Latest posts

What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

Posted on 13 July 2012 by Athene Donald

When I was a child a common response, from boys only I suspect, to ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ was ‘An engine driver’.  Even if a few girls shared the dream, I doubt they would have spoken out to say so back then. I am – just – old enough to recall shunting yards with engines getting up steam and belching out dirty smoke in the Continue reading →

Posted in careers, Communicating Science, locomotive, National Railway Museum, steam | Comments Off on What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

The Entrepreneurial State by Mariana Mazzucato

Posted on 12 July 2012 by Stephen

This is not new since Mariana Mazzucato’s breezy pamphlet, The Entrepreneurial State, was published a year ago, but it was new to me. I’ve just finishing reading it, having snagged one of the copies that she brought to June’s fascinating Science Question Time on economic growth.

The Entrepreneurial State

The Entrepreneurial State is a welcome addition to Continue reading →

Posted in economics, Science & Politics, Science Is Vital, Science policy | Comments Off on The Entrepreneurial State by Mariana Mazzucato

In which science policy suits up

Posted on 12 July 2012 by Jennifer Rohn

What must Britain do to retain its global scientific reputation in a changing world?

This evening at the Royal Society, various men of science, industry and politics gave us their opinion (“UK Research: Building Bridges, Building Prosperity”). These included the Rt Hon Dr Vince Cable MP, the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation a Continue reading →

Posted in Policy, Politics, Science Funding, Science Is Vital, The profession of science | Comments Off on In which science policy suits up

Bad cover version

Posted on 12 July 2012 by rpg

Ever have one of those evenings?

In the midst of following the conversation about an event at the Royal Society tonight, in which Vince Cable, Sir Paul Nurse and other luminaries discuss the future of science in the UK* (twitter tag RSvince), I saw this tweet:

RT @ProfBrianCox: Busy writing the Wonders of Life book. Its a bit tricky this biology st Continue reading →

Posted in Brian Bloody Cox, funding, rants, Vince Cable, Women in science | Comments Off on Bad cover version

Little blue

Posted on 10 July 2012 by rpg

In other news, this little guy deserves more exposure. We were sat there on Sunday afternoon, when suddenly there was a thud and a little tap on the wooden floor. We got up to see a rather startled baby blue tit sitting there by the back door.

Baby blue

Continue reading →
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Protected: On not being able to talk about it

Posted on 10 July 2012 by rpg

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Posted in day job, FDA, MOA, obfuscation, projects, videos, work | Comments Off on Protected: On not being able to talk about it

A very large building site

Posted on 10 July 2012 by Frank Norman

Last week I went on a short tour of the Francis Crick Institute construction site. The Crick is a new research institute due to open in 2015, and will be formed out of two existing institutes in London plus three University partners.  The tours are available for staff at the two constituent institutes so that we can get an idea of the project’ Continue reading →

Posted in Communicating Science, Crick | Comments Off on A very large building site

New job update

Posted on 10 July 2012 by Cath@VWXYNot?

Well, that was a crazy few weeks! If anyone out there is thinking of starting a new job while their parents are visiting them, my primary advice would be DON’T DO IT. They will treat your first day at work like your first day at school – I half expected them to hand me a matching Snoopy thermos and packed lunch box and take my photo on Continue reading →

Posted in career, communication, drunkenness, family, food glorious food, personal, sport, whining | Comments Off on New job update

Megajournals

Posted on 9 July 2012 by Frank Norman

The trend towards Open Access has catalysed the creation of many new journals and new publishers. BioMedCentral, established in 2000, was a pioneer of open access publishing, launching a large number of journals. Public Library of Science (PLoS) initially established a small number of high-level journals, then in 2006 it launched PLoS ONE. This was Continue reading →

Posted in Journal publishing, Megajournals, Open Access | Comments Off on Megajournals

Geekfest

Posted on 8 July 2012 by Henry Gee

Crox Minor and I are just back from geeking out at the the London Film and Comic Convention. As you can see it was very busy.
IMG_6129
Pic by Crox Minor entitled ‘Where’s Wally? Special Geek Edition’

There were lots of people in the most amazing costumes. Continue reading →

Posted in animé, black milk, crox minor, geekery, geekfather, geekfest, geekwear, genki gear, knights who say ni, london film and comic convention, manga, Science-fiction, Silliness, vocaloid | Comments Off on Geekfest