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.
Category Archives: Teaching
In which we experiment
My three-year-old son Joshua is a bright and curious boy, full of incessant questions and always wanting to get into everything. The other day he noticed that when he was sucking up juice with a straw, the level of liquid … Continue reading
Posted in Domestic bliss, Teaching
4 Comments
In which the calm cowers before the storm
Can you hear it? Yes, that’s the sound of a distinct lack of undergraduates knocking around the place. Even the summer lab students have departed, off for a few weeks of R&R or debauchery before the grind kicks back in … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Students, Teaching, The profession of science
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In which I finally get it: multitasking is evil
It’s a new year, and the academic term has kicked in with renewed vigor. I haven’t written here for a while because I simply didn’t have the mental capacity. I collapsed into the Christmas holidays nearly flattened with exhaustion and … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Teaching, The profession of science
6 Comments
Too many jobs, not enough quiet: In which I am spread too thin
To be in academia is to multitask. As a principal investigator in a big university, it is becoming increasingly apparent that investigation is not my principal role. Yes, I run a lab (which is in turn defined by multitasks: supervising … Continue reading
In which the forest emerges
The clocks have gone forward, the crocuses wither, the tulips unfurl. The students have dispersed for Easter, full of dread about the immunology exam that will pounce on their return. Budding life forms I put one grant application to bed … Continue reading
Posted in Careers, Gardening, Scientific thinking, Staring into the abyss, Students, Teaching, The profession of science
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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 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 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
