Category Archives: Research

Bust the Heroic Myth in Science

Posted on January 5, 2014 by Athene Donald

‘Paul Nurse believes in heroes of science’ was a line in my Twitter feed one morning recently ‘and so do I’ continued Roger Highfield, who gave the Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar Prize Lecture  at the Royal Society on this very topic last year. … Continue reading →

Posted in Research, Science Culture | Tagged , , , | 13 Comments

Recycling Talks

Posted on November 3, 2013 by Athene Donald

You know that sinking feeling. You have a talk, at a conference or another university, coming up in fewer days (possibly even hours) than you feel comfortable with and the temptation is great to dig into the files and simply … Continue reading →

Posted in Communicating Science, Research | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Why I Can’t Write Anything Funny about the REF

Posted on August 15, 2013 by Athene Donald

It’s the silly season, a time of year when many people are on holiday and usually big news tends to be in short supply other than the the annual excitement over A level grades. (Mind you, not so this year, when … Continue reading →

Posted in Research, Science Funding, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 62 Comments

The Seven Ages of an Academic Scientist

Posted on July 11, 2013 by Athene Donald

I have been meaning to write about the seven ages of the academic scientist (to adapt Jacques speech from As You Like It) for a while, but I had a sneaking suspicion this might not be an entirely original idea. … Continue reading →

Posted in Research, Science Culture | Tagged , , | 16 Comments

Muddled Mess or Merely Work in Progress?

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Athene Donald

What do our surroundings say about us? If we choose to work in an office strewn with bits of paper, open files, journals and other debris, is this a testament to the fact our minds are on higher things and … Continue reading →

Posted in Research, Science Culture | Tagged , , | 10 Comments