Making lists is human nature. Even in our scientific newspaper a column “10 facts about...” appeared. A year ago (TrV-Science No. 55) we wrote about the initiative of the International Institute for Species Exploration at the University of Arizona. Every year they publish 10 beautiful pictures. Last year it was the Top 10 Species for 2010 (Top 10 New Species for 2010). A year has passed and a new list has appeared - it’s already 2011.

The government's draft federal budget for 2012 and the planning period for 2013 and 2014 has been published. Despite all the speeches made by Minister Andrei Fursenko about the importance of grant funding, the draft reflects the position of the Ministry of Finance - no additional money for scientific funds: for the period up to 2014 inclusive, the RFBR budget is planned to be kept at the level of 6 billion rubles.

Professor of the University of Manchester Konstantin Novosyolov is not often in Moscow, and on September 10, he arrived for a day for a day. The full version of Natalia Demina’s conversation with the Nobel Physics Laureate 2010 Read on Polit.ru ( www.polit.ru/article/2011/09/15/novoselov/ ). Photo by N. Demin (with www.polit.ru). At the Book -Market book festival in the park to them. Gorky poured rain, the “market” did not work out very much, since there were few visitors.

Jurgen Oberst opens the integrated research laboratory of extraterrestrial territories MIIGAIK On Tuesday, September 20, at Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography (MIIGAIK), the opening of a comprehensive laboratory of research of extraterrestrial territories was opened, and abbreviated - Cliv.

Our first conversation with Dr. Fiz.-mat. Sciences, dean of the Faculty of Mathematics of the Higher School of Economics, professor of independent Moscow University, Sergei Lando, took place three years ago when the new faculty was created (see the Trv-hunger No. 17 of November 25, 2008, p. 4 ) [1], and now is the time to summarize some results. Talked by Natalia Demina. Read the full version of the interview on the website “Polit.ru” ( www.polit.ru/article/2011/09/27/math_in_hse ).

View from the satellite HD 188753 AB. Fatasia artist (NASA) American astronomers at a press conference on September 15 reported the opening of a planet with two suns. It was found by the NASA “Kepler” orbital telescope, launched in 2009 for a photometric search for off -based planets (it monitors periodic changes in brightness caused by the passage of the planet in front of the star).

The Law on State Procurement (94-FZ) has long become one of the biggest problems of Russian science. The main difficulty was and, alas, still is that this law describes general rules that apply to the field of science, without taking into account its specifics. At the beginning of September, the Ministry of Economic Development presented a draft law on the Federal Contract System [1], which should replace the current law on public procurement.

Man is an amazing creature and still brings surprises to his researchers. Just recently, specialists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the University of California (University of California, Los Angeles - UCLA) discovered a special area in the human brain for quickly responding to any animal they see. This region turned out to be the right amygdala, a cluster of almond-shaped neurons located deep in the middle temporal lobe of the brain.

On September 9, amazing news came from Italy, from the Gran Sasso underground laboratory. The OPERA collaboration, which is engaged in catching neutrinos that come from the SPS accelerator at CERN, after repeated measurements of their speed, produced the result: neutrinos move at superluminal speeds! Of course, most physicists, and even the members of the collaboration themselves, are full of skepticism: most likely, we are talking about some unaccounted for systematic errors.

In the middle of last week, the draft federal budget for 2012 and the planning period for 2013 and 2014 were released. was discussed at a government meeting and was thus generally presented to the public. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, in particular, said [1]: “The full development of the country’s economy is impossible without strengthening its base - science and technology. We will allocate 323 billion rubles for these purposes in 2012.

The being of Russian science is determined by the state of Russian society and the state, which is very far from ideal and is often characterized by such words as “gangster capitalism”. Many are aware of this fact and make their own - different! - Conclusions.

On September 21, 2011, the Grants Council of the Government of the Russian Federation identified the names of 39 scientists - winners of the 2nd open public competition for grants from the Government of Russia for state support of scientific research conducted under the guidance of leading scientists in Russian universities.

Making lists is human nature. This list contains the 10 most beautiful, bizarre, and funny species described in 2010. These species could have been discovered at any time, but the scientific article that describes this creature should have appeared last year.

The more time passes since the end of the “pilot project” to reduce the number of RAS employees, the less they try to remember about it. For some reason, many even believe that they managed to pass it with minimal losses “in numerical terms.” When I was a member of the trade union committee of the Institute of World Literature, I often had to think not only about formal indicators, but also about real human destinies.

The draft Law on the Federal Contract System (FCS), which was published on September 1, 2011, raised quite a lot of questions, including in the part relating to science (see the TRV-HOWN No. 87 of September 13, 2011).