (NAST), the Philippines has yet to find a scientific system that is anything close to meeting its twenty-first century needs. [Read More]

There is no scientist or social scientist in the 7-member Executive Council of the country's National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST). Not one. The EC is composed of the organization's president, vice-president, secretary, and four members. [Read More]

Much has already been written concerning the low productivity of the Philippine scientific community. A quantitative measure of this, for example, the number of papers published in journals indexed by the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI), reveals that the Philippines has already been overtaken by Indonesia and Vietnam. [Read More]