Category Archives: Science

Jam Yesterday

Posted on December 18, 2011 by Stephen

On a grey day back in October I made my way along Albemarle Street to the Royal Institution for the filming of DemoJam, a lively and light-hearted program of science produced by Jonathan Sanderson and the rest of the gang … Continue reading →

Posted in Communication, Protein Crystallography, Science | Tagged , , | 12 Comments

First Anniversary

Posted on December 9, 2011 by Stephen

A year ago today Occam’s Typewriter made its debut on the blogosphere and I published my first post at the new home of Reciprocal Space. It’s been a good twelve months. OT has established itself as a home thoughtful and … Continue reading →

Posted in Science, Scientific Life | Tagged , | 21 Comments

Real and False Economy

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Stephen

Last week I went to Germany to talk to a pharmaceutical company about my work on the blood protein, human serum albumin. It set me thinking. But first I need to tell you about albumin. Albumin is a surprisingly abundant … Continue reading →

Posted in Protein Crystallography, Science, Scientific Life | Tagged , | 18 Comments

Incoming

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Stephen

I gave a talk a couple of weeks ago at a Biochemical Society meeting on the subject of the Research Excellence Framework, the process that will assess UK academic research quality for the purpose of determining how a large tranche … Continue reading →

Posted in Science, Scientific Life | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Careering out of control

Posted on October 7, 2011 by Stephen

As Jenny mentioned this morning, I have a post on the Science is Vital campaign on science careers on the Times Eureka blog today. For those of you without a subscription, the text is reproduced here: The business of science … Continue reading →

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Meet me on a Monday

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Stephen

This is shameless, shameless self-promotion but I was interviewed back in May by Carl Carruthers for his Meet a Scientist Monday podcast, which has gone live today. The interview was long enough ago for me — being of advanced years … Continue reading →

Posted in Communication, Fun, Protein Crystallography, Science | Tagged , | 2 Comments

I’m a Scientist – making the film

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Stephen

Today sees the release of my new film: I’m a Scientist. It’s about scientists. Please take a look either here, or on the web-site that I have created specially for it*. The film was a long time coming. I had … Continue reading →

Posted in Communication, Fun, Science, Science & Media, Scientific Life | Tagged , , | 45 Comments

Is Massively Collaborative Scientific Publishing Possible?

Posted on September 7, 2011 by Stephen

The job of a newspaper columnist is to agitate and George Monbiot did exactly that last week with a furious rant in The Guardian about academic publishers. It may have been an odd choice for most of his readers but … Continue reading →

Posted in Communication, Open Access, Science, Scientific Life | Tagged , | 113 Comments

Numb or Numbered? Part 2.

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Stephen

Back in April — it seems so long ago now — I wrote about the problems created in university life science courses by the relatively low uptake of maths by the student intake. It provoked a very long and thoughtful … Continue reading →

Posted in Maths, Science, Science & Politics | Tagged , , | 22 Comments

Libel Reform – where are we?

Posted on June 26, 2011 by Stephen

Regular readers of this blog will be probably be aware of the ongoing campaign to reform the libel laws of England and Wales. These laws have pernicious effects in many aspects of public life — including science and medicine. They … Continue reading →

Posted in Libel Reform, Science, Science & Politics | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Here comes Impact

Posted on June 22, 2011 by Stephen

In UK scientific circles and the wider realm of academia impact has been around for a while now. Grant forms incorporate large blank spaces in which applicants are required to outline their plans for ensuring that the work they hope … Continue reading →

Posted in Communication, Science, Science & Politics | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Transport of Delight

Posted on June 12, 2011 by Stephen

I spent most of last weekend and all of yesterday finalising a chapter I had been asked to contribute to an upcoming monograph on human serum albumin. Monograph is a fancy word for book in academia. And academia is a … Continue reading →

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