Latest posts

Let’s Get Stereotypes out of Science Education

Posted on 10 February 2013 by Athene Donald

Women are from Venus, like making cupcakes, like bright colours – particularly pink – and need to be told at frequent intervals that ‘math is meant to be hard’. That seems to be the verdict you could cull from many pop-psychology articles, with that last helpful piece of advice about math(s) to be found in a recent article in this genre on the Guar Continue reading →

Posted in education, Equality, physics, stereotype threat, teachers, Women in science | Comments Off on Let’s Get Stereotypes out of Science Education

(Talkin’ ’bout) my generation

Posted on 9 February 2013 by rpg

Someone, somewhere, has been viewing my LinkedIn profile.

I know this, see, because I’ve had a couple of calls and emails from various recruitment agencies, and I’ve seen that recruitment ‘specialists’ have left their footprints all over LinkedIn. One of them called me out of the blue at work. When it became clear that IR Continue reading →

Posted in careers, recruiters | Comments Off on (Talkin’ ’bout) my generation

Gantt charts, work plans and funding research

Posted on 9 February 2013 by Sylvia McLain

I spend four hours yesterday making a chart. Really.

It was a Gantt chart. For those of you not familiar with a Gantt chart this is what they look like:
Gantt chart

Continue reading →
Posted in Gantt Charts, research council funding, research funding | Comments Off on Gantt charts, work plans and funding research

Experiments, hypotheses, volcanoes, newtons and free downloads

Posted on 9 February 2013 by Steve Caplan

It’s been an exciting week of experiments: in the lab and at home for my son’s school science fair—and for the psychology of marketing. But I’ll come to that later. Let’s start at the annual school science fair.

An elementary school science fair is a wonderful thing. Continue reading →

Posted in education, Research, science | Comments Off on Experiments, hypotheses, volcanoes, newtons and free downloads

Mind your language

Posted on 8 February 2013 by Philip Strange

I enjoy going to art galleries.  I enjoy looking at art and I can recall vividly the thrill of seeing the “Impressionists” in Paris for the first time.  For me, visiting a gallery is still something of an occasion and I get the added pleasure of people watching.

For some time, though, I have felt mystified by the prose used in galleries to describe Continue reading →

Posted in contemporary art, Guest posts, language, Science policy, understanding of science | Comments Off on Mind your language

The Royal Institution: not time to move on

Posted on 7 February 2013 by Stephen

The Royal Institution
Less than a week after the Royal Institution announced that it was contemplating the sale of its historic home in Albermarle Street, Nature published an editorial criticising the 200 year old organisation for having lost its science communication mojo in a world that had ‘moved on’. The journal went so far as to suggest that the RI sho Continue reading →

Posted in History of Science, Open Access, Royal Institution | Comments Off on The Royal Institution: not time to move on

Confidence and Confidentiality

Posted on 7 February 2013 by Athene Donald

I have a couple of tasks ahead of me which I am currently mulling over. The first is a talk I’m going to give to Newcastle University’s Women’s Network on Building Confidence, in which I’ve been asked to build on a couple of earlier blogposts (the one on Impostor Syndrome and the one on constantly feeling as if one is a novice); the second is a req Continue reading →

Posted in anonymity, Blogging, Communicating Science, Science Culture, students | Comments Off on Confidence and Confidentiality

Response to House of Commons Committee Call for Evidence on Open Access

Posted on 6 February 2013 by Stephen

This week it is the turn of the House of Commons to investigate the UK policy on open access. No-one seems to be quite sure if they are co-ordinating things with the House of Lords, which was looking into this issue only last week, but on the plus side at least all these inquiries mean that OA remains a live topic.

I made a submission to the House Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access | Comments Off on Response to House of Commons Committee Call for Evidence on Open Access

FREE BOOK !!!

Posted on 6 February 2013 by Henry Gee

Roll up, roll up, roll up – for today only (that’s 6 February 2013), you can download my book The Science of Middle-earth for FREE from the Amazon Kindle Store. Now, you might ask, how does it profit me to give away a book, free, gratis and for nothing? Well, it works, apparently. It’s all to do with the new kind of business clima Continue reading →

Posted in business, Chris Anderson, FREE, hobbit, online, online business, the long tail, the lord of the rings, the science of middle earth, tolkien, Writing & Reading | Comments Off on FREE BOOK !!!

Black and White, Silver and Gold

Posted on 5 February 2013 by Richard Wintle

With the holiday season over, the late winter grant-writing grind in full swing, and spring still separated from me by the inevitable February blahs, I need something shiny to cheer me up. Although, truth be told, a recent visit from fellow Occam’s Typewriter blogger Steve Caplan helped a bit. I can report that the real Steve is completely co Continue reading →

Posted in Canada, cottage, Desert Lake, Fish, Hobbies, Mike, Mike Howard, Ontario, Photography, Uncle Mike | Comments Off on Black and White, Silver and Gold