Author Archives: Stephen

The biologist who left me out in the cold

Posted on February 12, 2015 by Stephen

Two weeks, two books. In Unweaving the Rainbow Richard Dawkins takes issue with the poets. He argues that the poetry revealed deep within Nature by scientific investigation is more wondrous than the musings of those who make do with superficial … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review | Tagged , | 3 Comments

This week – reading, thinking and linking

Posted on February 7, 2015 by Stephen

This past week I have been doing so much reading and writing for work that there has been no time to prepare anything substantial enough for a proper blog post, even if I have been stirred by the excessive protests … Continue reading →

Posted in Communication, History of Science, Science & Media, Science & Politics | Comments Off on This week – reading, thinking and linking

All That Is, by James Salter

Posted on January 31, 2015 by Stephen

In 2013 I was captured, captivated by the spare prose of James Salter’s The Hunters, a story of the tense competition between US fighter pilots in the Korean War. All That Is is similarly spare, and like The Hunters quite a masculine … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review | Tagged | 7 Comments

Open access and the humanities

Posted on January 18, 2015 by Stephen

At the end of 2013 and 2014 I wrote blog posts on Occam’s Corner (over at the Guardian) to list and briefly review the books I read in each of those years. I want to develop this practice into a good habit … Continue reading →

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Impressions of Australia

Posted on December 31, 2014 by Stephen

I have been struggling to write something about my trip to Australia in August, my first visit to that great continent and undoubtedly a highlight of 2014. In my determination to get away from the rather banal what-I-did-on-my-lecture-tour-and-family-holiday trope, I ended … Continue reading →

Posted in Science, Travel | Tagged | 5 Comments

Vanity project

Posted on December 15, 2014 by Stephen

I haven’t written a book. And this is it. Well, I did write it of course. The words are mine. But there is nothing new here. I’ve just pulled together a selection of my blog posts from the last six … Continue reading →

Posted in Scientific Life | 10 Comments

Prize-winning video

Posted on December 6, 2014 by Stephen

Well this is nice. The Celebrating Crystallography video made last year by the Royal Institution, which I narrated and helped to script-edit, has won the the EuroScience New Media award. Full details are available on the RI blog but it’s great to see … Continue reading →

Posted in Communication, Science, Science & Media | 4 Comments

Copyright Infringement

Posted on November 22, 2014 by Stephen

This morning I received an email from a publisher inviting me to write a chapter for an ‘upcoming hardcover edited collection’ on a topic of research to which I have made a number of contributions over the years. I politely declined because of … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access, Scientific Life | 14 Comments

Digital culture: my so-called week

Posted on October 19, 2014 by Stephen

My week, my cultural week, started last Sunday when I found time to catch up with Radio 4’s five-part series on Dorothy Hodgkin, an extraordinary scientist who was brought vividly to life through readings of her letters. Hearing the words … Continue reading →

Posted in History of Science, Science & Art, TV review | Comments Off on Digital culture: my so-called week

Debating the role of metrics in research assessment

Posted on October 7, 2014 by Stephen

I spent all of today attending the “In metrics we trust?” workshop organised jointly by HEFCE and the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at Sussex University. This was part of the information-gathering process of HEFCE’s independent review of the role of … Continue reading →

Posted in Science, Scientific Life | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Popular neuroscience book suggestions

Posted on September 14, 2014 by Stephen

Neuroscience isn’t really my thing, so when my teenage daughter came asking for suggestions of a good popular book on the subject I took to Twitter. Several people kindly made suggestions, while others asked to be notified of the outcome … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

Advice on presentations: I’m not as clever as you think

Posted on July 23, 2014 by Stephen

I spent the last two days in Leicester at Translation UK, a two-day conference that is an annual gathering for scientists working on all aspects of translation — the protein synthesis kind. The conference is friendly and informal. It is … Continue reading →

Posted in Science | 8 Comments