Another blog about scientific writing appeared on Friday by Adam Ruben.
It contains all of the standard complaints, albeit in a humorous way, about why scientific writing is basically dull, turgid and opaque.
Adam concludes that:
But there’s a reason scientific journal articles tend to be dry, and it’s because we’re writing them that way. Continue reading
Following on from a discussion about light bulb changing jokes, I was bustling around my lab this morning, getting ready to cryogenically preserve some backups of my new bladder epithelial cell line. I was all set: I’d ordered the Mr Frosty container, prepared my freezing medium, and the five plates of cells were looking beautiful under the m Continue reading
Thus begins the last really good joke I heard, several years ago now; answer at the bottom!
I recently realised that I never hear new jokes any more.
I had an actual joke book as a small kid, and my family would share cheesy jokes around the dinner table. Continue reading
Librarians collect stuff. To collect is one of the most important verbs in the librarian’s instruction manual. Probably the next most important is to categorise. There is a connection between these two. We do not collect randomly but with a focus, a pattern. Continue reading
I picked up What Are Universities For? by Stefan Collini for two reasons. I had been impressed by Collini’s article in the London Review of Books last summer critiquing the Browne review. (I also enjoyed William Cullerne Bown‘s comments on Collini’s piece. Continue reading
If Elsevier calculated that its withdrawal of support for the Research Works Act (RWA) would neutralise the arguments stirred up around academic publishing, I think the company is mistaken. I certainly hope so.
Things may have gone a little quiet on this issue in the blogosphere since the removal of the immediate cause of irritation, but there rema Continue reading
Update #1: I had my first book signing at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln book store, where 10 copies of my book were graciously ordered.
I had a lot of fun and talked for a couple hours to some really nice people. All three of them, though, were employees in the book store. Continue reading
It’s National Science and Engineering Week in the UK, or at least it is for most places. In Cambridge we celebrate it with a fortnight, and call it a Festival because there is just so much to squeeze in. Many of us get involved, from students to emeritus professors, and the audience is drawn from far and wide – both in terms of background and loca Continue reading
