In May 2019, the major non-profit open-access publisher PLOS began a program that aimed to increase the transparency of the peer review process at the journals they publish. In December 2019, they published the results of the first 6 months of this program.
A new study published in the journal eLife has demonstrated something that has long been suspected: the average human body temperature has been decreasing over the past 150 years. While 37°C has been considered the normal human body temperature since the 1860s, discrepancies observed in more recent studies had hinted that the accepted value was incorrect.
Large pharmaceutical companies have traditionally handled research and development activities internally. However, these completely integrated R&D organizations that are characteristic of the pharmaceutical industry may no longer be efficient enough to meet the challenges of bringing a much-needed therapy to the market. With the global prescription drug market expected to reach nearly $1.1 trillion by 2020, pharmaceutical R&D is increasingly looking to strategies such as open innovation and outsourcing to remain competitive.
The turn of a new decade provides us with an excellent opportunity to assess our current position and consider how we arrived where we are. However, rather than look at ourselves, let’s look at the state of the biodiversity within our world.
