Monthly Archives: February 2011

The Age of Fulfilment

In which the author exhibits his cheap and lazy nature by faffling around a bit, eventually buying Jenny Rohn’s latest novel “The Honest Look” via several geographically separate countries. Another book by Jenny Rohn. One that I actually own already.

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In which the truth hurts – or does it?

As crocuses push through muddy earth, the air softens on campus and the undergraduates wake up from hibernation to resume clogging up the pizza queue in the refectory, I feel the weight, yet again, of the swift passage of days … Continue reading

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Letting go of mysteries

  Thanks to Cath, for inviting me to play! I’ve followed a circuitous path through science–college major in biology, grad school, postdoc. . .

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Windfall 1. Crape myrtle and Spanish moss

With several days of freezing temperatures and brisk winds from the north last week, many things were blown from, or out of, neighborhood trees and shrubs. I decided to document some of the windfall that I pick up on long … Continue reading

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On belly button fluff

As you’ll have heard on the LabLit podcast, Jenny swabbed her belly button at the Science Online conference, all in the interests of science. You can find out why from Meg Lowman’s blog on Belly Button Diversity. Now, being the … Continue reading

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Van der Volkswagen Forces

Pro football (US version) has never seemed as fun to watch as college football, and for me, the number of rats’ arses given about even the latter has declined significantly in the last decade. But this is one cute SuperBowl … Continue reading

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City at a standstill …

… because we aren’t at all prepared for even small amounts of snow and ice. We had freezing rain late last night, followed by less than an inch of snow overnight, but that’s enough to wreak havoc in a southern … Continue reading

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On taking a good look at ourselves

Cross-posted from Naturally Selected for added controversy. Perhaps the most distinctive and powerful thing about Science is its tendency, or rather proclivity to ask searching, even uncomfortable questions. And unlike belief systems, or ideological and political and movements, or pseudoscience, … Continue reading

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Seven sins of science writing

I was never trained as an editor, but a few years ago I found myself as joint editor of our Institute’s annual volume of essays on science, aimed at a lay(-ish) audience. For the first few years I worked on … Continue reading

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Interesting Times

“May you live in interesting times”, goes the Chinese curse. Chinese scientists are certainly living in interesting times (as reported today in Nature) but they are unlikely to see it as a curse. The budget of the Chinese Academy of … Continue reading

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