Material World - 28/06/2012

The Finch report, a government report into science publishing came out last week. Its findings were not widely covered despite feelings running high about the influence of the multi million pound science publishing industry. Many scientists are unhappy with the current science publishing system, where important research findings are published in commercial journals. They say scientific data gleaned from publicly funded research should be freely available. We speak to the report’s Author Dame Janet finch.

We also hear from scientist and journalist Ben Goldacre about a new push to use methods from medical testing to examine the effectiveness of government social policy initiatives.

We speak to the winner of The Venture prize, £25000 for scientific innovation. They are looking at ways to turn laboratory work into a commercial product. Researchers at Oxford University hope to use cheap and widely available metals to replace expensive coatings on computer screens and solar panels.

And we hear about new developments in producing sustainable packaging materials.