It all started with an email: “My chair flipped out when I told him.” Someone had signed up for an intensive grant writing course, then backed out because his chair didn’t want to make the investment with their “dwindling pool of funds.” Instead the chair said he would spend his own personal time helping the…
It’s clearly no longer just the drug of the young, rich and trendy: a decrease in street value over the years has led to a marked rise in usage and availability of cocaine, and it’s an ever-present favourite with the media. The BBC news website alone has dozens of cocaine-related news results since the beginning…
This week’s news includes the surprising new role of the public sector in drug development, the conclusion of a misconduct case, more residual effects of Chernobyl, the new science gender gap, a second attempt at a non-peer-reviewed journal, and the remarkable re-evolution of frog’s teeth.
It’s a truism to say that diversity is important: Society places value on the multiple functions of ecosystems from soil fertility to erosion control to wildlife-carrying capacity, and these functions are potentially threatened by ongoing biodiversity losses. E. S. Zavaleta et al., 20101
My Culture Friday article on the Blackawton Bees paper attracted a fair amount of interest, and some comments. Such as
It’s all too easy to call someone stupid when they disagree with you. Understandable, but wrong nonetheless. Some of these people, who don’t seem to understand science or reason, may be politically motivated. Others may be genuinely confused, uncertain, or scared and vulnerable. This does not mean they’re stupid.
They say that bilateral symmetry is an indicator of attractiveness and freedom from disease1, 2.
You sit down to write your grant proposal, and you focus on the science that you’re excited about. You write about how great it is, and you write about how it will revolutionize the field. You get the reviews back, and it is a rejection. This happens to you again, and again. The more grants you…
This week’s news includes an unexpected benefit of childhood vaccines, a potentially colossal number of retractions from a German anesthesiologist, the full genome of the water flea, newly announced pharmaceutical cuts, thoughts on the situation in Egypt, a debate on genetic manipulation in France, and the stem cell gun that may heal burns.
In this second of three videos featuring Peter Murray-Rust, from the Chemistry Department of the University of Cambridge, recorded at the Panton Arms, I ask him if he has faced any opposition to the concept of open data. Peter is more concerned about the dangers of partial publication, where in his words people want the…
3
