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.
Author Archives: Jennifer Rohn
In which self-help goes all Jurassic on your ass
I don’t even know where to begin. How is this analogy even remotely helpful to those of us currently living in the Cenozoic Era?
Posted in Silliness, Writing
17 Comments
In which I have too much to lose
There’s an amusing adage I’ve been hearing about babies all my life: They make ’em cute so you won’t kill ’em. The F1, last week Evolutionarily, there may be something to that. If it was anything other than your own … Continue reading
Posted in Domestic bliss, Staring into the abyss
17 Comments
In which nature imitates science
On the walk from my house to Russia Dock Woodlands, you have to pass by a particular hedgerow. Like all good hedgerows, it’s thick and impenetrable and rustling with unseen bird life. And it produces lots of bright-red berries, which … Continue reading
Posted in Domestic bliss, Scientific thinking, Silliness
2 Comments
In which I drop in
I’m now roughly two-thirds of the way through my maternity leave, and feeling surprisingly good. After nearly three months with my new son, I’m finally under control: he is starting to sleep well at night, and I have mastered all … Continue reading
Posted in Domestic bliss, The profession of science
1 Comment
In which I narrowly avoid oblivion
Even at moments of the most extreme duress, it is difficult for me to stop thinking like a scientist. A few days after the birth of my son some twelve weeks ago, things were just starting to normalize for Richard … Continue reading
Posted in Scientific thinking, Staring into the abyss
20 Comments
In which UK science funding faces a sudden new peril
A spokesperson for Vladimir Putin recently mocked the United Kingdom for being a “small island” to which no one paid any heed. He is clearly not familiar with the UK’s impressive scientific reputation on the world stage: with just 1% … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, science funding, Science is Vital
3 Comments
In which I step out
Six weeks into the big experiment, and I’m surfacing for a brief update. There is nothing I can say about new motherhood that has not been rehashed a million times, so on the topic of sleepless nights, lunching frantically on … Continue reading
In which we make a move
There’s a lot of change going on in my life right now, all at once. In addition to giving birth sometime in the next fortnight and needing to finish up a major piece of work-related writing before that, my lab … Continue reading
Posted in Nostalgia, The profession of science
8 Comments
In which I find ‘it’
When I pictured my ‘adult’ life in academic science, it never looked anything like what it actually turned out to be. Trained as we are through the ranks, the neophyte scientist is constantly exposed to her bright future stretching ahead … Continue reading
In which a picture’s worth a thousand words – in any language
Sometimes random consecutive events jibe in unexpectedly harmonious ways. When I returned to the lab from a well-earned holiday in Italy yesterday, the first thing I did was have a chat with one of our new summer students, a bright … Continue reading
Posted in The profession of science
12 Comments
