Announcement of the issue

Space and man (page 1)
Olga Zakutnyaya
The main theme of the issue is the 50th anniversary of human space flight. What the world's cosmonautics looks like half a century after Gagarin's flight is the topic of the editorial.

“How to protect yourself from an earthquake? Be ready for it!” (page 2-3)
The strongest earthquake in Japan not only caused a devastating tsunami that claimed thousands of lives, but also led to a serious man-made disaster. Is it possible to somehow prevent such consequences of the elements? questions answered Irina Delyusina's The famous American geologist and tectonist Eldridge Moores .

April 12 (pages 3, 4, 8, 10)
Throughout the issue, the reader encounters short comments from our authors, who talk about what they remember about April 12, 1961, and what impressions they had from that day. questions Among those who answered Natalia Demina’s are the names of such famous scientists as Valery Rubakov, Dmitry Dyakonov, Leonid Ponomarev, Sergei Beletsky, Alexey Gilyarov .

Should the vice-rector be an academician? (page 4)
Vladimir Volokhonsky
Using the example of the situation at St. Petersburg State University, the author discusses who should lead the university and how: major scientists or managers?

Crisis, or Devastation in the Heads (p. 5)
Evgeniy Onishchenko
In recent years, the publication activity of Russian scientists has fallen. The article not only provides the relevant statistics, but also attempts to analyze the reasons for this.
In many countries (for example, Greece), the decline in the number of publications is associated with the serious consequences of the financial crisis. Can this also apply to our country? Or is it not a matter of how much is spent, but how and on what?

How Russian scientists are published and cited (pp. 6-7)
Alexander Pudovkin
We bring to your attention the final, third, part of the study on bibliometric data on publications of domestic researchers. The article provides a lot of statistics. The reader will see a lot of tables and figures that reveal the situation.

Russian science through the eyes of American diplomats (pp. 7, 12)
We continue to publish information from the WikiLeaks website related to science in Russia.
This time we will talk about innovation and nanotechnology.

Battlefields. Three entomological wars. Part 2 (page 8)
Ruslana Radchuk
We conclude the publication dedicated to the heated debate around transgenic organisms in agriculture. How correctly were the studies carried out that caused a storm of indignation on the heads of geneticists who fought aphids? Which is better: transgenic crops or pesticides? The answers are in the article.

Olympics for the soul (page 9)
The School Biological Olympiads of Moscow State University have been held for 60 years. During this time, many children passed through them, who later became famous scientists. Some of them answered Elena Kleshchenko’s questions and told how the Olympiad helped them find their way into science and in science.

10 Essential Facts About HIV and AIDS (page 10)
Egor Voronin
We continue publications from the series “10 most important facts about...”. This time the topic was the human immunodeficiency virus.

Educational trajectories (page 10)
Rebekah Frumkina
Where can a humanities education take a person, and why do they receive it? Sometimes simply in order not to be completely wild, and the diploma becomes a certificate of the relative civilization of the owner. And if you need real knowledge necessary for work, then in addition to such a certificate you can take paid courses.

Caution: Statistics (page 11)
Alexey Bessudnov
Publishing the results of statistical research is a favorite genre of news feeds. “Surveys have shown that...”, “studies have shown that out of 1,000 people who eat donuts, 459 have purchased...”, etc. and so on. How many pitfalls are there in such studies? The biggest and most important of them, which everyone should know about, are described in the article. Three main problems: non-random samples; the presence of correlations or cause-and-effect relationships that are not visible at first glance to the consumer of research information; statistical significance.

Conservatives become leaders (page 12)
Natalia Reznik
How do birds choose their migration routes? The authors of the study described in the article studied pigeons and showed that if there is a bird that can accurately reproduce the route it already knows, others will follow it. That is, even if each of the birds, in principle, knows the way, the leader will be the one that almost does not deviate from its usual path. It is she who will lead the “prodigal” birds, who, knowing their destination, fly this way and that.

The embodiment of a miracle, or the answer of science and art to whiners and pessimists (p. 14)
Elena Naimark
The article talks about the exhibition “LIFE. Version of Science”, which was organized by the Dynasty Foundation. Here you can not only see, but also touch the most interesting exhibits. And also conduct an experiment yourself.

Marie Curie Grants (Page 15)
Yuri Melnikov, Sergei Gutnikov
This post tells you about Marie Curie grants, how to get involved, and what you need to do to increase the likelihood of your application being successful.

Brick and umbrella From the philosophical notes of a night watchman (p. 16)
Valery Zhelyabovsky
At the end of the issue, we publish a short philosophical story that suggests equally philosophical thoughts.

AUTHOR'S COLUMNS:

The ever-living “uprooter” (p. 11)
Anastasia Kazantseva

Liquid Crystal River (page 13)
Irina Levontina

Time for enthusiasm (page 15)
Ivan Ekonomov

04/12/1961 – how it happened
Scientists remember the events and emotions of the day of Yuri Gagarin's flight

Prepared means protected
Interview with geologist and tectonist Eldridge Moores about earthquakes, their causes and the ability to resist them - pp. 2-3

Further - less
Evgeniy Onishchenko analyzes the dynamics of publication activity of Russian scientists – page 5

Caddis flies and ladybugs against GMOs
The chronicle of entomological wars in Germany continues by Ruslana Radchuk – page 8

Three rounds of a scientist's fate
School Biology Olympiad of Moscow State University as a model of a scientific career in the material of Elena Kleshchenko – page 9

Statistically significant but not scientifically important
Alexey Bessudnov warns against some mistakes in interpreting statistical data – page 11

NASA abandoning LISA and IXO?
The possible fate of the two largest astrophysical projects of the coming decades is considered by Sergei Popov - page 12

Wonderful creations
Report by biologist Elena Naimark about the exhibition “LIFE: a version of science” – page 14