Oxford
scientificactivist | November 21, 2009In the op-ed pages of The Washington Post today, Elliot Gerson--the American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust--takes a bold stand:
Tonight, 32 young Americans will win Rhodes Scholarships. Their tenures at Oxford are funded by the legacy of the British imperialist Cecil Rhodes, a man whose life would not be honored today were it not for his vision that young people of outstanding intellect, leadership and ambition could make the world a better place.
For more than a century Rhodes scholars have left Oxford with virtually any job available to them. For much of this time, they have overwhelmingly…
scientificactivist | February 13, 2009Today, a court in Oxford found animal rights extremist Mel Broughton guilty of conspiracy to commit arson and sentenced him to ten years in prison for his crime. Broughton was arrested in 2007, after being linked to a failed arson attempt at Oxford's Templeton College (which followed a successful attack of Queen's College the previous year).
I have written at length about the animal rightists' campaign of fear and intimidation against Oxford University (check out previous entries for more)--a campaign that escalated in 2005, when the ALF declared that nothing owned by the university is off…
scientificactivist | February 10, 2009Last fall, most of the Oxford Biochemistry Department moved into a fancy-schmancy new building (imaginatively named "New Biochemistry"). A few of us stayed behind (have you ever tried to move a 6-magnet NMR facility?), and--to be totally honest--I can't say that I'm too disappointed about this. Granted, the new building is notable enough to warrant a recent write-up in Nature due to its open design and various art installations. On the other hand, I think that most of the faculty, postdocs, and students in the department are probably more interested in doing serious science, so this is…
scientificactivist | January 26, 2009Last Friday the British Minister of Science, Paul Drayson, visited the science area of Oxford University to give a short speech and take questions. The audience was a fairly random assortment of a couple of hundred academics and students, mostly from the sciences. I was invited to fill one of ten graduate student slots granted to the Department of Biochemistry. It was a nice gesture by Drayson, and I think he was legitimately interested in hearing from scientists. Based on what I witnessed, though, I hope that he took some of it in.
Drayson spoke and took questions about his role and the…
scientificactivist | June 18, 2008This evening, I was watching The Colbert Report--a show that, along with The Daily Show, I've been enjoying much more frequently lately since they began posting full (free and internationally-available) episodes online--and I stumbled across this interview from last night's show with Jonathan Zittrain, a professor of internet law at Oxford:
Zittrain was on the show to promote his new book, The Future of the Internet--And How to Stop It. I have to admit that I haven't actually read the book, but Oxford is admittedly a pretty small world, so I'm at least fairly familiar with what he and his…
scientificactivist | May 14, 2008On Monday, I attended an interesting lecture sponsored by the 21st Century School here in Oxford entitled "What Is Science For?". You can see a discussion on the event here and read a pdf summary of it here. The lecture was co-presented by scientist John Sulston and philosopher John Harris, and it was introduced by Richard Dawkins, who also moderated the Q&A afterward. As the summary focuses on, the event was partially a debate on the purpose of science, with Harris proposing a utilitarian view and Sulston defending a focus more on the intrinsic value of inquiry and discovery (and…
scientificactivist | February 9, 2008
When I first arrived in Oxford, about two and a half years ago, I found myself face to face with a very vocal and determined animal rights movement. Thriving on misinformation and intimidation--through their visible rallies and underhanded techniques of arson, grave robbing, and constant threats--they had stalled construction on Oxford's new animal research building (a building designed to even further ensure humane conditions for research animals). And, they had effectively silenced the scientific community and the much larger portion of the population that supports animal research.
