Academia
tsmith | July 5, 2006I mentioned before that I often have my posts mostly written in my head before I ever sit down to type them out. And indeed, though I hadn't had a chance to actually sit at a computer yet, I had a science post all planned for today, based on an article I ran across last week. I think that will wait for tomorrow, though, after reading this post over at Terra Sigillata, where Abel writes about the sudden death of a 23-year-old brother of a former lab intern from a staph infection.
I sometimes get asked why I "waste my time" studying infectious disease, when they don't cause nearly the…
clock | June 29, 2006This post was first written on October 28, 2004 on Science And Politics, then it was republished on December 05, 2005 on The Magic School Bus. The Village vs. The University - all in your mind.
Eric at Total Information Awareness wrote two excellent posts on something that touches me personally, yet has much broader consequences on the country as a whole: the well-organized and well-funded assault of the Right on the University (check some links in the comments section, too): Freedom Fighters and Academic Freedom Fighters.
There were a couple of other articles on the same topic, e.g.,The…
drorzel | June 28, 2006From America's Finest News Source:
Professor Pressured To Sleep With Student For Good Course Evaluation
FAYETTEVILLE, AR--Alan Gilchrist, an associate professor of English literature at the University of Arkansas infamous for his tough grading standards and dry lecturing style, was coerced into sleeping with an undergraduate on Monday in order to earn a good course evaluation. "My tenure's on the line here, so I allowed a student to take advantage of me," said an emotional Gilchrist of the experience, which he hopes will earn him at least six "very much enjoyed" responses on the eight-item…
drorzel | June 28, 2006Two links containing important advice for the academic set. First, Derek Lowe reminisces about summer in graduate school:
When I was in graduate school, I had a law student as a neighbor for a while. We were both pretty quiet, and got along fine in our respective dinky efficiency apartments, but we couldn't help but notice some differences between our studies. The biggest one became clear around this time of the year: he left, and I stayed. I still remember the look of surprise on his face when I told him that we didn't have any time off.
Well, I know that law students don't generally go off…
retrospectacle | June 27, 2006Are women in the field of neuroscience still under-represented? Does there exist obstacles to their getting published in top journals? According to a Nature Neuroscience editorial on the subject, the situation is looking up (for them, but not for women).
Only one in five papers published in Nature Neuroscience has a female corresponding author. This number might simply reflect the low representation of women among neuroscientists, but it could also contribute to perpetuating the problem, as high-profile publication influences hiring and promotion decisions.
In response, the journal examined…
clock | June 26, 2006There is a whole slew of responses to this silly post by Comissar/
It is a typical effort to make "balance" between Left and Right in order to make the Right appear more palatable, ...or palatable at all. The typical He-said-She-said approach that tries to equalize the enormously dangerous policies of the Right (see my previous post below) with follies of some powerless, silly people on the fringes that nominally belong to the Left (and vote Nader when it really matters!).
But, since when was Astrology part of the Democratic Party platform, even at state level, like Creationism and Global…
catdynamics | June 25, 2006The newly instated University of California at Santa Cruz Chancellor, Prof D. Denton died saturday in San Francisco in a fall from a tall building.
News media are conjecturing it was suicide.
There was a lot of media play over senior UC personnel in the last year or so, with a lot of insinuation of petty corruption, in particular over the hiring of partners of senior administrators in high rank, and high pay, university positions.
Some of that coverage was motivated by bias, rather than concern over the adminstration of the university. They may have gone too far.
InsideHigherEd has a lengthy…
evolgen | June 25, 2006Blogging's been light recently. I spent the last week frantically preparing my talk for the Evolution Meeting. I was analyzing data until late Thursday evening. Then, I still needed to finish putting together my talk. We spent Friday driving to the meeting, and I gave my talk yesterday morning (Saturday). It went well -- I got a packed (albeit, small) room and had enough time for two questions (one coming from a guy whose research I deeply admire).
You probably won't see any new posts until later next week. I'll be spending my time listening to other people talk about their research and…
scientificactivist | June 24, 2006As my own department faces budget shortfalls and considers increasingly extreme measures to improve the situation, I thought it would be appropriate to bring back this post from the archives. The following post explores the results and interpretation of a recent study that found that university scientists are turning their laboratory results into profits more than previously thought.
(13 April 2006) According to a study released earlier this week, more scientists are commercializing their work that previous measures indicated. In a study funded by the pro-entrepreneurship Kauffman…
catdynamics | June 22, 2006I don't know. But I'll answer anyway.
Enthusiasm for the subject
Comfort with the level of knowledge and understanding of the material
Some minimal level of organization ability
Pacing
Some patience, but not too much
Some ineffable ability to explain stuff
Did I mention patience, lots of patience
Time. Practise. Time.
tsmith | June 22, 2006Figures. I'm even mentioned in last week's "Ask a Scienceblogger" question, and I'm not around to answer it!
