Latest posts

Pliny

Posted on 27 February 2021 by Henry Gee

Pliny the Elder, yes, that’s the one, the author of Natural History, which got a very poor review on Goodreads at the time, one reader castigating the author as ‘that voluminous, industrious, unphilosophical, gullible, unsystematic old gossip’, who nevertheless died as philosophical a death as you please when studying the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE, yes, the same that barbecue Continue reading →

Posted in A very short history of sex and chocolate, ambry, galen, hetaera, incunabulum, pliny, procolophonid, scansioripterygid, Science Is Vital, Writing & Reading, yi | Comments Off on Pliny

In which we near end-game

Posted on 23 February 2021 by Jennifer Rohn

Sight for sore eyes

January and February are always my least favorite months, but I can’t remember a winter when I longed for spring as desperately as this one. It’s the pandemic, of course, which has sucked the world dry of what little joy remains, damp and grey and interminable.

Locked down and stultifying in the sameness of life, I did what I could to appreciate what pleasures were Continue reading →

Posted in Domestic bliss, Epidemics, Gardening, Joshua, work-life balance | Comments Off on In which we near end-game

Will ARIA Sing?

Posted on 21 February 2021 by Athene Donald

The much trailed UK version of ARPA now has a name, and it’s not BARPA or UKARPA, it’s ARIA: the Advanced Research and Invention Agency. Not, note, Innovation but Invention. Is this going to be an important distinction or simply permit the old trope of ‘Brits are good at inventing but not making money’ to come to the fore again? Before this week’s formal Government announcement, the Commons Select Continue reading →

Posted in ARPA, diversity, high risk, Science Funding, Women in science | Comments Off on Will ARIA Sing?

Cool

Posted on 20 February 2021 by Henry Gee

What difference a couple of weeks makes. Recall that earlier this month I was out in a blizzard trying to secure a tarpaulin over the hen run, all the while running the risk of hypothermia, or at the very least playing a bit part in a painting by Marc Chagall.

Much the same as then, but now.

Well, all change. Continue reading →

Posted in Blog Norfolk!, Domesticrox, Gardening | Comments Off on Cool

The Politics of White Lab Coats

Posted on 13 February 2021 by Athene Donald

Everyone knows what a scientist looks like. The species is easily identifiable because they wear a white lab coat wherever they go. It is almost as if, if you don’t wear a white coat you can’t be a serious scientist, in the eyes of the media. It was noticeable, on this week’s International Day for Girls and Women in Science, how few women (and girls) posted selfies of themselves so attired to prov Continue reading →

Posted in funding, Horizon Europe, Prime Minister, Science Culture, Science Funding, vaccination | Comments Off on The Politics of White Lab Coats

Slitherin

Posted on 10 February 2021 by Henry Gee

Among the many questions that swirl around the ever-fevered Gee brain is this: how fast can snails go? They seem to go fairly fast when I chase them away from our leafy veg. But how fast is fast?

This pressing question was the subject of this effusion just out in the Journal of Zoology from M. Q. Continue reading →

Posted in Cornu aspersum, furlongs per fortnight, Journal of Zoology, snail racing, snails, speed of light in a vacuum | Comments Off on Slitherin

Cold

Posted on 9 February 2021 by Henry Gee

A pandemic is sweeping the nation. No, not that one – this one is avian flu. People with poultry are advised to keep their stock under cover. Chez Gee we have a number of semi-retired and fancy hens (that is, they haven’t laid any eggs for ages) but despite their largely ornamental purpose we have to follow DEFRA instructions.

The hens are kept in an area beneath the skeleton of a smal Continue reading →

Posted in avian flu, beast from the east, Blog Norfolk!, cold, DEFRA, Domesticrox, emergency jelly babies, Erebus, Franklin, James Clark Ross, michael palin, North-West Passage, pandemic, poultry keeping, wind chill | Comments Off on Cold

Who Has Authority Here?

Posted on 7 February 2021 by Athene Donald

Jackie Weaver may have become an internet sensation due to her calm handling of a bunch of unruly local councillors, but the behaviour manifest in the viral video is one that many a chair of an academic committee will recognize. Online calls do offer the opportunity to mute tiresome and aggressive members (not a tactic I’ve been reduced to using, at least yet), or despatching them to the virtual w Continue reading →

Posted in bullying, chairing, committees, Science Culture | Comments Off on Who Has Authority Here?

On occupational hazards

Posted on 5 February 2021 by rpg

(First posted over at the day job.)

On Christmas Day I received an email. It was addressed to my 7-year-old son, and it told him that his coronavirus test was positive.

There were mixed emotions. Continue reading →

Posted in covid, covid19, Friday afternoon, Nonsense, science, Silliness, teachers, vaccination | Comments Off on On occupational hazards

In Praise of Technicians

Posted on 3 February 2021 by Athene Donald

I was a very ham-fisted PhD student. I repeatedly broke a delicate and crucial piece of apparatus during the early months of my research, to the extent that I almost quit the whole endeavour and withdrew from the labs for a couple of weeks while I contemplated my future. I was to a large extent ‘saved’ by the skills of the workshop technician, who would smile as I entered the workshop holding the Continue reading →

Posted in careers, Gatsby Foundation, Science Culture, Skills White Paper, TALENT, UKRI | Comments Off on In Praise of Technicians