Latest posts

Pandemic Staycationing

Posted on 23 August 2020 by Athene Donald

As far as I’m concerned, this is not a year for travelling for a holiday. Indeed, given some of the recent events, there hasn’t even been time to take any sort of extended break. However, we have been taking days off to get some healthy exercise, on bike or foot. Staycationing is, I know, all the rage, so I’m just on trend (for once). And very pleasant it is to get out and about, at least when the Continue reading →

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In which business is not quite as usual: the post-first-wave lab resumes

Posted on 23 August 2020 by Jennifer Rohn

Suspended animation: the lab awaits the return of its researchers

Business as usual is the sort of mentality that’s probably only certain in retrospect. At the moment, the jury is still very much out.

My lab reopened its doors a few weeks ago. This is, of course, a wonderful thing. Continue reading →

Posted in academia, careers, Domestic bliss, Epidemics, Gardening, Joshua, staring into the abyss, The profession of science, work-life balance | Comments Off on In which business is not quite as usual: the post-first-wave lab resumes

Reflections on a Mad Week in Higher Education

Posted on 20 August 2020 by Athene Donald

Readers from the UK can hardly fail to have noticed the confusion across the HE sector caused by last week’s A level ‘results’.  I recall how many people had been voicing fears during the past months that the disadvantaged would be further disadvantaged by the proposed process. It is clear that last month the House of Commons Education Select Committee recognized these anxieties, appreciating that Continue reading →

Posted in #honourtheoffer, A levels, education, widening participaation | Comments Off on Reflections on a Mad Week in Higher Education

We Don’t Need No Edyucayshun

Posted on 18 August 2020 by Henry Gee

My two penn’orth on the exam-results debacle – What needs to happen is a complete rethink in how pupils are assessed, and before that, a thorough overhaul of education. It’s far too academic, too early. On the whole, education is wasted on the young. They should be taught the basics of English language and elementary arithmetic, basic civics and car and home maintenance, but otherwise encour Continue reading →

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Locked Down and Blue

Posted on 16 August 2020 by Henry Gee

Lockdown has got to me, people. So much so that I have recorded a slice of vintage Americana. You can listen to it here. The song is ‘No More Cane On The Brazos’ originally sung by the convicts sentenced to life with hard labour in the sugar-cane fields on the Rio Brazos in the early Twentieth Century. It’s been covered widely — from the Limeliters to Lonnie Donnegan, The B Continue reading →

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I Speak Your Weight

Posted on 15 August 2020 by Henry Gee

Lockdown Life — Here at Chez Gee we have tended to view weighing scales in the same way that Queen Elizabeth I viewed mirrors. Despite the reputation that fat people are harder to kidnap, Mrs Gee noted that COVID-19 has a particular fondness for people built in, let us say, a more ‘traditional’ manner. So we’ve been on a health kick.

Helped by the fact that we only shop on Continue reading →

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No peace for the wicked

Posted on 9 August 2020 by Nicola Spaldin

Having coordinated the development of perhaps the most unsocially distanced bachelors’ curriculum imaginable, structured around groups of students working closely together on hands-on projects, only to have it debut during the throws of a major global pandemic, I felt pretty safe that my foray into education pedagogy was well and truly over. So imagine my surprise when our Director of Studie Continue reading →

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Active Silencing

Posted on 9 August 2020 by Athene Donald

Aggressive. That’s such a useful put-down. As in

“I think there were several very vocal, dare I say aggressive residents that, in my opinion, regardless of what work was being carried out or not, they still would have had reason for complain.”

In this case, the aggressive folk being referred to are Grenfell Tower residents who were complaining about, guess what, fire safety. Continue reading →

Posted in angry black woman, Emma Chapman, Equality, Reni Eddo-Lodge, troublemaker, Women in science | Comments Off on Active Silencing

Some More Book News

Posted on 29 July 2020 by Henry Gee

You’ll both recall that the UK and Commonwealth rights to my ongoing tome A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth were acquired by Picador, notwithstanding inasmuch as which rights to translations into six different foreign languages have also been acquired (they are German, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Romanian and simplified Chinese).

I can now announce that the US and Canada rights have gone Continue reading →

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Sounds of the suburbs

Posted on 27 July 2020 by rpg

I’m sitting outside our apartment at Podere Castellaccia, the evening sun still quite high as the maestrale warms the porch.

Our apartment is Grecale, the colder, northeast wind. Castellaccia is a fattoria and azienda vinicola; their olive oil is superb and at 5 Euro a bottle from the cellar door, why would you drink sangiovese from anywhere else?

Alfonzo’s father, Sinibalda, founded the establish Continue reading →

Posted in assiolo, Assiuolo, bats, comet, Holiday, Italy, Me, neowise, owl, wine | Comments Off on Sounds of the suburbs