Academia
catdynamics | June 17, 2008why is there always One that hatesdoesn't click with you...
The Female Science Professor got her student evaluations...
As she notes, there is always one student who really does not like the class, the professor, the material, the method, anything...
Always.
One.
At least one...
Now, she has some interesting conjecture about her particular One, which I am sorry to say could not possibly explain my One(s).
Our student evaluations score us on a strange numerical scale - high score is good.
Personally I just think that there is always one student who inverts the scale and things a "1" is good…
clock | June 16, 2008A number of my SciBlings (and their commenters) try to explain:
Janet
Chad
Martin
PhysioProf
DrugMonkey
Brian Switek
Alice
Jeremy Bruno
Grrrrrl
jstemwedel | June 16, 2008
As I emerge from my fever, I ponder the latest "Ask a ScienceBlogger" question:
There are many, many academic bloggers out there feverishly blogging about their areas of interest. Still, there are many, many more academics who don't. So, why do you blog and how does blogging help with your research?
I started this blog as a way to remind my students (and myself) how my subject, the ethical conduct of science, is relevant to lots of things happening in the world right now. Some of those things involve scientists caught misbehaving, or scientific communities trying to figure out what sorts of…
drorzel | June 16, 2008The Corporate Masters have posted a new Ask a ScienceBlogger question:
The question (submitted by a reader) is this: There are many, many academic bloggers out there feverishly blogging about their areas of interest. Still, there are many, many more academics who don't. So, why do you blog and how does blogging help with your research?
Taking these in the opposite order, how does blogging help with my research? The answer is simple: it doesn't. Not one bit.
I am an experimental physicist, so my research is done in the lab, not
in my office (well, data analysis, when I have data to analyze…
revere | June 16, 2008Our post on what is behind the Right Wing attack on science drew a lot of attention and numerous comments. I'd like to emphasize some key points that may have gotten lost in the details (for the details, please see the original post). We'll use climate change skepticism as an example, but the principles hold for other kinds of assaults, for example, on public health concerns regarding bis phenol A.
The cardinal point is that the attacks aren't about science. Refuting false statements about whether CO2 is or is not a driver of global warming may seem (and be) necessary, but it is not the…
clock | June 15, 2008It's always interesting to hear what Eszter has to say about academics and blogging. She is right that the environment has changed and that more and more people know what blogs are and appreciate them (not everyone, though, but those are not academics, really).
She is also right that the term "blog" is not very useful - a blog is a piece of software: it is what you do with it that affects how you are perceived by peers, which in turn can affect your career trajectory. There are examples of people who lost prospects due to their blogging, but that was either because they were foolish (their…
drorzel | June 15, 2008Another year in academia, another graduation ceremony. It poured for a lot of the day yesterday, so everybody was a little nervous coming in, but the weather turned out to be good-- clear blue skies, a few puffy white clouds, and temperatures that were a little warm for sitting outside in long black robes, but quite reasonable other than that.
This year's Physics class was the largest in recent memory, and one of the very best. They distinguished themselves not only in physics classes, but on the campus in general-- we don't get a lot of majors who are widely known on campus, and exert a…
catdynamics | June 13, 2008
"So, you get through grad school. You do research that gets lot of citations. You get tenure...
...then Larry King wraps it up: "Tomorrow, we'll talk about psychic kids." "
'cause y'know linking is an intrinsically good thing to do, sometimes.
jstemwedel | June 6, 2008For the June edition of Scientiae, Zuska notes:
Taking up space in the world is a Bad Thing for women to do. We waste a lot of energy and time worrying about whether or not we are taking up too much space. ...
How do you want to take up space? How do you want to let yourself sprawl, in your professional or personal life?
In the wake of the letter informing me that I had been awarded tenure, I've been thinking about sprawl and containment a lot.
My strategy for my six years as an untenured assistant professor was to come in to the office Monday through Friday and hunker down. Verily, there…
terrasig | June 6, 2008This one's for the molecular and cell biology and pharmaceutical chemistry crowd: what's on your current wishlist?
If you had a US$250,000 equipment budget, what would you buy to outfit the lab?
