Latest posts

Happy Birthday DC

Posted on 19 July 2013 by Austin

DCIt is a pleasure to wish a Happy Birthday today to my friend Professor David Colquhoun, who, as he reaches the palindromic age of 77, is still fighting the various fights for good science – and reality in general – and against ‘Unreality’, managerial bullshit, Prince Charles and his ‘knight-starved’ toadies, and Continue reading →

Posted in Getting old, History, Pseudoscience, The Life Scientific, Universities | Comments Off on Happy Birthday DC

Richard Poynder asks: where are we with open access?

Posted on 17 July 2013 by Stephen

This post has been written simply to point you to an interesting series of interviews that Richard Poynder has published on his blog with a range of stakeholders in the open access arena. So far he has mostly interviewed advocates, but as anyone knows who has spent more than twenty minutes on this topic, open access is a broad church.

As a taster t Continue reading →

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Conferences, Childcare and Uncomfortable Stereotypes

Posted on 17 July 2013 by Athene Donald

The comment stream on my recent post  about the lack of female invited speakers at conferences was illuminating.  This lack of women on the conference podium appears not to stem simply from women not being invited, according to a recent paper, but because if they are far more likely than men to decline invitations when they receive them.  The comme Continue reading →

Posted in Equality, gender rejection sensitivity, invited speakers, sexism, Women in science | Comments Off on Conferences, Childcare and Uncomfortable Stereotypes

Scientific road maps for the future – proceed with caution.

Posted on 15 July 2013 by Sylvia McLain

roadmap

I spent the last week at the ICNS (International Conference of Neutron Scattering) in Edinburgh. This particular conference is only held every 4 years – bouncing back and forth between North America, Europe and Oceania. It is particularly fun, when you have spent a few years scattering neutrons, as you get to see all the folks you have met Continue reading →

Posted in impact, Roadmaps for science, science communication, Scientific impact | Comments Off on Scientific road maps for the future – proceed with caution.

Lab meeting–Part Two

Posted on 14 July 2013 by Steve Caplan

Our second unusual lab meeting took place in the Prius on our way home from Hearts United for Animals (HUA), close to Auburn, Nebraska, a small town about 60 miles south of Omaha.

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HUA is an animal shelter with a huge facility, and they save dogs and cats in Nebraska and from around the US. They have a very large ranch-like facility, in a beautiful Continue reading →

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Rando

Posted on 14 July 2013 by Cath@VWXYNot?

Those of you who’ve read some of my recent posts, or who follow me on Twitter, might have noticed that many of the photos I post are now circular.

No-one? Really?

Continue reading →
Posted in photos, screenshots, technology, the wonders of technology, Vancouver | Comments Off on Rando

In which a picture’s worth a thousand words – in any language

Posted on 11 July 2013 by Jennifer Rohn

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 and enthusiastic Italian undergraduate interested in gaining lab experience in a clinical setting.

It turned out her Continue reading →

Posted in The profession of science | Comments Off on In which a picture’s worth a thousand words – in any language

The Seven Ages of an Academic Scientist

Posted on 11 July 2013 by Athene Donald

I have been meaning to write about the seven ages of the academic scientist (to adapt Jacques speech from As You Like It) for a while, but I had a sneaking suspicion this might not be an entirely original idea. A quick search of the web shows me that Jerry Coyne  (Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago) ha Continue reading →

Posted in academic ladder, career progression, postdocs, Research, Science Culture | Comments Off on The Seven Ages of an Academic Scientist

The building takes shape

Posted on 9 July 2013 by Frank Norman

My Institute will vanish in a couple of years’ time and will be reborn as part of a brand-new Institute: the Crick. One of the advantages of working in an Institute that is going through these difficult times is the chance to peek into the developing new Institute – the largest single-site construction project in the UK. It is quite som Continue reading →

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From Raleigh’s pipe to tidal power

Posted on 9 July 2013 by Philip Strange

Dittisham and the Dart

Dittisham and the River Dart

A few miles before it meets the sea, the River Dart enjoys several wide meanders through beautiful South Devon countryside. Near the village of Dittisham, however, mariners must be aware of a dangerous obstacle, the Anchor Stone, a huge rock protruding from the river. Rumour has it that Sir Walter Raleigh used to smoke Continue reading →

Posted in devon, Dittisham, Dr Sarah Wollaston, Guest posts, marine renewable energy, river dart, tidal power, Totnes, transition town totnes, TRESOC, turbine | Comments Off on From Raleigh’s pipe to tidal power