The Max Perutz essay prize is in its 14th year and is a major landmark on the science writing landscape. To enter the competition MRC-funded PhD students are invited to write an essay:
in no more than 800 words, to tell us about your research in a way that would interest a non-scientific audience. Why is it important? Why does it interest you? Continue reading
I’ve just been checking the OT stats and I think the killer post to end all posts would be a massively cooperative film, made by working mothers, about animated dinosaurs.
That is all.
Heard in a recent(ish) meeting to define a tumour xenografting SOP to be used by three different labs:
PI 1 (Xenografting Expert): “The first thing you need to do when you get a new tumour is to determine if it’s actually a human tumour, or just a spontaneous mouse tumour”
PI 2 (Aspiring Xenografting Expert): “How?”
My recent article in the THE about cultural expectations being imposed on young girls (which also appeared as a post here) got a mixed reception in the online comments. Several seemed to have failed to grasp the central point that upbringing does affect what girls (and boys) feel is acceptable and desirable regardless of any intrinsic neurological Continue reading
Today sees the release of my new film: I’m a Scientist. It’s about scientists. Please take a look either here, or on the web-site that I have created specially for it*.
Continue readingIt has come to my attention that many people are not aware of this simply spectacular song by Fatboy Slim, featuring the substantial vocal talents of Marge Simpson Macy Gray*. This situation is, of course, unacceptable, so please watch this video twice: the first time with your eyes closed, so as to fully appreciate the music; and the second time w Continue reading
Books have always been dear to me. As a child/young adult, I skipped directly to adult books and was known to read 7-8 different books in parallel (now 3-4 is my limit + audiobooks for the car, and the new PLAYAWAY audio books for my treadmilling and exercise). My immersion in a good novel became so complete that my parents could shout at me in fro Continue reading
Sabine checked her watch against the clock over the door. It wasn’t that she and Max ever agreed to meet, but his habit was to be at the lab half an hour after leaving his office. And no one in Max’s company did any work after three on Friday afternoons.
Continue readingWhile browsing the BBC website for something else just now (OK, OK, I wanted to know when Torchwood was on, I have this thing for stroppy leather-clad Welsh women with guns) I discovered the first episode of Planet Dinosaur lurking ominously on the iPlayer, so, in the interests of science entertainment science I watched it.
Those of a certain age m Continue reading
As you both know, I am not a great fan of manned space exploration. To qualify that, though, I think the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS) constituted an expensive distraction after the heroic Apollo missions, during which we lost our urge to move ever forwards and outwards, preferring instead to go around in small circles.
