Monthly Archives: April 2011

Book Review – Lewis Wolpert on aging

Posted on 29 April 2011 by Erika Cule

I first came across Lewis Wolpert via his textbook Principles of Development which, to my mind, struck the right balance between seriousness and humour. “Principles of Development” captured the sense of wonder Wolpert feels for his research area, developmental biology. … Continue reading →

Posted in book reviews, Elderly, Fun, Lewis Wolpert, Life, musings on life and death | Comments Off on Book Review – Lewis Wolpert on aging

It Has Not Escaped Our Notice #57

Posted on 29 April 2011 by Henry Gee

This bottle of olive oil, spotted recently in the Cuisine des Girrafes, advertises its contents at 500ml. Given the brand, however, what’s the betting that it is in fact infinitely large?

Posted in Apparitions, borges, borgesian, circular ruins, Cromer, el imortal, ficciones, magical realism, Silliness, sphincter, the garden of forking paths, the library of babel | Comments Off on It Has Not Escaped Our Notice #57

Good Mentorship, Passover and “Let my people go!”

Posted on 29 April 2011 by Steve Caplan

Several days ago I had scheduled a lab lunch with my group, where I was supposed to treat everyone to Sushi in honor of a paper that one of my students recently had accepted. However, someone was sick, and we … Continue reading →

Posted in education, egregious, Let My People Go, matzah, mentor, mentorship, Passover, postdocs, Research, science, student, students | Comments Off on Good Mentorship, Passover and “Let my people go!”

Artful History

Posted on 28 April 2011 by Stephen

“There have been times in the history of man when the earth seems suddenly to have grown warmer… I don’t put that forward as a scientific proposition, but the fact remains that three or four times in history man has … Continue reading →

Posted in Art history, Civilisation, Kenneth Clark, Science & Media, TV review, Wow | Comments Off on Artful History

Round 1 to Vancouver!

Posted on 28 April 2011 by Cath@VWXYNot?

I’m still emotionally drained after the Canucks’ Game 7 win over Chicago on Tuesday – what a crazy end to a crazy series! Round 2 starts tonight… I’m hoping for a little less drama this time as I’m not sure … Continue reading →

Posted in hockey pool, sport | Comments Off on Round 1 to Vancouver!

I won’t apologize

Posted on 28 April 2011 by rpg

But I have every sympathy with John Rennie. Read it, please. And forgive me.

Posted in Meta, thugs | Comments Off on I won’t apologize

Repost: finding the alternatives within academia

Posted on 27 April 2011 by Cath@VWXYNot?

This is a re-post of some career advice I wrote lo these many years ago for the Alternative Scientist blog, which is/was written by a group of bloggers for researchers considering careers other than traditional tenure-track research and/or teaching. The … Continue reading →

Posted in career, communication, personal, science | Comments Off on Repost: finding the alternatives within academia

Sagacity or Self-Centredness?

Posted on 27 April 2011 by Athene Donald

What should one talk about when asked to talk about one’s life, career path and general advice to a group of young persons? I use that awkward term advisedly to cover the range of categories that encompass schoolchildren, students, postgrads … Continue reading →

Posted in advice, career progression, careers, saying no, Science Culture, self-confidence | Comments Off on Sagacity or Self-Centredness?

Some thoughts on science and paradigms

Posted on 27 April 2011 by Sylvia McLain

A while back I wrote a post about active vs. passive voice – which isn’t the most exciting topic on the surface, admittedly, but the comments and some of the Twitter conversations I had about this were. Part of what … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy of Science, Thomas Kuhn | Comments Off on Some thoughts on science and paradigms

Now that’s what I call inflation!

Posted on 27 April 2011 by Frank Norman

A great snippet from Science Insider on an out-of-print book that was advertised on Amazon for $23,698,655! The book was The Making of a Fly by Peter Lawrence (from MRC’s Lab Molecular Biology at Cambridge, not University of Cambridge as … Continue reading →

Posted in Algorithms, Book prices, Books, Developmental Biology, LMB | Comments Off on Now that’s what I call inflation!