Latest posts

In Defence of Academics

Posted on 8 July 2012 by Athene Donald

I’ve been away on holiday for the past week, cowering beneath the clouds, storms and floods this Great British summer has been throwing at us and catching up with some reading. Consequently, I have had more time than usual to scan the newspapers (the print version at that, as I left my laptop and iPad behind), with much about the Higgs Boson and Ba Continue reading →

Posted in academia, education, long hours culture, Science Culture, Simon Jenkins | Comments Off on In Defence of Academics

Chair

Posted on 7 July 2012 by Steve Caplan

chair

Over the past week I have assumed position as “chair” of my departmental graduate and admissions committee a task that I am excited to carry out, but simultaneouly dreading.

Given that our department has the largest number of graduate students of all those in the medical center, numbering about 35 at any given time, this will be a majo Continue reading →

Posted in chair, education, graduate committee, life imitates fiction, professors, Research, responsibility, science, students | Comments Off on Chair

No passion please, we’re scientists

Posted on 6 July 2012 by Austin

In which I put a damper on all this over-invoked passion.

Regular readers of this blog (you know who you are, you two – stop giggling at the back), or of others in the OT stable where I can be found grumbling in the comments, will know that I have an abiding loathing – you might even call it a *cough* passionate *cough* hatred – f Continue reading →

Posted in Annoyances, Grumbling, The Interwebz, The Life Scientific | Comments Off on No passion please, we’re scientists

Open Access by Peter Suber

Posted on 5 July 2012 by Stephen

There has been a fairly torrid debate over open access over the last six months (even longer for aficionados). For people who look in only occasionally it must seem like a storm that swirls around the same arguments time and again. This jargon can be problematic — open access is variously green, gold, gratis or libre — and is wrapped around a compl Continue reading →

Posted in book review, kindle, Open Access | Comments Off on Open Access by Peter Suber

M and S

Posted on 5 July 2012 by Frank Norman

I am back at work after a three-week break. I had a good holiday, visiting Manila and Singapore.  I really managed to switch off, totally ignoring the temptation to look at my email or Twitter. The part of my brain that is concerned with ‘work’ went right to sleep. But the holiday is finished now and as each day passes I am more focused Continue reading →

Posted in Froth, Philippines | Comments Off on M and S

Where in the world was Cath today?

Posted on 5 July 2012 by Cath@VWXYNot?

View from my hotel room last night / this morning:

Answers on a postcard in the comments, please!

By the way, if a colleague tells you that a PI is cursed when it comes to travel, do NOT book yourself onto the same flight as him. Continue reading →

Posted in career, travel, whining | Comments Off on Where in the world was Cath today?

Enough with the criticism already

Posted on 4 July 2012 by Sylvia McLain

Ever wonder why scientists are odd? For the record, I don’t think scientists are really odd, any more than any group of people can be called ‘odd’, as Micheal Crichton said ‘in my experience scientists are very human people.’ Leaving aside Crichton’s issue with redundancy ( are there any other kind of people tha Continue reading →

Posted in criticism, science communication, Science publications, science writing | Comments Off on Enough with the criticism already

Fossils, Fun, and Frailities. And Statistics #isec2012

Posted on 4 July 2012 by Bob O'H

If I’ve done everything correctly, then at almost the moment this post appears, I will start talking about some fossils. Not, it’s not a eulogy about defenders of the 4-4-2 formation, but it’s about a bit of work I’ve been doing on trying to model when fossils appear and disappear. The work is still preliminary, in some ways Continue reading →

Posted in Research Blogging, statistics | Comments Off on Fossils, Fun, and Frailities. And Statistics #isec2012

The Boson

Posted on 3 July 2012 by Henry Gee

(with apologies to Hilaire Belloc.)

The Boson is so very small
You cannot make it out at all,
Though physicists have money on
Its presence in the Tevatron.
Notwithstanding the concern
Of colleagues beavering at CERN
All hoping that it might emerge
Triumphant from a mighty splurge
Of hadrons which, when they collide
Reveal their secrets, locked insi Continue reading →

Posted in CERN, erumpent, excitement and general brouhaha, Higgs, Large Hadron Collider, Science Is Vital, Silliness, Tevatron, z-radiation | Comments Off on The Boson

Open Access: Who Pays the Copy-editor?

Posted on 2 July 2012 by Stephen

My article on open access in the New Scientist provoked an email from copy-editor Miranda Potter. Starting from the article’s mention of my recent paper in PLoS ONE, she raises the question of who is going to pay for copy-editing services if the drive to OA is accompanied by downward pressure on price (the $1350 fee I paid to the journal did Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access, quality, science publishing | Comments Off on Open Access: Who Pays the Copy-editor?