Mark Ratliff, Princeton’s new Digital Repository Architect, will work with members of the University community to understand their digital content management needs and to ensure that the University’s digital repository architecture is designed to meet those needs. He will help to develop overall strategies for the development and management of digital repositories and their content.

Ant colonies operate without central control; there is no one in charge and no ant directs the behavior of others. Colonies perform many tasks including foraging, nest construction, and care of the young. Task allocation is the process that adjusts the numbers of workers performing each task, according to the current situation.

A small but growing number of researchers have begun to carry out their work via Web 2.0. And their experiences to date suggest that this kind of Web-based “Science 2.0” is not only more collegial than traditional science but considerably more productive.

Plant biologists were offered a dream ticket last week: US$50 million to address the biggest challenges in their field. But the money comes with a catch. It can't be used to generate new data, only to create user-friendly computational tools. And, perhaps hardest of all, researchers have to persuade others in the field to collaborate on how to spend the funds.