About Jenny
By day: cell biologist at UCL. By night: novelist, broadcaster, science writer, sci-lit-art pundit, blogger and Editor of LabLit.com. I blog about my life in science, not the facts and figures.
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Author Archives: Jennifer Rohn
In which the postdoc sell-by date continues to shrivel: The MRC comes to its senses
How do you judge the worth of a researcher? In particular, can you tell how excellent she is by how quickly she gets from point A to point B in her career? The funding bodies used to think speed was … Continue reading
In which I invite them in
Although engaging with the public about science is famously not about – heaven forbid – ‘teaching’ it, the two endeavors do share some common strategies. I’ve been organizing and executing a lot of undergraduate educational sessions these past few terms, … Continue reading
Posted in Science talking, Scientific thinking, Silliness, Students, Teaching
14 Comments
In which we make a splash: Fiction Lab in the papers
A perplexing start this morning: a text from the lovely Sarah Main, director of CaSE, congratulating me on a mention in London’s Metro newspaper and wishing me “luck on Monday”. Cue breaking out into a cold sweat as, seeing nothing … Continue reading
Posted in LabLit, Stereotypes
3 Comments
In which a tale of antibiotics takes form
It’s a grey afternoon outside the study window. This morning a thick fog erased the usual twinkling lights of Tilbury Docks along the estuary, with seagoing vessels blowing their horns in long, sonorous warnings. A fitting soundtrack, as tomorrow spells … Continue reading
Posted in Science talking, Staring into the abyss
3 Comments
In which we despair: show and tell is alive and well
I have a theory about best-selling authors. Once they have finally made their breakthroughs, they tend to get lazy. I have noticed that subsequent novels often become longer – just eyeball your collection of Harry Potters on the bookshelf and … Continue reading
Posted in LabLit, Writing
9 Comments
In which I enjoy a Northern sojourn
I spend a lot of my time these days up at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, helping out with undergraduate teaching. It’s marked a new phase of traipsing up and down on the Northern Line to my lab on … Continue reading
Posted in Gardening, Silliness, Teaching
2 Comments
In which my palm is crossed with silver: Suffrage Science 2014
Inheritance doesn’t have to be genetic. This past Thursday at London’s Dana Centre, I was one of this year’s recipients for Suffrage Science. For those of you unfamiliar with the scheme, it was launched in 2011 by the Medical Research … Continue reading
Posted in Women in science, Writing
3 Comments
In which we need more lab coats in the Commons
Like many commuters serving as a captive audience on the London Underground, I tend to read the free Evening Standard most nights. I enjoy the op ed pieces by Rosamund Urwin, who has always struck me as both light-hearted and … Continue reading
Posted in Policy, Politics
4 Comments
In which I am still largely at large: another mother in academia
Blogging appearances to the contrary, I am still alive, clinging gamely to some semblance of work-life balance as a new mother in academia. Not so new anymore, I realize, as Joshua hurtles, one milestone at a time, toward his first … Continue reading
In which I receive a gift
What do you buy the female scientist who has everything? A few days ago I noticed a news clip in the London Evening Standard, mentioning that a new line of Lego featuring women researchers had sold out within hours of … Continue reading
