Author Archives: rpg

About rpg

Scientist, poet, gadfly

Ignobel behaviour

Without further comment.

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On the hairy nature of light

One of the least strange physical phenomena is that light behaves like a wave. Some of the time, at least. (The Younger Pawn asked if she could surf on light, if it was a wave. I said only if she … Continue reading

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Update

WordPress updated to 3.1 today. This resulted in some down-time for the front page of the network, although all the individual blogs seemed unaffected. The front page, and the main wp-admin pages, were blank. I’ve found the offending plug-in that … Continue reading

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I fought the law

Here’s number three in the penguin series. When a rival company’s toy wanders into Penguin territory, things don’t turn out so well. I fought the law

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On writing papers

One languid Sydney lunchtime I copied a particularly egregious paragraph from one of my co-authors and emailed it to my boss, with simply a ‘!’ for comment. A few minutes later his reply snuck sheepishly into my inbox, with the … Continue reading

Posted in Literature, papers, rants | Comments Off on On writing papers

On belly button fluff

As you’ll have heard on the LabLit podcast, Jenny swabbed her belly button at the Science Online conference, all in the interests of science. You can find out why from Meg Lowman’s blog on Belly Button Diversity. Now, being the … Continue reading

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On taking a good look at ourselves

Cross-posted from Naturally Selected for added controversy. Perhaps the most distinctive and powerful thing about Science is its tendency, or rather proclivity to ask searching, even uncomfortable questions. And unlike belief systems, or ideological and political and movements, or pseudoscience, … Continue reading

Posted in bias, clinical trials, drugs, F1000, Medicine, Politics, ranting, science | Comments Off on On taking a good look at ourselves

London Calling

A big HELLO to everybody. I hope you enjoy your time at Occam’s Typewriter. It’s great to have you here, and all our bloggers are very keen and excited about our new venture. Just a quick housekeeping note: do please … Continue reading

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A New England

Welcome to Occam’s Typewriter, the sharpest blogging network in the box. Enjoy yourselves!

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