Monthly Archives: July 2011

In which I can put it off no longer

Posted on 19 July 2011 by Jennifer Rohn

Summer has slipped away from London, as it seems to do every year around this time – the air has an autumnal coolness and raindrops patter against lab windows. We Londoners work around this, as we do around so many … Continue reading →

Posted in careers, The profession of science | Comments Off on In which I can put it off no longer

It is what it is

Posted on 19 July 2011 by Steve Caplan

As a scientist who spends a lot of time looking at data, I sometimes feel that we venture into an area where we are in danger of over-interpreting our results. On the one hand, it is a perfectly natural and … Continue reading →

Posted in ball-into-the-back-of-the-net, education, eric idle, european football, humor, idee fixe, john cleese, monty python, philosophical overtones, Proustian display of modern existentialist football, Research, science, Silliness, thick-headed footballers and scientists | Comments Off on It is what it is

Suburban Garden: Eggplant and Kale [6]

Posted on 18 July 2011 by KristiV

Across several states in the central and southwestern US, this has been one of the hottest, driest years on record, with no sign of improvement any time soon. South Texas is no exception to this trend, and I don’t venture … Continue reading →

Posted in art journals, drought, Gardening, vegetables | Comments Off on Suburban Garden: Eggplant and Kale [6]

Mary Somerville

Posted on 17 July 2011 by Athene Donald

Somerville College in Oxford is much better known than the woman it was named after, Mary Somerville, an eminent scientist who had died 7 years before the founding of the college in 1879. Mary Somerville (1780-1872) was a polymath, an … Continue reading →

Posted in 19th century science, History of Science, science writing, William Whewell, Women in science | Comments Off on Mary Somerville

Where have all the good times gone?

Posted on 17 July 2011 by Steve Caplan

I recently spent a wonderful vacation in Washington, DC–replacing a planned driving trip to Mesa Verde in southwestern Colorado and some of the nearby parks in Colorado, Utah and New Mexico. All because of a pain in the neck, that … Continue reading →

Posted in American History, education, icons of truth, lab, pain in the neck, Research, science, scientist are great-pat on the back, Smithsonian museums, Washington DC | Comments Off on Where have all the good times gone?

What are you worried about?

Posted on 16 July 2011 by Erika Cule

If you are naturally someone who worries, then being a PhD student gives you plenty of opportunities to exercise your habit. You will have research-specific concerns about experiments working and deciding which approach to take. Inherent uncertainty comes with the … Continue reading →

Comments Off on What are you worried about?

When the NIH and UK Research Councils sneeze…

Posted on 14 July 2011 by Cath@VWXYNot?

…does the CIHR catch a cold? From an email I received last week, titled “CIHR Funding News: Issue 104 – Results of the March 2011 Operating Grants Competition”: Looking ahead, it seems clear that we will continue to be challenged … Continue reading →

Posted in Canada, grant wrangling, UK | Comments Off on When the NIH and UK Research Councils sneeze…

Not much more than a decade until the bus pass*

Posted on 14 July 2011 by Austin

*assuming bus passes haven’t been abolished by then (see also a defence of bus passes here). ——————————————————————-   In which, in a post-academic-year reverie, I decide not to look forward, and try some lo

Posted in chess, Family business, Nerdishness, Procrastination, The Life Scientific, Universities | Comments Off on Not much more than a decade until the bus pass*

One Of Our Sea Serpents Is Missing

Posted on 14 July 2011 by Henry Gee

I had a monster plesiosaur whale of a time last night chairing a meeting at the Zoological Society of London on cryptozoology, and thought I ought to scribble a few words about the proceedings before I am submerged by other … Continue reading →

Posted in Apparitions, Cadborosaurus, cryptozoology, naish, paxton, pinnipeds, Science Is Vital, sea serpents, woodley, zoology | Comments Off on One Of Our Sea Serpents Is Missing

Cost to benefit ratios

Posted on 13 July 2011 by Cath@VWXYNot?

From today’s RSS feeds: 1) Alilain WJ, Horn KP, Hu H, Dick TE, Silver J: “Functional regeneration of respiratory pathways after spinal cord injury“. Nature 2011: 475: 196-200 (This article also showed up in my BBC science feed, with the … Continue reading →

Posted in current affairs, Medicine, original research, science, the media | Comments Off on Cost to benefit ratios