Category Archives: Uncategorized

Bafflement and effort

From Robbins to McKinsey – The Dismantling of the Universities by Professor Stefan Collini (Faculty of English, University of Cambridge) is a thoughtful, articulate and damming critique of the Browne report (pdf) and subsequent Higher Education White Paper (pdf). It … Continue reading

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Cliffhanger 1

Today there are some changes for Blogging the PhD. I am proud to be part of the launch of Occam’s Typewriter, the sharpest blogging network in the box. To find out the outcome of my previous post, head over there. … Continue reading

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Status upgrade

I am one year and one month into my PhD, and next month I have my Upgrade examination. At many – although not all – UK universities, new PhD students are registered as Masters (MPhil) students in the first instance. … Continue reading

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Is parapsychology a science?

I was surprised to discover that there are at least two research groups at UK universities dedicated to the study of parapsychology. There is even a short course you can sign up to. However, whether or not parapsychology can be … Continue reading

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Theme Science

Wikipedia tells me that they are know as Construction and Management Simulation games. (Who knew? I didn’t!) I used to love playing them, and if the image of an 11-year-old kid engrossed in SimCity seems a little incongruous, perhaps that … Continue reading

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Stereotype threat

When I took my GCSE science exams, sometimes the questions were set in the context of an experiment. John and Sarah are investigating the effect of temperature on the rate of photosynthesis. or A physicist was investigating this or that … Continue reading

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Links I thought you had already seen

I had a great time at (my first) #ukscitweetup last night. I promised some people some links to some of my favourite articles, things I have not blogged about before on the assumption that they were old hat. The importance … Continue reading

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Lingua Franca

Why can’t they just write clearly ? Disgruntled Postdoc A threw the paper down on his desk in frustration. A non-native speaker of English, he had spent the morning studying an aspect of a new collaboration that he was less … Continue reading

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Focus on the Process, not the Task

In order to upgrade from MPhil to PhD student status, research postgraduates at Imperial College are required to undertake a certain amount of Transferable Skills Training. One option for obtaining the majority of the required credits on one go, and … Continue reading

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First Poster Presentation

This week, an unofficial, but to me not insignificant, milestone in my PhD studies took place. A poster abstract I submitted to the European Mathematical Genetics Meeting (EMGM) had been accepted, and the meeting took place in Oxford this week. … Continue reading

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