Monthly Archives: February 2012

Who says scientists aren’t creative?

One of the things that people tends to think about scientists is that we are all machine-like robots who are technically advanced, but without an ounce (or gram) of creativeness. I’m planning in this brief blog to dispel this criticism … Continue reading

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Excerpticus In Excelsis

Being another Excerpt in the Ongoing Spectacle that is The Beowulf Effect: Fossils, Evolution and the Human Condition, a book currently being written for the University of Chicago Press and is now more than a month overdue. But I am … Continue reading

Posted in cognition, com, crows, intelligence, Nicola Clayton, parative cognition, Research, Science-fiction | Comments Off on Excerpticus In Excelsis

“Facebook for scientists”

Soon after Nature Network launched in 2007 it was being touted as the “Facebook for scientists”. Other sites that had been around longer, such as FriendFeed and LabSpaces, occasionally got that moniker too (and indeed Facebook bought out FriendFeed later on).  … Continue reading

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Never gonna let you down?

I have somehow managed to retain some semblance of a utopian view of science. I don’t mean to say that I’m blind to its flaws or that I’m not at all cynical about it. But I think I’m less cynical … Continue reading

Posted in career, cycling, freakishness, idiocy, personal, science, whining | Comments Off on Never gonna let you down?

What’s yours called?

(This is a repost from the GranularIT Blog.) I couldn’t stand it no more. After my latest timelapse experiment (a frame every minute for three days; over 3 GB of photos), not to mention mucking around with stop-motion, I decided … Continue reading

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On Geeks and Humanity

There has been a fair amount of self-disclosure on OT blogs in the last couple of weeks. Most recently fellow blogger Cromercrox described his painful battle with depression; over the past couple of weeks on my own blog many people … Continue reading

Posted in Alice Roberts, Communicating Science, critical thinking, dweebs, education, geeks, George Monbiot, Gerald Warner | Comments Off on On Geeks and Humanity

Interpreting Reference Letters–Lost in Translation?

As a principal investigator, or PI, one of the tasks that I am consistently faced with is “interpretation.” How so? Well obviously, my job revolves around interpreting data and trying to understand if experiments done by my students and co-workers … Continue reading

Posted in cultural differences, education, interpretation, recommendation letter, Research, science | Comments Off on Interpreting Reference Letters–Lost in Translation?

An Open Letter to Elsevier

Since the beginning of the argument with Elsevier over their support of the Research Works Act (RWA) in the US and the announcement of the boycott of the publisher, I have been keen to stimulate dialogue. Elsevier seems to be interested … Continue reading

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Some Scores are More Equal than Others

Having committed to sit on an EPSRC panel for the first time in many years, I had my sights set on a post about the Shared Services Centre of the Research Councils. Clearly this is a popular topic for academics … Continue reading

Posted in BBSRC, EPSRC, refereeing, Science Culture, Science Funding, SSC | Comments Off on Some Scores are More Equal than Others

Because it’s been far too sciencey around here lately

The best Rube Goldberg device I’ve ever seen on the Best of YouTube podcast (and there have been a few): and, inspired by a Twitter conversation with Richard Wintle yesterday about gnus (inspired in turn by someone at work asking … Continue reading

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