Latest posts

Paid overtime for post-docs? Implications!

Posted on 13 July 2016 by Steve Caplan

A new rule issued by the US Department of Labor, scheduled to go into effect on Dec. 1, 2016, is likely to have a major impact on the structure of the biomedical research enterprise in this country. This rule, which was designed to provide help to those at the lower end of the pay scale, has raised the threshold that absolves employers from paying Continue reading →

Posted in biomedical research, funding, grant, lab, labor, NIH, overtime, post-doc, post-doctoral fellow, postdoctoral fellow, principal investigator, Research, salary, science, stipend, wages | Comments Off on Paid overtime for post-docs? Implications!

Dressing for Success?

Posted on 9 July 2016 by Athene Donald

Women’s attire is so often the focus of media attention. I expect the relative merits of Andrea Leadsom’s and Theresa May’s wardrobes will be dissected as front page news for weeks, along with Angela Eagle’s. Focus on the importance of clothing in the job market was recently highlighted in research from the Paris-Sorbonne University, which ap Continue reading →

Posted in job interviews, professionalism, Science Culture, suits, Women in science | Comments Off on Dressing for Success?

Pride and Prejudice and journal citation distributions

Posted on 6 July 2016 by Stephen

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a researcher in possession of interesting experimental results, must be in want of a journal with a high impact factor.

It is also true – and widely understood – that journal impact factors (JIFs) are unreliable indicators of the quality of individual research papers. And yet they are still routinely used Continue reading →

Posted in Academic publishing, Citation distributions, impact factor, Open Access, scientific publishing | Comments Off on Pride and Prejudice and journal citation distributions

Science Funding from Europe and Commissioner Moedas

Posted on 1 July 2016 by Athene Donald

I went to Brussels this week for a Plenary meeting of the European Research Council’s Scientific Council. It was a strange week to go. As I sat on Eurostar and stared out at the passing countryside I strongly felt, what am I doing here, do I belong, why will they want to see me and, perhaps most strongly, WHAT HAVE WE DONE? As a scientist I was one Continue reading →

Posted in Brexit, ERC, funding, Research, Science Funding | Comments Off on Science Funding from Europe and Commissioner Moedas

Important conversations and confusing journals

Posted on 30 June 2016 by Frank Norman

A few weeks back I was a roomful of senior librarians, having Important Conversations about Publishers (ICP). More recently I sat and listened to a number of ICPs at the UKSG Conference – bookended by talks from Ann Rossiter and Cameron Neylon, each with important things to say to publishers.  So far so momentous: the tectonic plates of schol Continue reading →

Posted in Journal publishing, Scientific literature | Comments Off on Important conversations and confusing journals

In which I snap

Posted on 28 June 2016 by Jennifer Rohn

OCD Antibody Box

I’m not a neat freak or anything, at home or in the lab, but sometimes, enough is enough. Behold the new arrangement of our lab’s stash of fluorochrome-conjugated secondary antibodies. Is it not a thing of beauty?

Continue reading →
Posted in Research, Scientific thinking, Silliness | Comments Off on In which I snap

Graduation into Uncertainty

Posted on 25 June 2016 by Athene Donald

Graduation. That rite of passage that indicates the student moves on into the wider world. This past week has seen many hundreds of Cambridge undergraduates pass through the Senate House and emerge with their BA’s (or other appropriate degree(s)). So many students graduate each year, each presented individually with the correct – one hopes – Latin Continue reading →

Posted in Brexit, Equality, EU Referendum, michael gove | Comments Off on Graduation into Uncertainty

Father’s Day

Posted on 20 June 2016 by Erika Cule
One of the few issues on which my parents both took the same, apparently unwavering and absolute position was that of the sanctity of the secret ballot. Vote, my father said. No vote, no voice, he said. People died for your right to vote, he said. If you don’t vote, he said, don’t complain. Continue reading →
Posted in Life, Mock Election, Referendum | Comments Off on Father’s Day

Forgetting Compassion

Posted on 19 June 2016 by Athene Donald

Last Thursday I sat next to the Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor, Sir Mark Walport, at a College dinner. We discovered we were exact contemporaries in Cambridge, both coming up in 1971 to a world utterly different from the one we found ourselves in that day. In 1971 there was a spirit of optimism loose, at least in the circle I inhabited. We w Continue reading →

Posted in diversity, ERC, EU, Jo Cox, minority, Remain | Comments Off on Forgetting Compassion

We’re #1 with “Saving One!”

Posted on 18 June 2016 by Steve Caplan

It’s been a crazy 30 days since I submitted my LabLit novel, “Saving One,” to Amazon Kindle’s new publishing program, Kindle Scout. I would like to

Screen Shot 2016-06-18 at 10.49.03 AM

Saving One is #1 in HOT & TRENDING!

Continue reading →
Posted in Amazon, Ethics, Hot and Trending, kidney, kindle, Kindle Scout, lab lit, Lablit, medical ethics, medical thriller, polycystic kidney disease, Research, science, suspense, twins | Comments Off on We’re #1 with “Saving One!”