First, a few lines about Texas weather from On the Road:
Great clouds of gritty wind blew at us from shimmering spaces.
Nightfall seemed like a million miles away as we resumed for Coleman and Brady — the heart of Texas, only, wildernesses of brush with an occasional house near a thirsty creek and a fifty-mile dirt road detour and endless hea Continue reading
I asked someone to send me a brief CV in relation to something I was doing for the day job. They took me at my word, and sent this haiku:
I sit on my butt
Hiding from controversy
Dispensing wisdom
So this perp is evidently some kind of administrator. But some of you have much more exciting jobs, and now it’s your turn–please, let me h Continue reading
Cell and molecular biology is a bit of a dark art. The way we perform our experiments has been passed down from generation to generation in sacred texts known as “protocols”. Like any recipe used and abused by generations of creative people, the methods and materials are continually refined as people try slightly different conditions, either in the Continue reading
Do we have a numerate workforce? I’m afraid it is far too obvious the answer is no. I’m not just talking about the relatively low numbers of students taking maths A level, as detailed here in the recent Royal Society report on the transition to HE, but a much lower level of general numeracy allowing people to use the calculations they need to make Continue reading
I have been deluged by this item from a Dr J. L. R. of Rotherhithe, to whom we proffer our thanks in the customary fashion. Orders of the Unicycling Girrafe generously bestowed … well, you know what to do. Continue reading
In no Arab country today is there democracy, freedom of expression or security guaranteed by law impartially applied. Despite the immense wealth conferred by oil, poverty is endemic and violence systematic and customary. So says David Pryce-Jones in The Closed Circle. In Britain, by contrast, there is democracy, freedom of expression and security g Continue reading
Professor Thomas Slater realized with relief that it wasn’t going to be difficult to be inconspicuous after all. Lurking at the fringes, he was just one of dozens of anonymous, black-coated older men, huddled deep into their collars against the persistent drizzle.
A pretty woman like Charlotte, first a jet-setting scientist an Continue reading
It’s been a strange couple of days. We’re sitting at our laptops, trying to work but keeping an eye on the Telegraph‘s live feed and another eye on Twitter. There are sirens in the middle distance. Tits and sparrows are pecking at the bird feeder.
Continue readingA post I initially wrote about the consequences of putting arbitrary sell-by dates on post-docs seeking fellowships has been rebutted by my esteemed OT colleague Athene Donald. It’s an interesting post and I encourage people to have a look at it along with the many comments (and, since I don’t want you to interpret the below quotes out of context, Continue reading
Well, the post I’d planned to write next was going to be about how much I’ve learned from blogs written by cancer patients, and how that knowledge has impacted my work in a basic and translational cancer research department.
But that plan, like all our other plans, was shattered by a phone call on Friday morning: Mr E Man’s oldest Continue reading
