Author Archives: Cath@VWXYNot?

About Cath@VWXYNot?

"one of the sillier science bloggers [...] I thought I should give a warning to the more staid members of the community." - Bob O'Hara, December 2010

Meet MacTavish

Posted on February 18, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?

New morning ritual chez moi: It’s very meta to post a photo of the draft version of this post Yep, turns out the iPhone is a pretty powerful gateway drug. I’d already pretty much decided to get a Mac “at … Continue reading →

Posted in family, photos, technology | 26 Comments

Return to Wonderland?

Posted on February 17, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?

ScienceGirl (from Curiosity Killed the Cat) was kind enough to give me an Inspiration Award. Thank you, ScienceGirl! I do have to say though, that I am increasingly unsure of what to do with these things. I hate to sound … Continue reading →

Posted in blog buddies, meme, meta | 12 Comments

e-Ps and Qs

Posted on February 13, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?

I’m a very polite person. As a Brit in Canada, I frequently apologise to people who stand on my foot on the bus; it’s a habit I just can’t seem to break. As everyone knows though, email etiquette is a … Continue reading →

Posted in career, communication, English language | 24 Comments

The nature of network comments

Posted on February 13, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?

After a lengthy period of faffing about on the internet intensive study, I have invented devised a statistical thingy what the hell is it called matrix to help my fellow NN bloggers predict the kind of comments they are likely … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 45 Comments

Right, I suppose I’d better do a Darwin post

Posted on February 12, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?

I am was an evolutionary biologist, after all. Many happy returns, Chuckie D! I wish that you only could see The advances we’ve made With genomics and spade, And the state of our family tree. Darwin’s original phylogenetic tree: The … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 13 Comments

Editing blues (and reds)

Posted on February 11, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?

(Clearer version on Flickr)

Posted in Uncategorized | 32 Comments

Very Important Submission update

Posted on February 11, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?

It has been submitted! This was a Very Important accomplishment. Luckily I don’t seem to be in any trouble (working until 8.30 pm on Monday to get the files uploaded seemed to help). Conversations with my boss went as follows … Continue reading →

Posted in career, photos, snow | 19 Comments

Get angry for the right reasons

Posted on February 10, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?

This is my contribution to the February APLS carnival. This month’s host, The Purloined Letter from the Green Phone Booth blog, has chosen a wide-ranging topic under the title “A Carnival of Nature“. I have chosen to focus on the … Continue reading →

Posted in Carnivals, environment, nature | 27 Comments

Cancer stem cells: the wrong kind of controversy?

Posted on February 10, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?

I attended my first ever Café Scientifique event last week. The venue could not be faulted – a brew pub with good food, outstanding beer, and a view of the harbour and the North Shore mountains. However there were a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 13 Comments

VWXYNot?: surprisingly, not quite as neurotic as some other blogs

Posted on February 7, 2009 by Cath@VWXYNot?

I held off doing the personality tests that have been doing the rounds, mostly because I was worried that I would have an embarrassingly high neuroticism score (I am actually not kidding* – I am constantly doing battle against my … Continue reading →

Posted in personal | 6 Comments