Reported is a study of cold fusion in which trace amounts of helium, possible evidence of an actual fusion reaction, were found. Research methodology is detailed. The controversy over the validity of experimental results with cold fusion are reviewed. (CW)

In this article, the author begins to trace the concept "scientifically based research" in federal legislation, in the Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences, and in the reports of several National Research Council committees. She also discusses how this concept has produced a certain "scientism" that has been deployed to…

Discusses the fact that physics research today is evolutionary rather than revolutionary, and deals with technological applications and new interdisciplinary areas. (MLH)

Existing fossils could be studied from a different prospective with the use of new methods of analysis for gathering more information. The new techniques of studying fossils binds the new and the old techniques and information and provides another way to look at fossils.

Over the past few decades there has been a rise in the number of federally funded large scientific research initiatives, with increased calls to evaluate their processes and outcomes. This article describes efforts to evaluate such initiatives in one agency within the U.S. federal government. The authors introduce the Evaluation of Large…

This study makes a comprehensive review of the situation of student loans schemes in Mauritius, and makes recommendations, based on best practices, for setting up a national scheme that attempts to avoid weaknesses identified in some of the loans schemes of other countries. It suggests that such a scheme would be cost-effective and beneficial both…

In this age of high-stakes testing and calls for more stringent measures of accountability, urban schools face a great deal of scrutiny. In fact, the direct benefactors of school reform remain the students most at risk for not reaping the benefits of reform rhetoric. Current legislation that propels the notion of "scientifically based research" to…

Problem finding is a creative process whereby individuals develop original ideas for study. Secondary science students who successfully participate in authentic, novel, open inquiry studies must engage in problem finding to determine viable and suitable topics. This study examined problem finding strategies employed by students who successfully…

Suggests that the course of scientific research cannot be planned, because, by its nature, it deals with the unknown. (AL)

The history of science is replete with instances of disappointed, disgruntled, and frustrated scientists who have felt and complained that their ideas have been stolen or ignored until someone else came up with the same. Conversations have been recorded, correspondence uncovered, and public debates conducted on questions of priority. (Author/TS)

The Soil Biotron at the University of Michigan is a unique underground laboratory designed for study of the forest ecosystem, including both soil invertebrates and plant life. It is used for observation and experimentation and allows study over a period of decades rather than seasons. (MSE)

This article considers the six principles that the National Research Council's report Scientific Research in Education claims define an enterprise as scientific. I argue that these principles are relatively vacuous generalities because one cannot determine anything about any of them from outside specific theories of specific domains (and domains…

This commentary commends the authors of Scientific Research in Education for addressing important questions for the field of education research and identifies six areas that might profit from further attention: 1) explicit factors that compromise the building of scholarly community, 2) introspective conversation on the role of the researcher in…

A National Research Council report, "Scientific Research in Education," has elicited considerable criticism from the education research community, but this criticism has not focused on a key assumption of the report--its Humean, regularity conception of causality. It is argued that this conception, which also underlies other arguments for…