Monthly Archives: December 2024

Books of 2024 – a disappointing year

Posted on 31 December 2024 by Stephen

With a handful of notable exceptions, my book reading in the past year has not been an altogether happy experience. I worked my way through 18 titles in all, work being the operative verb in many cases. That low tally … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Photos of 2024

Posted on 30 December 2024 by Stephen

As is my habit my favourite photographs from the year just past can now be found on an album on Flickr. There are sixty-three in all, selected from a total of about 1800 which is quite a drop from my … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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My Top Reads Of 2024

Posted on 27 December 2024 by Henry Gee

This year I read 64 books, the first time since records began (2014) that the number has exceeded my age in years (I am 62). The total might be inflated, though, as some of the books have been duologues or … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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What I Read In December

Posted on 27 December 2024 by Henry Gee

Daniel Finkelstein: Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad I am sure you both know that Daniel Finkelstein is a journalist and Conservative peer, and you probably are also aware that he is, like me, a Red-Sea Pedestrian, whose world view is … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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In which I languish in limbo

Posted on 22 December 2024 by Jennifer Rohn

You could write an entire PhD thesis about how difficult it is for academics to relax on holiday. (And whoever’s writing it would be lying on the sofa by the Christmas tree right now, fretting about how they really ought … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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The 2023-2024 alt-Eras tour

Posted on 17 December 2024 by Richard Wintle

Well, it’s been about a week since the end of Taylor Swift’s monumental Eras Tour. Millions attended, and I’d presume that millions more, like me, never even got half a sniff at a ticket. I confess I didn’t exactly engage … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Praise and Possibility

Posted on 15 December 2024 by Athene Donald

Anyone who watched the final of BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing will have heard words like ‘resilient’, ‘belief’ and ‘self-confidence’ thrown in the direction of the four finalists by the judges, with all contestants having been on a ‘journey’. It got … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in academic pyramid, careers, deficit model, Interdisciplinary Science, Londa Schiebinger, macho, PhD students, Project Implicit, resilience, Science Culture, Science Funding, social media, Strictly Come Dancing, supervisors, Unconscious bias, Universities | Comments Off on Praise and Possibility

Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul

Posted on 9 December 2024 by Erika Cule

When I was a child 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child… — from 1 Corinthians 13:11, NRSVA In school, I hated sports. During PE rounders … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Living in Silos

Posted on 8 December 2024 by Athene Donald

When I first started writing this blog in 2010, I imagined I was going to write about the science that interested me, the latest papers in my field that caught my eye, and specifically highlight the excitement and challenge of … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Department for Education, education, interdisciplinarity, Interdisciplinary Science, jargon, natural history, People, Roger Pielke | Comments Off on Living in Silos

My favourite Christmas carol

Posted on 1 December 2024 by Frank Norman

Waiting for Christmas Today is the first day of Advent. In Christian tradition this is a time of preparation and waiting for the arrival of the infant Jesus on Christmas Day. These days Advent is often treated as the start … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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