How is it that all the PIs (Tara, PZ, Orac et al.), various grad students, post-docs, etc. find time to fulfill their primary objectives (day jobs) and blog so prolifically?...
Looking at the responses, I think Mark already nailed it: insanity. But I suppose I'll ramble a bit below the fold, anyway...
(Catch that? Look--rambling by me! Another post appears! Lather, rinse, repeat!)
Seriously, though, I do strive for most of my posts to go beyond just my ramblings and random…
scientificactivist | June 22, 2006Today's issue of Nature includes a particularly damning news story about the financial troubles facing the Public Library of Science, a publisher of several prestigious open access journals. In the article, Nature describes PLoS's difficulties and heavily stresses its continued reliance on philanthropic grants.
The Public Library of Science (PLoS), the flagship publisher for the open-access publishing movement, faces a looming financial crisis. An analysis of the company's accounts, obtained by Nature, shows that the company falls far short of its stated goal of quickly breaking even. In an…
clock | June 21, 2006I am a science teacher. I think I am actually a pretty good science teacher. So, it came to me as a surprise as how much I was baffled by the new SEED AskTheScienceBlogger question:
What makes a good science teacher?...
The answer, I guess, depends on the precise definitions of the words "makes", "good", "science" and "teacher".
[read the rest under the fold]
Is this the question about inherent talents shared by the good science teachers, or the methods one may use to turn a lousy or mediocre teacher into a good one?
Being extroverted helps. Being a natural performer helps. Loving…
scientificactivist | June 21, 2006Nature started it with its recently begun open peer review trial, and PLoS got on board with its own announcement of a new interactive journal, PLoS ONE. Now, The Daily Transcript reports that Cell has also joined the latest trend by allowing reader comments on some of its articles. What's the catch? Comments will only be open on one "highlighted" paper each issue. That's too bad, because I was just reading an older Cell paper today that seemed to raise more questions than it answered....
Interestingly, Alex Palazzo of The Daily Transcript raises an important point at the end of his post…
catdynamics | June 20, 2006
RPM writes about a senior female scientist resigning a post over a failure to hire a female editor
Astronomy is one of the sciences with very low senior female presence, not the lowest, but way down there. The incident RPM relates brings to mind a case...
I was asked by a very senior colleague what I thought about offering a policy/administrative position to a female colleague that I knew well. A auxillary position, to be done in parallel with her professorial duties as "service", but with a high profile, politically important and extremely time consuming.
I thought she was a great choice…
evolgen | June 20, 2006Two months ago, I wrote about Teri Markow resigning as President of the Society for the Study of Evolution in protest of the appointment of the new Editor in Chief. Long story short, Markow was unhappy that women were not considered for the editorship of the Society's journal, Evolution. Don Waller, the current president of the Society, and Sally Otto, Vice-president and Associate Editor of Evolution, have both published letters to Nature (available here and here) in which they take issue with the journal's coverage of Markow's resignation. Waller points out that the Society actively…
drorzel | June 19, 2006Inside Higher Ed has an article today on a study of career tracks that found markedly different results for different ethnic groups. This ought to be interesting data for the endless debates about diersity in science hiring, especially this tidbit:
Asian doctorates - 51 percent of them - are far and away the most likely to be employed in industry. White doctorates are the next closest at 29 percent, and blacks are the lowest at 19 percent.
Honestly, though, I don't have the foggiest idea what it means. That's a really big gap, though, and I'm sure somebody will come up with a theory of why…
scientificactivist | June 17, 2006I just found out that the journal impact factors for 2005 were recently released, and as usual, the journals with the highest impact factors are not necessarily the ones that would be considered the most prestigious. Therefore, the following post from the archives, about an alternative rating scheme for scientific journals, seemed relevant. Enjoy!
In regards to my statement below about my old site's PageRank, I did finally get one but apparently the new site hasn't made an impression on Google yet....
(17 February 2006) How do you know how important a website is? You probably already…
evolgen | June 17, 2006I'm a big fan of Wikipedia. I was happy to report that the dynamic encyclopedia is just as good as Britannica. But there is a limit to what any encyclopedia can tell you. They are excellent places to go for a quick introduction to material that is otherwise unfamiliar to you. For example, if I want a review of cell cycle, I may check out the Wikipedia entry first as a quick refresher. But if I want to really know what's going on, I'll crack a textbook or read a review article from a serious scientific journal.
Wikipedia has its uses. One of them is not as a citable reference. I get extremely…
catdynamics | June 16, 2006How is it that all the PIs (Tara, PZ, Orac et al.), various grad students, post-docs, etc. find time to fulfill their primary objectives (day jobs) and blog so prolifically?...
Er... ouch.
Notice the time stamps of ~ 1:30 am on many of my entries?
Actually, if I am dashing out a lot of blog entries it is a sign that I am particularly busy, it is when I am idle that I don't blog and instead revel in real life.
Time for a "blast from the past":
The more you write, the more you write
It is well known, that there is a standing secret committee of academics that keeps track of all the stupid…