Author Archives: rpg

About rpg

Scientist, poet, gadfly

Oh, Christmas Trees.

The Shetland Library has just informed its followers on Twitter and Facebook about this Christmas tree: Which is way too cool, and has given GrrlScientist and I an idea for next year’s tree (although if we use all of our … Continue reading

Posted in Silliness | Comments Off on Oh, Christmas Trees.

VWXY Hockey Pool Week 10 and reproducible research

I’ll be shocked if anyone remembers this post from last year, where I put up the results of the hockey pool Cath Ennis organised. But another year, another pool.

Posted in Silliness | 2 Comments

The source of a quote about the Second Law?

A few years ago I saw a quote up on the wall on the MRG lab in Helsinki, and I’m wondering if anyone knows its provenance. It went something like this: The Second Law of Thermodynamics, as it applies to … Continue reading

Posted in Ecology, Silliness | 1 Comment

On Ugly and Not so Ugly Maths

This week I’ve been writing a grant application. This has meant trawling through a pile of literature I wasn’t terribly familiar with. During that trawling I found this piece of rather ugly maths:

Posted in Aaaaaagh, Friday Fun | 3 Comments

Meta-analyses in Ecology and Evolution

I talked myself into giving a talk in a group seminar about meta-analyses in September, but that was shifted to November, so that everyone could attend. So, here it is. I have a couple of thoughts about how meta-analyses in … Continue reading

Posted in Ecology, Statistics | 12 Comments

What’s this?

I’ve just been looking at a bit of central China on Google Maps. This bit: View Larger Map I’m curious what this place looks like. I’m interpreting it as terraces on the sides of a river valley, but that’s an … Continue reading

Posted in Friday Fun, Science Blogging | 7 Comments

Explanations needed

last Saturday GrrlScientist and I went for a walk in Oberursel. It’s a pretty town, but down a back street we found this tree: Upon this tree was a sign: This was rather puzzling. What were a wheel-y thing and … Continue reading

Posted in Friday Fun, Silliness | 10 Comments

Oh yeah, this blog thing

Oh, damn. I’ve been wondering what that crying was I’ve been hearing down the intertubes these last couple of months. It was my poor Blog Monster complaining that it needed feeding with posts. A six spot burnet, Zygaena filipendula, last … Continue reading

Posted in Friday Fun | 9 Comments

What are PhDs for anyway?

A few weeks ago Nature published a piece, which asked “The world is producing more PhDs than ever before. Is it time to stop?”. A couple of weeks later the Royal Institution in London arranged a panel discussion about careers … Continue reading

Posted in Science Blogging | 11 Comments

Species Distribution Modeling Software Survey

Those of you who work with species distribution models might want to take this survey about the software we used to do the modelling. The ecologists at Microsoft Research in Cambridge want to know. The survey closes on July 1st, … Continue reading

Posted in Ecology | 3 Comments