Category Archives: Science Culture

Who Has Authority Here?

Posted on February 7, 2021 by Athene Donald

Jackie Weaver may have become an internet sensation due to her calm handling of a bunch of unruly local councillors, but the behaviour manifest in the viral video is one that many a chair of an academic committee will recognize. … Continue reading →

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In Praise of Technicians

Posted on February 3, 2021 by Athene Donald

I was a very ham-fisted PhD student. I repeatedly broke a delicate and crucial piece of apparatus during the early months of my research, to the extent that I almost quit the whole endeavour and withdrew from the labs for … Continue reading →

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Are Journal Editors Biased?

Posted on January 17, 2021 by Athene Donald

Last week a paper by Squazzoni et al appeared, which had analysed submissions to 145 scholarly journals to look for gender bias in acceptances and across the whole editorial process. They claimed not to find it. When I saw the … Continue reading →

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The Need for Bounce

Posted on December 6, 2020 by Athene Donald

What would you feel if someone described you as a ‘demoralised pile of pulp’? I was distinctly taken aback by this extreme phrase, describing myself – by myself. It referred to the ‘me’ I had been a year previous to … Continue reading →

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Keeping On Keeping On

Posted on November 8, 2020 by Athene Donald

In the UK, as in many other countries, we have entered another lockdown, mysteriously assigned in some quarters a decimal point, as in lockdown 2.0. It’s a lockdown with a difference, in that the rules are not the same as … Continue reading →

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