A while ago I posted a beachcombing of a bone found on the East Beach at Cromer, which my Friend Mr P. V. of Lewisham (who regularly entertains such images in his blog, Zygoma) identified as the humerus of a juvenile common or harbour seal, Phoca vitulina. I wish to register another in the canon, found earlier this afternoon as I was walking along Continue reading
There is a feminist critical film theory from the 70′s that pointed out (rather astutely) that in many films women where just there to be looked at. Men did stuff, women were present either for visual pleasure, or simply as a contrast – such as the evil step mother or Mrs. Rochester.
Portrayals of female scientists in film suffer fro Continue reading
To tie in with International Women’s Day, last month Nature ran a series of articles about the issues still facing women in science and also a podcast with Uta Frith and myself debating some of the issues. The interviewer, Charlotte Stoddart asked me, amongst other things, why I felt unconscious bias was so important that I frequently wrote about i Continue reading
Back in 2009, Hal Varian, Chief Economist at Google, said in an interview
I keep saying the sexy job in the next ten years will be statisticians.
More recently, his review of Nate Silver‘s The Signal and the Noise, Larry Wasserman explained
Continue readingWhat does one need to obtain grant funding in these tough times?
*Overcoming obstacles
*Fierce determination
*Exceptional creativity and ingenuity
*Proof of feasibility
*Above all, persistence and resilience
In short, behave like this squirrel that entertained us all through dinner. Continue reading
I knew that J. R. R. Tolkien had once visited Norwich, but imagine my shock and awe at the news, communicated by my friend Mr M. A. Continue reading
In a post I wrote over on the Guardian yesterday, I made the comparison between early-career researchers and unknown musicians:
But how does a younger scientist with a shorter track record, whose “excellence” might not yet be apparent, get his first grant? It must be a lot like getting your first break as a popular musician – except unl Continue reading
I’ve just come back from EightSquaredCon, the 64th annual conference of the British Science Fiction Society, which was held on The Ice Planet Hoth in Bradford. As it’s held over the long Easter weekend it’s known as ‘Eastercon’.
As SF conventions go, Eastercon tends to the bookish and literary, so there are fewer peopl Continue reading
The Easter break, relatively short though it may be, offers me an opportunity to introduce another raft of characters from the Athenian University to join my previous lists of Dramatis Personae/ character assassinations. Here I describe variations on the theme of University lecturers, although of course that title is not meant to say anything about Continue reading
