Monthly Archives: January 2012

The power of music

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Frank Norman

Some pieces of music really should carry a government health warning. The first time I saw Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde live, the Liebestod scene was unforgettable. The intensity of the music mounted and mounted, receded and then mounted again … Continue reading →

Posted in Music | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Informing science and policy

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Frank Norman

Ian Gibson wrote last month in the Times Higher that we need a new generation of politically savvy scientists. He said “many in the scientific community do not see it as their business to get involved in matters of policy. In … Continue reading →

Posted in Research management | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

Err … ology

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Frank Norman

Publication bias is the tendency to report positive results differently from negative or inconclusive results, resulting in a bias in the overall literature (see Wikipedia article and this tutorial at the Cochrane Collaboration). Afficionados of evidence-based practice and meta-analysers of research worry … Continue reading →

Posted in Journal publishing | 12 Comments

Hawking history

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Frank Norman

It was good to hear the reports of Stephen Hawking’s speech at his 70th birthday celebrations at the weekend. The Independent ran the story under the headline “I owe it all to my father” and noted that Hawking spoke movingly … Continue reading →

Posted in History | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

How are your tweetations?

Posted on January 5, 2012 by Frank Norman

A contentious paper came out towards the end of last year in the Journal of Medical Internet Research. That is a reasonably respectable title in its niche field and the author, Gunther Eysenbach, is a respected medical informaticist and e-health … Continue reading →

Posted in Bibliometrics etc, Journal publishing | 8 Comments

A fruitful New Year

Posted on January 2, 2012 by Frank Norman

In England we don’t have much in the way of colourful New Year traditions. The Scots famously make more of the season, which they call Hogmanay, but in England the traditional choices are: Go out to a pub and get … Continue reading →

Posted in Froth, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 3 Comments