This piece first appeared in Fabiana, the magazine of the Fabian’s Women Network, on May 21st 2012, in an issue devoted to Finding the Way to Growth. The whole issue can be found here.
Much has been made of the importance of innovation through science and technology as a means of putting the economy back on its feet, although the current Go Continue reading
Anti-semitism is on the rise in Europe. Strictly speaking, this may not be true, as Jews have traditionally had a difficult time in the “old world,” to say the least.
Why? Good question! Continue reading
One day when I was about 10 or 11, my Mum came home from the supermarket with, among other items, two big bottles of Schweppes Tonic Water. When I saw her putting them in a cupboard I said, “ooh, is Grandma coming?!”, and when she was able to breathe again after an extended laughing fit, my Mum confirmed that her own mother had indeed j Continue reading
The global economy is in tatters; the Eurozone teeters on the brink; much of Africa is starving; thousands are massacred in Syria; and Israel and Iran edge towards war.
Meanwhile, in Norfolk…
As Cath noted, last weekend was a holiday here in Canada. Victoria Day, the traditional time for opening up the cottage after a long winter, or launching fireworks into the air, or just generally sitting around on a patio or deck having a good time. We did remarkably little of any of the above, although the neighbours were certainly in the mood, wi Continue reading
Last weekend the environs of North Norfolk were infested by played host to the Cromer and Sheringham Crab and Lobster Festival. Cromer’s turn was Saturday, but I missed it as I was too busy in my shed listening to tapes of kittens being impaled on red hot skewers, so it wasn’t until Sunday that I ventured forth fifth ninth to Sheringham Continue reading
One of the annoying things about getting old is resenting change. So when you’re a scientist, it doesn’t help that the lab environment is one of the most mutable places on earth. New technology emerges all the time, and our brains have to cope — even when ‘improvements’ often seem, to well-greased neural pathways, as u Continue reading
One of the things that makes you feel a long way from home when you move to a foreign country is that you have no idea when the long weekends fall. We get a pretty good deal here in British Columbia – we get more or less one statutory holiday per month between Easter and New Year, and as of next year we get one in February too to break up the Continue reading
It has been quite a year so far for open access. And the momentum is still building.
First came the Elsevier Boycott, triggered by an angry reaction to the publisher’s support for the US Research Works Act, which would have undermined the open access policy of the National Institutes of Health.
Continue readingI’ve blogged in the past about the changing nature of the life-sciences, and about how today’s graduate students need to be “jacks of all trades.” As I’ve noted, in the past, graduate students were required to use fewer experimental systems, but perhaps to master them more thoroughly. However, the advent of kits and co Continue reading
