Latest posts

A Professorial Guide (Updated)

Posted on 23 December 2014 by Athene Donald

In the run up to Christmas I feel I should be posting something light, frothy and cheerful. But somehow a diet of the REF, the Strategy and Innovation review which prompted my last post, as well as more domestic upheavals and concerns have knocked any frothiness out of me. So I’m going to cheat and repost and update something I wrote as Chris Continue reading →

Posted in departmental committees, professors, Science Culture | Comments Off on A Professorial Guide (Updated)

How to pass your PMP exam

Posted on 22 December 2014 by Cath@VWXYNot?

It’s been a while, eh?

Today’s the first day since early September that I’ve woken up without a long list of specific things to accomplish, and it is blissful! I’m on my sister-in-law’s sofa with a big cup of tea, and I don’t have to do anything but this or be anywhere but here ALL DAY. Heaven! Continue reading →

Posted in blog buddies, career, conferences, furry friends, personal, science, why I love the internet | Comments Off on How to pass your PMP exam

It’s All about Science Policy this Week: the Good and the Bad

Posted on 18 December 2014 by Athene Donald

There has been much activity on what could loosely be termed ‘Science Policy’ this week, including both the long-awaited/significantly delayed BIS Science and Innovation (S+I) Strategy document (entitled, optimistically ‘Our plan for growth’) and the outcome of the REF2014. I will leave discussion of the latter for another d Continue reading →

Posted in Phd student training, Science Funding, Sir Mark Walport, Sir Paul Nurse, Strategy and Innovation | Comments Off on It’s All about Science Policy this Week: the Good and the Bad

Vanity project

Posted on 15 December 2014 by Stephen

I haven’t written a book. And this is it.

Cover photo

Well, I did write it of course. Continue reading →

Posted in Scientific Life | Comments Off on Vanity project

500 dead bumblebees – the chemical blitz of modern farming

Posted on 15 December 2014 by Philip Strange

Globe thistle

Earlier this year, Sheila Horne was walking at Hacton Parkway, a public park and conservation area in Havering, East London. April is normally a good time to see insects in their prime so she was very surprised to find many dead and dying bees near the path. She alerted local naturalist, Tony Gunton who identified the insects as bumblebee queens f Continue reading →

Posted in buff-tailed bumblebee, buglife, bumblebees, common carder bee, conservation, epoxiconazole, flusilazole, fungicides, Guest posts, Hacton Parkway, imidacloprid, insecticides, neonicotinoids, pollinators, red-tailed bumblebee, thiamethoxam, tony gunton | Comments Off on 500 dead bumblebees – the chemical blitz of modern farming

On moving on from The Lancet’s egregious error

Posted on 14 December 2014 by Steve Caplan

In the midst of the terrible summer war between the Hamas movement in Gaza and Israel, The Lancet published a rabidly anti-Israel letter entitled “An Open Letter for the People of Gaza” that accused Israel of intentional genocide and Israeli doctors of essentially being part of this genocidal activity — and of course squarely plac Continue reading →

Posted in "open letter to the people of Gaza, academic boycott, anti-semitism, Dr. Horton, genocide, Israel, Israelis, Manduca, Medicine, Palestinians, Research, rockets, science, terror, The Lancet, war | Comments Off on On moving on from The Lancet’s egregious error

Should I Be Discombobulated?

Posted on 12 December 2014 by Athene Donald

If I were Mary Beard I’m sure I could tell you about my particular current predicament with grace and self-deprecating humour. As it is my reaction is a severe case of impostor syndrome when perhaps I should be swanning around with delight. But yet to talk about such delight makes me feel in danger of exhibiting unsuitable over-confidence ver Continue reading →

Posted in portraiture, role models, Science Culture, Tess Barnes, Women in science | Comments Off on Should I Be Discombobulated?

Creativity – mixing it up

Posted on 9 December 2014 by Frank Norman

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve had cause to celebrate dramatic creativity in various forms, mixed and mingled. I’ve seen one film and two musicals; two with a biographical bent and one with a (fictional) scientific bent.

Two weeks back I went to my wonderful local cinema, The Phoenix in East Finchley, to see Hockney as part of an ev Continue reading →

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On Sponsorship and Kindness

Posted on 7 December 2014 by Athene Donald

Academia is intrinsically competitive, full of the need to win grants – which necessarily implies winning out over nameless others – gaining promotion and trying to beat others to a hot result at the expense of colleagues in the game. Does that mean the best science gets done? Almost certainly not. Being competitive can lead to a race to publicatio Continue reading →

Posted in criticism, early career researcher, Equality, Science Culture, support, Women in science | Comments Off on On Sponsorship and Kindness

Prize-winning video

Posted on 6 December 2014 by Stephen

Well this is nice. The Celebrating Crystallography video made last year by the Royal Institution, which I narrated and helped to script-edit, has won the the EuroScience New Media award. Full details are available on the RI blog but it’s great to see a project come to such fruition.

The film came about as a result of an STFC grant on which Mi Continue reading →

Posted in communication, science, Science & Media | Comments Off on Prize-winning video