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Impressions of ASHG 2012

Posted on 15 November 2012 by Erika Cule

Whilst most of the science blogosphere my science blogging colleagues were getting stuck in to Science Online London 2012, I was at the closing plenary of the 62nd meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics. If solo12 is the home of science online in London, ASHG2012 was an example of science online in action: the use of social media to sha Continue reading →

Posted in ASHG2012, conference, Impressions, PhD, San Francisco | Comments Off on Impressions of ASHG 2012

Ludwig Guttmann

Posted on 14 November 2012 by Frank Norman

This is mainly a plug for my first foray onto Occam’s Corner, plus a place to list some of the sources of information that I used, and to tell the story of the chase for a missing document.

I feel quite excited about getting something published on OC, on the Guardian website.  Several of my fellow Occams Typewriter bloggers are old hands at i Continue reading →

Posted in Blogology, History | Comments Off on Ludwig Guttmann

Solo Hackday

Posted on 13 November 2012 by Frank Norman

Once upon a time I might have described myself as a techie. My career was founded on my willingness to install hgopher and Trumpet Winsock and fiddle with autoexec.bat and config.sys. This gave people access to the wonders of the internet back in 1992. Continue reading →

Posted in Research tools, Scientific literature | Comments Off on Solo Hackday

Remembering veterans in my family

Posted on 11 November 2012 by Sylvia McLain

Today is the day we remember those who died in wars. Wars for our freedoms, pointless wars, wars against tyranny, wars of invasion. There is no way around the fact that wars are awful, but regardless if you feel a war is justified or not – it always involves suffering.

My Grandfather was a First World War Vet. Continue reading →

Posted in remembrance day | Comments Off on Remembering veterans in my family

Anglo-Saxon Attitudes

Posted on 11 November 2012 by Henry Gee

You’ll both be aware of my interest in Old English and the Anglo-Saxon period of English history. Here, then, is a description of how evidence was judged in an Anglo-Saxon coutroom circa 990 AD.

The defendant was not required to produce evidence about the facts of the dispute, but to bring to court compurgators or oath-helpers who would swear Continue reading →

Posted in BBC, journalism, Monbiot, Newsnight, paedophiles, Politicrox | Comments Off on Anglo-Saxon Attitudes

More local history – the lime kiln

Posted on 10 November 2012 by Richard Wintle

Lime kiln, Mountsberg, Halton Region
Pioneer lime kiln, Mountsberg, Ontario – 120 format film and the 1937 camera

I’ve occasionally written about getting out and about and exploring local history, here in the southeastern part of the Province of Ontario. This is something I should probably be doing more of – along with writing about it here. But with the riotous co Continue reading →

Posted in Canada, History, lime, limestone, Ontario, Photography, pioneers, science, travel | Comments Off on More local history – the lime kiln

Is science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) the big winner of the US elections?!

Posted on 10 November 2012 by Steve Caplan

NS

Let me start off by offering my utmost congratulations to the statistician-bloggers who predicted the outcomes of the US elections with startling accuracy. The methodical and scientific approaches of using poll aggregates with statistical variables introduced in a wholly scientific manner was championed by The New York Times FiveSixtyEight blogger Continue reading →

Posted in akin, drew linzer, education, fivethirtyeight, humor, losers, mourdock, myth busters, nate silver, Obama, presidential elections, princeton election consortium, Research, romney, sam wang, science, science stem, senate races, votamatic | Comments Off on Is science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) the big winner of the US elections?!

To Begin at the Beginning

Posted on 10 November 2012 by Athene Donald

It seems obvious: any piece of writing should have a beginning, a middle and an end. But how often have I heard the lack of structure moaned about by those folk who have to read some prose, in particular supervisors reading their student’s work. Not infrequently I have been given a draft manuscript which has seemed to meander all over the place wit Continue reading →

Posted in Communicating Science, Girton College, PhD, prose, Research, Thesis | Comments Off on To Begin at the Beginning

An unexpected delight in the form of careers advice

Posted on 10 November 2012 by Erika Cule
Jenny Rohn's novel The Honest Look on sale at ASHG2012

Fellow Occam’s Typewriter blogger
Jenny Rohn‘s book on sale at ASHG 2012.

This week I am attending the 62nd meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics here in San Francisco. Being a PhD student, I registered for several of the events aimed at Trainees.

Continue reading →
Posted in ASHG2012, careers, Life, networking, PhD, science careers | Comments Off on An unexpected delight in the form of careers advice