1,159 news posts in Frontiers news

Frontiers news

27 Jun 2023

Frontiers and the World Economic Forum collaboration reveals the Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2023 report

The Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2023 report co-published by open access publisher Frontiers and the World Economic Forum has been presented today. The report identifies those technologies poised to have the biggest positive impact on society over the next three to five years. Curated by an international steering group of experts, the technologies were selected from nearly 100 contenders based on criteria including novelty, applicability, depth, and power. As this year’s knowledge partner, Frontiers collaborated with the Forum to identify experts from its far-reaching research community to provide further analysis of the technologies. Photo credit: Frontiers For more than a decade, the report has helped business leaders, innovators, policymakers, and other professionals across industries and disciplines anticipate developing technology and understand the associated risks and opportunities. The 2023 report has broadened its scope for the first time, incorporating a qualitative assessment of how each technology will impact people, the planet, prosperity, industry, and equity. These “impact fingerprints” are based on data gathered from more than 90 experts across 20 countries. They offer in-depth analysis of how the technology is predicted to influence society within the next five years. The academics were selected from Frontiers’ network of scientific journal editors, […]

Frontiers news

26 Jun 2023

Designer phages: World Economic Forum emerging technologies report

As a World Economic Forum platform partner, Frontiers is collaborating with the Forum on the 2023 edition of its annual emerging technologies report. Chosen by an international panel of experts, the list of top ten emerging technologies included in the report were selected from nearly 100 contenders based on criteria including novelty, applicability, depth, and power. Credit: Frontiers Designer phages There has been a growing recognition of the crucial role in human health played by the microbiome—the community of microbes living on and within the body. Recent advances in synthetic biology have allowed the engineering of the microbiome using phages – viruses that selectively infect specific types of bacteria. This creation of so-called designer phages has been identified by the Forum as one of this year’s top ten emerging technologies. By reprogramming phages using laboratory tools, individual bacterial species can be targeted to produce therapeutic molecules or to become sensitive to specific drugs. Mine Orlu of the steering committee for the Forum report stated: “Engineering microbiomes using designer phages represents a groundbreaking approach to improving human well-being and agricultural productivity. By reprogramming the genetic information of these viruses, scientists can selectively target specific bacteria to prevent or treat diseases in […]

Frontiers news

26 Jun 2023

Flexible neural electronics: World Economic Forum emerging technologies report

As a World Economic Forum platform partner, Frontiers is collaborating with the Forum on the 2023 edition of its annual emerging technologies report. Chosen by an international panel of experts, the list of top ten emerging technologies included in the report were selected from nearly 100 contenders based on criteria including novelty, applicability, depth, and power. Credit: Frontiers Flexible neural electronics One of the ten technologies selected by the Forum panel are so-called flexible neural electronics. These allow electrical signals from the brain to be captured by sensor hardware and used to control machines. While neural electronics systems are already in use for treating epilepsy and in some prosthetic devices, traditional probes can cause discomfort and exhibit poor signal accuracy. Researchers have recently developed neural electronics that conform to the brain, reducing scarring and improving accuracy—vastly outperforming traditional hard probes. Flexible neural electronics could deepen our understanding of brain diseases, provide greater control of prosthetics, and boost the development of brain-monitoring devices and brain stents. Angela Wu, of the steering committee for the Forum’s report, stated: “In the realm of neural electronics, the development of flexible, biocompatible circuits represents a significant breakthrough that addresses some of the past challenges of […]

Frontiers news

26 Jun 2023

Spatiotemporal omics: World Economic Forum emerging technologies report

As a World Economic Forum platform partner, Frontiers is collaborating with the Forum on the 2023 edition of its annual emerging technologies report. Chosen by an international panel of experts, the list of top ten emerging technologies included in the report were selected from nearly 100 contenders based on criteria including novelty, applicability, depth, and power. Credit: Frontiers Spatiotemporal omics Based on the above criteria, spatiotemporal omics is one of the ten emerging technologies to be identified by the panel for inclusion in the report. Bringing together a combination of advanced imaging techniques and DNA sequencing, the technology is used to map biological process at the molecular level. Phillippe Roux, field chief editor of Frontiers in Cell Signaling, which will launch later this year and is one of the journals that has collaborated on the project, said: “Spatial omics has been identified as an emerging technology with the potential to revolutionize our understanding of biological systems. Frontiers in Cell Signaling can play a crucial role in promoting research in this area by focusing on the technical and analytical challenges in spatial omics.” In discussing the promise of spatial omics, Liz O’Day of the Forum report’s steering committee noted: “The emergence […]

