National academy
A national academy is a body, usually operating with state financial support and approval, that co-ordinates the activities of research in (nearly always) the sciences and (sometimes) other disciplines. Typically the country's learned societies in individual disciplies will liaise with or be co-ordinated by the national academy. National academies play an important organizational role in academic exchanges and collaborations between countries.
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State - Research - Science - Learned societies
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The extent of official recognition of national academies varies between countries. In some cases they are explicitly or de facto an arm of government; in others, as in the U.K., they are voluntary, non-profit bodies with which government has agreed to negotiate, and which may receive government financial support while retaining substantial independence. In the countries of the former Soviet Union, and in the People's Republic of China, the national academies have considerable power over policy and personnel in their areas. There is however a growing consensus among international federations of learned academies that bona fide national (or learned) academies need to adhere to certain criteria:
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U.K. - Non-profit - Soviet Union - People's Republic of China
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- The fellowship is elected, on the basis of excellence, by existing fellows
- The number of fellows is restricted either to a total number or to a rate of accretion
- The governance of the academy is democratic and ?bottom up?. The fellowship is the ultimate source of the academy?s authority
- The academy is independent of government, industry and professional associations. Most, if not all, all academies derive some financial support from some or all of these other organizations but this support needs to be given in a manner that does not compromise the academy?s independence.
In some countries, a single academy covers all disciplines; an example is the Institut de France in France, which groups five academies, including the Académie française. In others, there are several academies, which work together more or less closely; for example, Australia has separate academies for the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. In the U.K., the Royal Society is recognised as the national academy for the sciences, the British Academy for the social sciences and the humanities, and the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Academy of Medical Sciences for their areas. In the United States, there are also four National Academies.
Related Topics:
Institut de France - France - Académie française - Australia - Social science - Humanities - Royal Society - British Academy - Royal Academy of Engineering - Academy of Medical Sciences - United States - National Academies
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Within most countries, the unqualified phrase "National Academy" will normally refer to that country's academy. Within the United States, the plural phrase "National Academies" is widely understood to refer to the US National Academies.
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Latest news on national academy
Fossilised skull suggests cheetahs evolved in Asia not Americas
The fossilised skull of a big cat unearthed in north-west China has been identified as the most primitive cheetah ever found. The skull, which is between 2.16m and 2.55m years old, is superbly preserved and its location has cast doubt on ideas that cheetahs evolved in the Americas.One theory is that modern cheetahs shared a common ancestor with pumas in the Americas, but the fossil record of the puma goes back only around 400,000 years in the US. Because the current find is so much older, it is strong evidence for an evolutionary origin for cheetahs in Asia.Cheetahs are the fastest land animal, using short bursts of speed in excess of 70mph to capture prey. They are now found almost exclusively in Africa and are classified by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of endangered species as vulnerable to extinction. One sub-species called the Asiatic cheetah still exists in Iran. Numbering between 60 and 100 individuals and critically endangered, according to the Red List, it represents the remnants of a much larger population that was once widespread across Asia but was devastated by human-induced habitat destruction and hunting.The new find, from the Linxia basin in China's Gansu province, suggests that Asia was the evolutionary cradle for the fleet felines. The nearly complete skull is among the oldest cheetah fossils yet found. It is around the same age as a 2.5m year-old related species discovered in Casablanca, Morocco, in 1997.But according to its discoverers, Dr Per Christiansen at the Zoological Museum in Copenhagen, and Dr Ji Mazák of the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum in China, the new find ? dubbed Acinonyx Kurteni ? has a unique set of characteristics. "We present a new discovery from the late Pliocene of China of a new species of primitive cheetah, whose skull shows a unique combination of primitive and derived characters," they wrote in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The big cat's evolutionary history is poorly understood because few fossils have been found.The skull is around the same size as living cheetahs, but it has a very wide braincase relative to the skull's length. It also has enlarged frontal sinuses and its teeth are "surprisingly primitive", according to the researchers. They suggest that other cheetah specimens that are known only from fossilised teeth may have been misidentified by other scientists. "The dentition is far more primitive than in all other cheetah-like cats, raising doubts on the identification of isolated dental finds of large cats from the Pliocene-Pleistocene of Eurasia and Africa, which are often attributed to leopards," they wrote.EvolutionFossilsChinaZoologyguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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