Communicating science
Pharyngula
Category archives for Communicating science
The CephSeq Consortium has a strategy
Posted by PZ Myers on October 29, 2012 I approve this plan. A number of researchers have gotten together and worked out a grand strategy for sequencing the genomes of a collection of cephalopods. This involves surveying the phylogeny of cephalopods and trying to pick species to sample that adequately cover the diversity of the group, while also selecting model species that have…
Science: It’s a Girl Thing!
Posted by PZ Myers on June 22, 2012 The European Commission is trying to get more women involved in science, which is good, except…look at their Science: It’s a Girl Thing campaign. Jesus wept. Serious man sits at microscope. Fashionable, slender girls slink in on ridiculous high heels and vogue to shots of bubbling flasks, splashes of makeup, twirling skirts, and giggling hot…
Creationism is a marketing game
Posted by PZ Myers on June 17, 2012 And they know it. Ken Ham has started a new billboard campaign for the creation “museum”, with a variety of different designs, all featuring prehistoric* creatures as draws to get kids and family to attend. Here are some examples: Notice what’s smart about them? They’re focused, featuring an element that they clearly know is a…
The fake journal trend
Posted by PZ Myers on February 17, 2012 It’s really easy to set up a completely fake peer-reviewed journal, which is a great boon to pseudoscientists, quacks, creationists, and con artists. They can be tripped up, though, since they aren’t aware of all the inside jokes and strange habits of scientists. Here’s one, a journal called “Molecular Biology”, that was exposed because they…
Elsevier = Evil
Posted by PZ Myers on January 16, 2012 Along with SOPA and PIPA, our government is contemplating another acronym with deplorable consequences for the free dissemination of information: RWA, the Research Works Act. This is a bill to, it says, “ensure the continued publication and integrity of peer-reviewed research works by the private sector”, where the important phrase is “private sector” — it’s…
John Brockman, always asking questions
Posted by PZ Myers on January 15, 2012 Every year he asks people questions, and every year he compiles the answers. This year, the question is “What is your favorite deep, elegant, or beautiful explanation?”, and he got 188 completely different answers back. Did he forget to ask you? Then you can leave your answer in the comments here. (Also on FtB)
How to inflame a young man’s passions
Posted by PZ Myers on January 2, 2012 Hey! Remember that seven year old blogger who writes about paleozoic creatures? He’s going to be eight, and he knows what he wants for his birthday: A trip to the Field Museum at the University of Chicago. Friends and family are trying to raise money so he can go. Wait a minute…I haven’t been to…
Once again, I am embarrassed to be an American
Posted by PZ Myers on December 10, 2011 I have really been looking forward to seeing David Attenborough’s latest, Frozen Planet, here in the US. I’ve seen brief snippets of the show on youtube, and like all of these big BBC nature productions, I’m sure it’s stunning. And then I hear that the Discovery Channel has bought the rights! Hooray! But wait, experience…
Mad scientists, start drooling
Posted by PZ Myers on December 4, 2011 The future is arriving fast. Here are the instructions for assembling a $500 home molecular biology laboratory — you can do it! And it’s getting cheaper all the time! The widespread and increasing availability of second-hand professional laboratory equipment or inexpensive new commercial surrogates means that it is now unchallenging to set up a fully…
So he didn’t like the book then?
Posted by PZ Myers on December 1, 2011 How to write an academic review: Cartmill on Haraway. It’s a fine lesson on scholarly knife-fighting, and I think I’ll have to use it as an example next time I teach our scientific writing course. (Also on FtB)