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

It’s the end of the world as we know it

Posted on December 21, 2012 by Cath@VWXYNot?

Is everyone having a nice apocalypse? Jolly good – now let’s talk about what happens next! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The professor who taught microbial genetics during my undergrad degree was hilarious. A lot of people didn’t like him at all, but those … Continue reading →

Posted in blog buddies, book review, current affairs, plagues, silliness, technology, television, virology | 18 Comments

Temporospatial trends in germophobia

Posted on December 18, 2012 by Cath@VWXYNot?

One of the cultural differences I noticed soon after I moved from Britain to Canada is how people treat you if you say you have a cold or other minor ailment. In the UK, my experience is that friends, family, … Continue reading →

Posted in Canada, medicine, personal, UK, virology | 19 Comments

Context is everything (Part II)

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Cath@VWXYNot?

Microsoft continues to crack me up: Certain PIs of my acquaintance may agree that they’re involved in too many projects, but I doubt anyone’s ever said the words “too many publications”… (Part I here)

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Fourth Annual VWXYNot? Readers’ Choice Comment of the Year Award!

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Cath@VWXYNot?

(I’m off sick with a really nasty cough for the second day in a row, so I’m pushing this out a day earlier than planned ‘cos I’m bored) So as regular readers know, every Friday, more or less, I choose … Continue reading →

Posted in competition, meta, Uncategorized | 10 Comments

2012 Bragging Rights

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Cath@VWXYNot?

HURRAH! It’s that time of year when I start going through the Bragging Rights Central archives of my favourite comment(s) from this blog and post(s) from other blogs – see the sidebar for details – trying to pick my favourite … Continue reading →

Posted in competition, meta | 16 Comments

Hanging out on corners

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Cath@VWXYNot?

I realised this morning that I’ve been delinquent in doing my part to promote an exciting new Occam’s Typewriter venture – a group blog, Occam’s Corner, on the Guardian’s science blogs network. (I did add the feed to the “Latest … Continue reading →

Posted in blog buddies, blog roll, cancer research, meta, quacks, rants, science | 11 Comments

Hockey is not the only sport

Posted on December 6, 2012 by Cath@VWXYNot?

As a few of you may already know, the NHL season that usually begins in October still hasn’t started. The players and owners/league haven’t managed to agree to terms on revenue sharing and other issues, and as a result there’s another lockout … Continue reading →

Posted in bad people, Canada, current affairs, personal, rants, sport, television | 20 Comments

Stranger danger at the conference buffet

Posted on December 2, 2012 by Cath@VWXYNot?

I’ve spent the last couple of days at my institute’s annual conference, catching up on some very cool science and gorging myself on delicious food. Having spent eight of the last ten years at the same institute, working in three … Continue reading →

Posted in career, conferences, science, silliness, Vancouver | 15 Comments

Losing your research funds down the back of the Sof(i)a

Posted on November 29, 2012 by Cath@VWXYNot?

About 18 months ago, I posted about some accusations of seriously compromised grant review in Bulgaria that were brought to the international community’s attention via a news article in Nature. Several readers commented that they were disappointed to have missed … Continue reading →

Posted in bad people, politics, science | 4 Comments

Retreat to the library

Posted on November 23, 2012 by Cath@VWXYNot?

(I’ve been back from Puerto Rico for a couple of weeks now, but for some reason I’d got it into my head that I had to write a “What I Did On My Vacation” post before I could write anything … Continue reading →

Posted in career, education, food glorious food, personal, silliness, Vancouver | 9 Comments