Author Archives: Athene Donald

Bin the Past

My last post talked about binning a word, ‘boffin’, but currently I’m literally binning my past. As my former home of the Cavendish Laboratory prepares to move into its shiny new buildings, the Dolby Centre, I need to clear out … Continue reading

Posted in Research | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Bin the Boffin

Speaking personally, I hate the label ‘boffin’. Maybe once upon a time it was seen as a positive, but not any more. The Institute of Physics is running a ‘Ban the Boffin’ campaign, as part of their Limit Less campaign … Continue reading

Posted in Science Culture, Women in Science | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Bin the Boffin

Nerves? We (Nearly) All Have Them

Recently I had occasion to watch a young adult preparing to make a presentation. They were incredibly nervous, but when it came to standing in front of the audience little of that was evident. Just a small amount of self-deprecating … Continue reading

Posted in Communicating Science, Science Culture | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Nerves? We (Nearly) All Have Them

Innovation: New ideas and New people

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of delivering a public lecture with the above title in the beautiful interior of Hereford Cathedral. This unusual venue, a wonderful testament to the ingenuity of medieval builders, was chosen by the Engineering … Continue reading

Posted in Science Culture, Women in Science | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Innovation: New ideas and New people

Pecking Orders Aren’t All They Seem

The term, pecking order, may have been coined in relation to poultry, the office boy kicking the cat clearly fits more into the domain of offices, but we all recognize the tendency to know one’s place in a hierarchy and … Continue reading

Posted in Science Culture | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Pecking Orders Aren’t All They Seem