Frontiers news

26 Jun 2023

AI in Healthcare: World Economic Forum emerging technologies report

As a World Economic Forum platform partner, Frontiers is collaborating with the Forum on the 2023 edition of its annual emerging technologies report. Chosen by an international panel of experts, the list of top ten emerging technologies included in the report were selected from nearly 100 contenders based on criteria including novelty, applicability, depth, and power. Credit: Frontiers AI in healthcare One of the top ten emerging technologies identified in the report, the use of AI in healthcare has come to prominence largely as a result of the weaknesses in worldwide public health systems highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. These technologies can enable us to anticipate and effectively address future health crises and can also help to reduce long waiting times for medical care. AI-based healthcare could particularly benefit healthcare systems in the Global South. Alongside the benefits of this technology, there are of course also challenges such as data privacy, public acceptance, and patient compliance which must be addressed. A carefully crafted ethical framework will be required for any system that curates personal data on a vast population. Despite these challenges, AI-based healthcare solutions are poised to become increasingly prevalent in the next 3–5 years. Thomas Hartung, editor-in-chief of Frontiers […]

Frontiers news

26 Jun 2023

AR/VR metaverse to improve mental health: World Economic Forum emerging technologies report

As a World Economic Forum platform partner, Frontiers is collaborating with the Forum on the 2023 edition of its annual emerging technologies report. Chosen by an international panel of experts, the list of top ten emerging technologies included in the report were selected from nearly 100 contenders based on criteria including novelty, applicability, depth, and power. Credit: Frontiers AR/VR metaverse to improve mental health Mental health is widely acknowledged as one of the most pressing issues of our time. Although excessive screen and social media use have been associated with decreased mental wellbeing, AR and VR metaverse spaces are also being used to help combat the mental health crisis. This area of innovation has been selected as one of the WEF’s top ten emerging technologies this year. In considering the role the metaverse could play in mental health care, Corinna Lathan of the World Economic Forum report’s steering committee remarked: “As the mental health crisis continues to escalate, leveraging the metaverse holds immense potential for addressing this pressing public health issue. The metaverse can provide a continuum of mental healthcare services, which can both benefit patients and drive the advancement of this transformative virtual space.” The metaverse, which includes virtual […]

Frontiers news

26 Jun 2023

Sustainable computing and net-zero energy centers: World Economic Forum emerging technologies report

As a World Economic Forum platform partner, Frontiers is collaborating with the Forum on the 2023 edition of its annual emerging technologies report. Chosen by an international panel of experts, the list of top ten emerging technologies included in the report were selected from nearly 100 contenders based on criteria including novelty, applicability, depth, and power. Credit: Frontiers Sustainable computing and net-zero energy centers Data centers, which account for an estimated 1% of global electricity consumption, are a growing contributor to the worsening environmental crisis. New approaches, which address this problem, have been identified among the top ten technologies listed in this year’s World Economic Forum report. Andrew Maynard, one of the report’s authors and member of the Forum’s steering committee for the project, said: “Given the growing global demand for data centers, technologies designed to ‘green’ the computing industry will increase in importance over coming years. The inclusion of sustainable computing in this year’s report highlights the need for technologies to control and optimize energy consumption in computing.” Innovative, sustainable solutions in this area bring together multiple technologies to improve energy efficiency, including liquid cooling systems and repurposing excess heat. Creative approaches are also being used to integrate and […]

