Science Follies
Thus Spake Zuska
Category archives for Science Follies
What’s So Great About Your STEMmy Lifestyle Anyway? Inquiring Minds Want To Know!
Posted by Zuska on June 29, 2010 Why should any woman get any degree in a STEM discipline? Especially if she has to wade through tons of bullshit courses to get there, and part of the learning, it appears, has to do with learning how to be someone you aren’t? Some other gender, some other race – or some other social class?…
Work-Life Balance 1: Women, The Media Totally Support You!
Posted by Zuska on June 17, 2010 Work-life balance: people have been talking about it. Wait, that’s not right. Women have been talking about it. And have been talked at about it, by some people. Doc Free-Ride has a good round-up of a most recent skirmish of opinions on the topic in the sciencey blogosphere. If you have not been following this,…
Rearranging Pipet Tips…
Posted by Zuska on June 11, 2010 A friend of mine (maybe YOU are that friend?) will be soon be leaving a job at Wackaloon Scientific Enterprises where said friend is supervised by sadistic micromanaging douchebags from hell with poor reading comprehension skills. How best to spend the remaining time my friend must clock at WSE? I suggest devoting large chunks of…
Science FAIL
Posted by Zuska on June 6, 2010 Just how dumb can scientists be when they skientifikally talk about “consuming” porn? This dumb. Pal MD points out that the wrong questions are being asked. Fortunately, Skeptifem has a
Oil and the “Chance Fate of the Unfortunate Individual”
Posted by Zuska on May 16, 2010 The last week or so I’ve been reading that classic of naturalist writing, The Outermost House by Henry Beston, as the last of this year’s selections for the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Book Club. The book is a delight to read for those who love language – it is essentially one long prose poem. But at…
A Bit of Sport with the Students
Posted by Zuska on May 14, 2010 As you know, it was just over a thousand years ago this past March that I defended my dissertation. As I recall, I picked up a dozen bagels and some cream cheese on the way to the defense, and the department secretaries administrative assistants brought in an urn of coffee. It was me and my…
Dammit, You Made Me Think About Boobquake!
Posted by Zuska on May 4, 2010 Samia has a very thoughtful analysis of that whole Boobquake biz…I’d recommend you read it first before going on with this post. I love Samia because she is witty, she always makes me think, and often helps me see when I am missing big, important issues. But I am not sure I am in agreement…
Should You Comment On This Blog Post?
Posted by Zuska on February 1, 2010 1. First, a question. What is a blog? Generally speaking (although there are exceptions), blogs tend to have a few things in common: A main content area with articles listed chronologically, newest on top. Often, the articles are organized into categories. An archive of older articles. A way for people to leave comments about the…
How Do You Review Avatar?
Posted by Zuska on January 7, 2010 Maybe you tell us why they’re blue. First the name. Avatar–if you play computer games, you may know this very well–is a character you use inside an unreal world. The word Avatar has its origins in Indian mythology. An Avatar (ava-tara in Sanskrit) is god’s visit to earth to fix something that is broken. Vishnu,…
The Question of Who “Chooses” To Participate In Clinical Trials
Posted by Zuska on December 14, 2009 Is the current economy making more people want to participate in human research studies, asks Isis? In this new study here at MRU, we began advertising online last Wednesday. By Friday, my study coordinator had received 300 responses…I can’t help but wonder if the current poor economy is driving more people to consider human research.…