Assume that your department has all the big ticket items like real-time PCR, confocal microscopy, flow cytometer, histology gadgetry, >500MHz NMR, MALDI-TOF, LCs, etc.
And, no, not for scientist salaries - instrumentation/capital equipment only.
I just want to know if there are any newfangled whizbang thingamabobs out there that I haven't seen in the last year or two, perhaps along the lines of the…
drorzel | June 5, 2008In the last few weeks, I've been wrapping up E&M, which has included talking about Faraday's Law and induced currents. I did the traditional demonstration using a PASCO ring launcher to demonstrate Lenz's Law, showing that the induced current flows in a direction that creates a field opposing the change in magnetic flux. The ring launcher uses an alternating current in a solenoid to shoot a metal ring a meter or so up in the air, which always gets a good reaction.
The extreme version of the same basic physics is the Meissner Effect, in which currents in a piece of superconductor…
terrasig | June 5, 2008This just in from David B. Brushwood, RPh, JD, Professor of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy. David said, "we could use your help promoting the programs to anyone you know who might be interested."
So, I know you and since you read this blog, you might be interested (see here for more information on these programs and others already ongoing):
We have really worked hard to develop three new online, part-time programs that will interest you. These are in addition to the programs that are up and running. The new programs start this fall.…
drorzel | June 4, 2008I'm giving the last lecture of new material in my intro E&M class today, on Maxwell's equations and electromagnetic waves. In the last couple of weeks, I've been struck again by the way our trimester system (three ten-week terms, instead of two 15-week semesters) is a lousy match for the standard curricula. Or even new curricula, like the Matter and Interactions course we've started using this year.
In this case, it's not a matter of needing to rush to fit things in, though. It's a matter of peaking at the wrong time
M&I is different than the standard textbooks in a lot of respects,…
drorzel | June 4, 2008I've written my last lecture for the first-year E&M class, and will be giving it at 10:30 this morning. (Friday's class will be given over to exam review). The spring term, which had felt like it would stretch into July, is basically over.
Oh, and some guy won an election.
neurophilosophy | June 3, 2008Today sees the launch of UCL's iTunes platform, which can be used to download, among other things, lectures and seminars. There's not much material on there yet, but the university promises that highlights of UCL on iTunes U will include:
first-hand expert accounts of the history of neuroscience, produced by the Wellcome Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL
a weekly audio round-ups of news from UCL [and]
UCL's hugely popular Lunch Hour Lectures, providing the public with a behind-the-scenes look at cutting-edge research
drorzel | June 3, 2008Over at View from the Corner, Mary is planning to run the Chicago marathon, and raising money for charity in the process. Her charity is the Union League Boys and Girls Club, and it looks like they do some good stuff.
If you've got some disposable income burning a hole in your pocket, and want to support a worthy cause, consider donating via her page, and doing two good deeds with one contribution.
clock | June 2, 2008Go to http://www.slideworld.org, type in a keyword, and it will do a search of slideshows that contain that word. I typed "circadian" and found a lot....
Hat-tip: Ana
scientificactivist | June 1, 2008After a rapid media outcry, the US and Israel have come together to reinstate the Fulbright Scholarships initially revoked from several students from Gaza due to Israel-imposed travel restrictions. From The New York Times:
JERUSALEM -- The American State Department has reinstated seven Fulbright grants offered to Palestinians in Gaza for advanced study in the United States, reversing a decision to withdraw the scholarships because of Israel's ban on Palestinians' leaving Gaza for study abroad.
The American Consulate in Jerusalem sent e-mail messages on Sunday night to all seven telling them…
evolgen | May 30, 2008Phylogeny Friday -- 30 May 2008
Research on animals in under attack throughout the world. Animal rights activists not only stage rallies against animal testing, but they also engage in criminal behavior. They vandalize property, sabotage experiments, and terrorize researchers. How can scientists fight back?
Michael Conn and James Parker have written book documenting the animal rights issue from the scientists' perspective (The Animal Research War). Conn and Parker have also briefly described their position in the FASEB Journal. Here is how they summarize their book:
This book is a personal…