Category Archives: Silliness

This week, in Frankfurt

Posted on January 20, 2014 by Bob O'H

This morning the latest blog post on the Grauniad’s science pages was the annual complaint about crap news stories about ‘Blue Monday’. I’ve no idea if these stories have reached Germany (and there doesn’t seem to be anything about it … Continue reading →

Posted in Silliness | 2 Comments

How old is your method?

Posted on October 25, 2013 by Bob O'H

Over on the Methods in Ecology & Evolution blog, Sam (our Assistant Editor) has just put up a podcast she edited from interviews made by Barb Anderson at Intecol this year. She wandered the meeting with a sonic screwdriver asking … Continue reading →

Posted in Ecology, Silliness | 4 Comments

Attack Budgies: leaks from the secret labs of GrrlScientist

Posted on October 11, 2013 by Bob O'H

This morning I was gravely offended by being described as an “attack parrot”. The offender’s mitigation was that he had originally wanted to call me an “attack budgie”, but had refrained, presumably because he thought an attack budgie sounded less … Continue reading →

Posted in Friday Fun, Silliness | 4 Comments

On the Evolution of Camouflage in Urban Environments

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Bob O'H

One of my offices is in the Geozentrum in the Goethe University here in Frankfurt. This morning this was on the side of the building: I only saw it because it was flapping about a bit in the wind. If … Continue reading →

Posted in Silliness | 5 Comments

How oil companies are helping to combat global warming

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Bob O'H

I just saw this news that Statoil is to be allowed to drill holes in the bottom of the North Sea: Sure many will be pleased to hear that Statoil have been permitted to conduct a huge development in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Friday Fun, Silliness | 1 Comment

Prizes Straight from the Pits of Hell

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Bob O'H

This should make predicting this year’s science Nobels easier. Last month, Republican congressman Paul Broun, who also happens to be a member of the US House of Representatives science committee, described evolution, the big bang theory and embryology as ‘lies … Continue reading →

Posted in Silliness, Uncategorized | 8 Comments

Research with impact

Posted on August 31, 2012 by Bob O'H

After Stephen’s posts about impact factors and the like, I have a couple of serious posts brewing. But for now (and because it’s Friday), I want to admit to my reaction today to an advert I got about a journal, … Continue reading →

Posted in Science Publishing, Silliness | 9 Comments

lme4: destined to become stable through rounding?

Posted on August 17, 2012 by Bob O'H

(this would have appeared on my blog on Nature Network, but the pulled the plug the day before. Sometimes correlation does not mean causation) Fans of R and mixed models are aware of the lme4 package. This started out as … Continue reading →

Posted in R, Silliness | Comments Off on lme4: destined to become stable through rounding?

Stupidity Molecule Identified

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Bob O'H

Researchers at the University of Utrecht have identified a molecule that could play a key role in controlling how stupid headlines develop in scientific press releases. Neurobiologists are trying to understand how titles that are at first sensible differentiate into … Continue reading →

Posted in Silliness | 7 Comments

Selecting Your LOLcats

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Bob O'H

The internet is a great thing, but it brings with it some problems. One of the future problems that we, as a civilisation, will face is the increased time we will be forced to spend finding the ideal photo for … Continue reading →

Posted in Friday Fun, Silliness | 2 Comments