From a rapid molecular test for COVID-19 to tools that can characterize the antibodies produced in the plasma of patients recovering from the disease, this year’s winners reflect the research community’s shared focus in a challenging year.

The challenge of successfully combining the demands of family and career may be easing for women scientists in industry. With increasing numbers of women opting to work in private- sector research laboratories--and in the wake of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993--many firms have revamped maternity-leave policies to better accommodate new parenthood and the transition back to work. The recently enacted federal law ensures workers in companies with 50 or more employees 12 weeks of unpaid,

Industry knows that onsite childcare is good for retention. Is academia starting to catch on?

The Scientist’s annual competition uncovered a bonanza of interesting technologies that made their way onto the market and into labs this year.

Precarious Task Author: Ricki Lewis In the days of TV's June Cleaver -- stay-at-home-mom extraordinaire -- the idea of the female parent spending hours each day lecturing undergraduates or directing laboratory research bordered on absurd. Women were rare among the ranks of academic scientists, and those who were also mothers rarer still. Today women are prominent players in the academic life sciences, and many are mothers, too. Like their counterparts in industry (R. Lewis, The Scientist, Jan.