Author Archives: rpg

About rpg

Scientist, poet, gadfly

The Chain

Listen to the wind blow, watch the sun rise At this time of night, if the lights on the Addenbrookes roundabout are kind to me—and they usually are, because the sensors pick me up as I approach—three minutes and two … Continue reading

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Congratulations to Athene

On behalf of the entire Occam’s Typewriter crew, I’d like to extend congratulations to Athene Donald for her Lifetime Achievement Award from the UKRC: Professor Dame Athene Donald of the University of Cambridge was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award … Continue reading

Posted in Women in science | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

I won’t apologize

But I have every sympathy with John Rennie. Read it, please. And forgive me.

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Darth Penguin

There are no words.

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On peer review, part 451 (b)

I had a conversation on twitter last night with m’learned friend Nige, who runs the most ethical small business I know of. He pointed me at this blog post by Richard Smith at the BMJ, What is post publication peer … Continue reading

Posted in day job, Literature, Nonsense, peer review, The stupid, it burns | Comments Off on On peer review, part 451 (b)

News

Breaking News! It is with great pleasure that, after a lot of negotiation, I am able to announce that Occam’s Typewriter is moving! The good folk at Scientopia have agreed to pay all of us to blog for them. So … Continue reading

Posted in Meta | Tagged | 51 Comments

Silence is Golden

It passed pretty much unnoticed amongst the other projects going on around here, but I wrote a short story the other week, and it’s up on LabLit: Silence is Golden. Gratifyingly, Tania Hershman asked me on Twitter whether there were … Continue reading

Posted in Lablit, Literature, wibbling, Writing | Comments Off on Silence is Golden

On health and safety gorn mad

The graduate student came running into the lab. “The centrifuge is on fire!” We’re talking quite a while ago now.

Posted in fire extinguishers, health & safety, The stupid, it burns, wank | Comments Off on On health and safety gorn mad

Online women in science

Back in January I was in North Carolina to participate in the Borafest—that is, Science Online 2011. The main reason for going was a little project cooked up with Jenny Rohn and Karen James. To wit: we wanted to film … Continue reading

Posted in science, video, women | Comments Off on Online women in science