Frontiers news

26 Jun 2023

‘Wearable’ sensors for plants: World Economic Forum emerging technologies report

As a World Economic Forum platform partner, Frontiers is collaborating with the Forum on the 2023 edition of its annual emerging technologies report. Chosen by an international panel of experts, the list of top ten emerging technologies included in the report were selected from nearly 100 contenders based on criteria including novelty, applicability, depth, and power. Credit: Frontiers “Wearable” sensors for plants To feed the world’s population in 2050, food production must increase by 70%, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. To achieve this, agricultural innovation will be crucial, and technology is a key element of this. Recent advances in crop monitoring, including the use of sensor-equipped drones and tractors alongside low-resolution satellite data, have helped farmers by increasing the scale of crop monitoring. However wearable plant sensors will take this monitoring to a new level, and it is this area of innovation which has been highlighted in the 2023 World Economic Forum emerging technologies report. Wearable plant sensors are small devices that can attach to crop plants to continuously monitor temperature, humidity, moisture, and nutrient levels. This data can optimize yields, reduce waste, detect early signs of disease and minimize the environmental impact of agriculture. Although challenges […]

Frontiers news

26 Jun 2023

Kate Soper – The growth agenda is no longer feasible. What is the alternative?

Author: Sorcha Brennan Kate Soper is emerita professor of philosophy and a former researcher with the Institute for the Study of European Transformations at London Metropolitan University. She had a long association with Radical Philosophy and was a regular columnist for the US-based journal, Capitalism, Nature, Socialism. She has also been an editorial collective member and writer for New Left Review. She is a translator, among others, of Sebastiano Timpanaro, Noberto Bobbio, Michel Foucault, Cornelius Castoriadis, and Carlo Ginzburg. Her own books include: On Human Needs: open and closed theories in a Marxist Perspective; Humanism and Anti-Humanism; Troubled Pleasures: Writings on Politics, Gender and Hedonism; What is Nature? Culture, Politics and the Non-Human. She has been involved in a number of research projects on climate change and sustainable consumption, most recently as a Visiting Fellow at the Dubendorf Institute, Lund University, Sweden. Her most recent book is Post-Growth Living: For an Alternative Hedonism. Photo credit: Jo Mortimer You have written and published on the theory of need and environmental philosophy for many years. Your 2020 book Postgrowth Living: For an Alternative Hedonism published by Verso is an intersectional continuation of these themes. How has your past scholarship and formation as a researcher led you to this juncture of post-consumption and the politics of pleasure? “Well, the most immediate impetus […]

Frontiers news

22 Jun 2023

Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts forms publishing agreement with Frontiers 

The Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts has formed an institutional membership agreement for open access publishing with Frontiers. This institutional agreement means that eligible Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts researchers may publish in any Frontiers journal at no cost to them and with a simplified process. Articles may benefit from a 10% membership discount. The Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts supports its researchers in making their research more widely available. This agreement will further encourage Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts researchers to publish open access, increasing the volume of research openly available. While this reduces costs for the researcher, it also benefits the wider research community and the public at large.   For more information on Frontiers’ institutional agreements please visit our institutional memberships page or contact institutions@frontiersin.org to discuss the possibilities for your own organization.  Information for researchers  If you are a Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts researcher, please select “Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts” in the payment information section (“Frontiers institutional members”) when submitting your article. Frontiers will verify your eligibility with […]

Frontiers news

22 Jun 2023

Predatoryreports.org: An open letter from Frontiers’ chief executive editor

To our community, In March of this year, we alerted you to the emergence of predatoryreports[.]org. This website and its authors, whose motives are unknown, deliberately seek to undermine our organization, our community, and the open access movement by disseminating false information about Frontiers. At the risk of feeding the egos of the anonymous and irresponsible people behind predatoryreports.org with this second public acknowledgement, I report here on how we are seeking to address this issue. As responsibly asserted by the Committee of Publication Ethics in April, ‘authors and institutions should treat lists of predatory (or fake) journals with the same degree of scrutiny as they do with the journals themselves. Lists that are not transparent about criteria used should not be relied on.’ Researchers and institutions have valid questions about the quality, impact, and motives of their publishers. Predatoryreports[.]org attempts to undermine any constructive discussion by sloppily promulgating “the p-word”; unfortunately, this unethical behavior is being noticed, creating concern and bewilderment. The p-word is a blanket derogatory term that is so easy to use that it blocks scientific, critical, and common-sense thought processes. Some employ it liberally to create a smokescreen, in the hope that no one will feel […]

