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In which UK science funding faces a sudden new peril

Posted on 25 November 2013 by Jennifer Rohn

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% of the world’s population and 3% of global public spending on science, we publish 8% of the world’s papers and rack Continue reading →

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Age

Posted on 24 November 2013 by Henry Gee

IMG_8017They say that you know you’re getting old when a good day is waking without pain. I haven’t quite got that far yet, though I have reached a Professor Branestawm stage with my spectacles. The picture on the right shows, from bottom to top; my regular specs, varifocals (how I hate varifocals), which broke on Friday while in the car on the Continue reading →

Posted in ageing, Domesticrox, parthenon, Silliness, spectacles, varifocals | Comments Off on Age

UK University debates, when gender segregation is OK?

Posted on 24 November 2013 by Sylvia McLain

Get real UK Universities

Universities UK have issued some guidance on separating genders during debate,* apparently it is OK if the facilities are separate but equal. Women can be placed separately from men as long as they aren’t seated behind. Because in some sort of alternate reality this is perfectly acceptable equality. Separate but eq Continue reading →

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A Degree of Betrayal

Posted on 23 November 2013 by Steve Caplan

What a week it’s been! My book launch for “A Degree of Betrayal” in now finally underway!

image

I am delighted to report that “A Degree of Betrayal” is now officially on sale! Continue reading →

Posted in A Degree of Betrayal, book, Book launch, Books, career, female protagonist, feminism, graduate student, midlife crisis, PhD, Research, science, sexual harassment, student | Comments Off on A Degree of Betrayal

Who

Posted on 23 November 2013 by Henry Gee

Unless you have been buried 37 miles underground on the fifth moon of Jaglon Beta since – oooh – the Middle Pleistocene, it will not have escaped your notice that the 50th anniversary approaches of the first broadcast of Dr Who, a sporadically long-running televisual emission of a science-fictional nature, which has become as much of a Continue reading →

Posted in Apparitions, dalek, david tennant, Domesticrox, dr who, jfk, jon pertwee, marmite, matt smith, patrick troughton, Science-fiction, tardis, the archers, tom baker, Writing & Reading | Comments Off on Who

Courage, Inadequacy and Taking the Plunge

Posted on 22 November 2013 by Athene Donald

It’s almost two years since I wrote about the dangers of looking at people you respect through rose-tinted glasses. That post was prompted by a relatively junior scientist losing their nerve after they had directly challenged something I’d said and then feeling they had a need to apologise to me for their apparent temerity. I hope they Continue reading →

Posted in confidence, Impostor syndrome, Mrs Moneypenny, Science Culture, Women in science | Comments Off on Courage, Inadequacy and Taking the Plunge

The very interesting web of connections

Posted on 22 November 2013 by Stephen

The Royal Institution has made a rather lovely film about William and Lawrence Bragg, the father and son Nobel laureates who came up the method of structural analysis by X-ray crystallography around 100 years ago. The film is constructed around an interview with Lawrence Bragg’s daughter Patience, a delightful lady who has very fond memories of her Continue reading →

Posted in Bragg, electrons, George Thomson, History of Science, Protein Crystallography, X-ray crystallography | Comments Off on The very interesting web of connections

A Modest Proposal for the Improvement of Conferences

Posted on 19 November 2013 by Henry Gee

I am at a coffee break at a conference and a person of a certain age has just engaged me in conversation – having mistaken me for someone else, having been unable to read my name badge. The badges are printed in a typeface which, while slim and elegant, is hard to read from more than a short distance, and is, I guess, no larger than 24-point Continue reading →

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Has a career in science become a dog’s life?

Posted on 17 November 2013 by Steve Caplan

A dog's life

Ginger, after retrieving a gazillion tennis balls on a beautiful Sunday morning.

“A dog’s life?” Certainly a misnomer if I’ve ever heard one; at least for this dog, life is good. Continue reading →

Posted in careers, dog, funding, grants, investigators, NIH, personnel, proposals, Research, science, scientists | Comments Off on Has a career in science become a dog’s life?

Where are all the damn women?

Posted on 17 November 2013 by Sylvia McLain

I was lucky enough to get tickets to BBC Radio 4′s Any Questions a few weeks ago held in St. Peter’s College (Oxford) chapel. It was a great atmosphere, if you ever get the chance to get tickets to such an event, go, it’s great. The panel consisted of 4 people, 1 female the other 3 male. While Any Questions might have a dearth Continue reading →

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