Latest posts

Slight return

Posted on 11 November 2020 by Austin
I wrote this somewhere else, and it got sufficiently long that I thought it might as well go here, since the blog is still here. Prompted by Nov 11th, of course, but by other things too.
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Keeping On Keeping On

Posted on 8 November 2020 by Athene Donald

In the UK, as in many other countries, we have entered another lockdown, mysteriously assigned in some quarters a decimal point, as in lockdown 2.0. It’s a lockdown with a difference, in that the rules are not the same as last time around (and therefore tending to be confusing), and logic in the rules is not always present to my scientist’s eye.  Life in Cambridge is hugely unlike the first lockdo Continue reading →

Posted in Lockdown, nature, Science Culture, Zoom | Comments Off on Keeping On Keeping On

Mentors and Role Models

Posted on 4 November 2020 by Athene Donald

Five years ago I received a package in the post, with a covering letter from someone I’d never met. Dan Davis, Professor of Immunology at the University of Manchester and apparently a fan of this blog, had sent me a copy of his book, The Compatibility Gene, ‘in case it would be of interest’. A former physicist himself, he had written – as I discovered when I read it a while later – a fascinating b Continue reading →

Posted in careers, Dan Davis, gender champion, Julia Higgins, Peter Medawar, Sam Edwards, Women in science | Comments Off on Mentors and Role Models

Bookish Thoughts

Posted on 1 November 2020 by Henry Gee

Here at the Maison Des Girrafes we only ever had one rule for the kids as they were growing up. Except that it wasn’t even a rule. What it was, was this:

No Reasonable Request for Books Will Ever Be Denied

I am happy to report that the Offspring, who have flown the nest, are highly literate individuals currently at college, and are as well-balanced and happy as you’d expect with m Continue reading →

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A not (yet) successful experiment in walking office hours.

Posted on 1 November 2020 by Nicola Spaldin

Faced with the thought of trying to establish interaction with 50 masked students spread to the far-flung corners of an enormous lecture room from behind a perspex screen with my glasses steaming up, I decided from the start of this semester to teach my Solid State Physics and Chemistry of Materials class on zoom.

Not liking, however, the thought of never meeting my students in person, I decided t Continue reading →

Posted in education, Materials Science | Comments Off on A not (yet) successful experiment in walking office hours.

In which we face the rain

Posted on 4 October 2020 by Jennifer Rohn

One of our white wine 2018 vintages

How quickly strangeness becomes familiarity.

As autumn hunkers down, and the COVID infection rates continue to rise (nearly 13,000 cases reported yesterday in the UK), I see things around me that I never could have imagined before 2020. A trip to the mall yesterday revealed a docile crowd with universal face coverage – gone are those defiant mavericks of a few Continue reading →

Posted in Domestic bliss, Gardening, Research, Scientific thinking, The profession of science, work-life balance | Comments Off on In which we face the rain

Getting Behind Diversity Statistics

Posted on 4 October 2020 by Athene Donald

Earlier this year UKRI published ‘harmonised’ diversity data across all its councils. These did not make for comfortable reading, with attention being particularly focussed on two findings:

  • Female and ethnic minority awardees tend to apply for and win smaller awards: median award value for females ca 15% less than for males (£336,000 vs £395,000;
  • Median award value for ethnic minority awardees is Continue reading →
Posted in EPSRC, Equality, grant funding, Science Funding, Unconscious bias, Women in science | Comments Off on Getting Behind Diversity Statistics

In defence of the bureaucracy of equality, diversity and inclusion

Posted on 28 September 2020 by Stephen

The UK government’s new policy to reduce bureaucracy in research institutions aims at an easy target. But the bonfire of administration lit by the Prime Minister’s chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, risks burning down the foundations of much-needed efforts to value the many different people on which the future health of UK R&D depends

200921-Cummings-at-No10

Should an interest in bureaucracy be a protected characteris Continue reading →

Posted in Equality Diversity & Inclusion, Science & Politics, Scientific Life | Comments Off on In defence of the bureaucracy of equality, diversity and inclusion

Of a Retiring Nature

Posted on 27 September 2020 by Athene Donald

The end of this month marks my retirement from my professorial position at Cambridge, something that I still find rather surprising. My career on that front has just faded out, yet another victim of the pandemic; the conference planned for the week just past to celebrate my career, bit the dust a long time ago. There is absolutely no rite of passage, other than (mistakenly) being sent an ‘exit que Continue reading →

Posted in Churchill College, retirement, Science Culture, support, Women in science | Comments Off on Of a Retiring Nature

Research Culture, Fairness and Transparency

Posted on 20 September 2020 by Athene Donald

A week after the Science and University Ministers announced with respect to chartermarks such as Athena Swan

“We have therefore asked the OfS, UKRI and NIHR to ensure that they place no weight upon the presence or absence of such markers or scheme memberships in any of their regulatory or funding activities”

as I discussed in my last blogpost, there seems uncertainty what that means in pract Continue reading →

Posted in Athena Swan, BAME, Equality, grant-giving panels, Ottoline Leyser, Science Culture, UKRI | Comments Off on Research Culture, Fairness and Transparency