Frontiers news

21 Jun 2023

Frontiers to partner with major global symposium on protein and human health

Gold open access publisher Frontiers will be the publishing partner for a scientific summit meeting later this year on protein and human health, sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN). Organized in collaboration with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Wageningen University and Research, and the Riddet Institute, Massey University, the symposium will take place in September 2023 in Utrecht. It follows on from a previous landmark meeting on the same topic in 2011, which brought together international experts to give an unprecedented overview of global knowledge and perspectives on protein nutrition and metabolism. The upcoming summit will provide an update on contemporary issues relating to protein nutrition and human health and seeks to foster debate on the role of protein in the human diet and the sustainability of protein food production. As publishing partner for the symposium Frontiers in Nutrition will publish a special research topic based on articles from researchers invited to speak at the event. Both the FAO and IAEA place great importance on the peer-reviewed scientific literature from the symposium being open-access and freely available to the broader scientific community, particularly those from low- and middle-income countries. Johannes le Coutre, […]

Frontiers news

20 Jun 2023

Frontiers’ first open access publishing agreement in Poland

The journal Acta Biochimica Polonica will be published by Frontiers as part of an agreement signed with the Polish Biochemical Society (PTBioch). Credit: Frontiers Acta Biochimica Polonica’s will open for submissions with Frontiers in August 2023. The journal will publish its first papers on Frontiers gold open access platform in January 2024. Marking Frontiers’ first publishing partnership in Poland, the agreement with the Polish Biochemical Society represents a significant milestone for open access publishing in biochemistry in Central and Eastern Europe. Prof. Adam Szewczyk, president of the Polish Biochemical Society, commented on the agreement saying: “We are delighted to partner with Frontiers and transition Acta Biochimica Polonica to their open access platform. We look forward to the opportunities this partnership presents for sharing new and innovative research in the field of biochemistry.” Robyn Mugridge, head of publishing partnerships at Frontiers, said: “Frontiers is excited to welcome the Polish Biochemical Society as a publishing partner. We are confident that our collaboration will foster the visibility of research in the field of biochemistry in Poland and beyond.” Established in 1958, the Polish Biochemical Society is a well-respected promoter and supporter of all aspects of biochemistry research in Poland. Specifically, initiatives like the Society’s annual […]

Frontiers news

19 Jun 2023

Rothamsted Research forms publishing agreement with Frontiers – JISC national open access deal

We would like to announce that Rothamsted Research has joined the national open access deal agreed between Jisc Collections and Frontiers.  This landmark deal provides a simplified and streamlined route to open access publishing for researchers in the UK, who publish 7% of the world’s research.  Rothamsted Research supports open access publishing by covering Article Processing Charges (APCs) for eligible corresponding authors affiliated with Rothamsted Research who wish to publish in any Frontiers journal. As of July 2018, open access funding is only available to support publication of research funded by BBSRC or by the other UKRI Research Councils. To submit your article under this institutional agreement, please select ‘Rothamsted Research’ as the institutional payer in the invoice section when submitting your article. Frontiers will then verify your eligibility with Rothamsted Research Library & Information Services (LIS) staff, and if eligibility is confirmed, the APC will be paid by LIS upon acceptance. You will then also need to add details of the publication to the internal Harvestirr system to ensure it appears in your external website profile and in various compliance reports. For information on whether your article is eligible, or if you require any further details, please contact LIS via library@rothamsted.ac.uk or […]

Frontiers news

19 Jun 2023

University of Hertfordshire forms publishing agreement with Frontiers – JISC national open access deal 

We would like to announce that the University of Hertfordshire has joined the national open access deal agreed between Jisc Collections and Frontiers.  This deal provides a simplified and streamlined route to open access publishing for researchers in the UK, who publish 7% of the world’s research.  The University of Hertfordshire supports its researchers in making their research more widely available. As part of this deal, eligible authors may publish in any Frontiers journal with a discount of 10% on Article Processing Charges (APCs) for articles. This agreement will further encourage the University of Hertfordshire’s researchers to publish open access, increasing the volume of research openly available. While this reduces costs for the researcher, it also benefits the wider research community and the public at large.   For more information on Frontiers’ institutional agreements please visit our institutional memberships page or contact institutions@frontiersin.org to discuss the possibilities for your own organization.  Information for researchers  You should apply for University funding prior to submission to the publisher using the pre-print version of your article. Please see this University of Hertfordshire Institutional Open Access Fund page for the eligibility criteria and application form. Once you have received confirmation of funding, submit your article to Frontiers under this […]