Then…
scientificactivist | February 4, 2008Pro-Test, Oxford's pro-animal research organization, will be holding its third major public demonstration this Saturday, 9 February:
09.02.08: Pro-test marching on two year anniversary
On Saturday 9th February 2008 Pro-Test will march for a third time in support of animal research. We march to:
Defend - the rights of researchers to work in peace
Celebrate - the successes of animal research in developing treatments for disease
Communicate - a better understanding about animal research to non-scientists everywhere
The rally will begin at 12 noon, Broad Street Oxford, with speeches made at…
scientificactivist | January 28, 2008The Democratic Party is doing the very cool thing this year of giving Americans living abroad their own delegation to the 2008 Democratic Convention. This means that anyone currently living outside of the US can vote in the Democratic Presidential Primary for their own 11 delegates. Voting will take place online from February 5-12 and in person on some of those dates at a variety of locations. To be able to vote online, you just need to register (for free!) with Democrats Abroad by January 31st. Even better, though, to vote in person you just need to show up with your passport. You don't…
scientificactivist | December 31, 2007An individual cell inside the human body is in a dynamic environment: it not only has to anchor itself to its surroundings but also be able to communicate with them and respond as appropriate. One group of proteins--the integrins--play a central role in all of these tasks. The integrins are large (about 200,000 Da) membrane-spanning proteins, and each integrin consists of two subunits (alpha and beta). The vast majority of the integrin is located on the exterior of the cell, where it anchors the cell to the extracellular matrix. Each subunit has a short tail inside of the cell, and the…
scientificactivist | October 13, 2007Recently I came across a Nature commentary article (subscription required) by Robert May, former president of the Royal Society. Published in June of this year, May's article commented on the state of UK science as the government transitioned from the leadership of Tony Blair to Gordon Brown.
As I read it I couldn't help but wonder whether Robert May had been reading my mind. A better explanation, though, is that May is actually in touch with the issues that UK scientists face on a daily basis and has summed them up in a comprehensive and thoughtful way. This article is an excellent read…
scientificactivist | September 10, 2007The following email was recently sent out to members of Magdalen College at the University of Oxford:
Sometime between last Wednesday, 5th, and yesterday Sunday 9th, about
two and a half tons of lead roofing was stripped from the top of the
building on the outside of the deer park (at the southern, Holywell St
junction end, near the small tower in our wall) on Longwall St. This is
the Conservation Studio library, owned by Merton.
If you saw anything, such as a lorry loading up, please let me know and
I will pass on the information to Merton who are in contact with the Police.
A few thoughts…
scientificactivist | August 27, 2007Wait... is that smoke coming out of the upstairs window?
Uh oh. That can't be good....
Wait for it....
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!
Whoa!
Pretty cool, huh?
It's not every day--in Oxford at least--that your neighbor's house gets blown up. This blast happened just a few houses down from mine... but fortunately it was a controlled explosion. ITV is currently filming scenes in Oxford for its detective series Lewis, and a crew spent today filming on my street. The grand finale was…
scientificactivist | August 12, 2007Last week, I attended a seminar at the Oxford Internet Institute presented by J. Ignacio Criado and entitled "Political Blogging in Campaign and Political Communication: Political Leadership 2.0?" (see my announcement and the event's abstract here). My impressions are mixed, particularly in relation to the relevance of the seminar and the methods and conclusions of the presenter. I'll touch on these methodological issues briefly, but the main point that I took home was this: campaign blogging is fundamentally different from everyday political blogging, and it doesn't truly fit into the…
scientificactivist | August 6, 2007This one is for my readers in Oxford. The Oxford Internet Institute is hosting what could be a semi-relevant and interesting talk this Wednesday at noon. Here are the details:
Title: Political Blogging in Campaign and Political Communication: Campaigning for Political Leadership 2.0?
Speaker: J. Ignacio Criado (OII Visiting Fellow)
When: Wednesday 8 August 2007 12:00 - 13:30
Abstract:
The extended use of Internet facilities within the generalization of social access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the advanced societies has contributed to both the diffusion and…
scientificactivist | July 17, 2007Since it's suddenly all over the media that Oxford University is using Facebook to dig up dirt on students, here's the email that I received from the Oxford University Students Union (OUSU) yesterday:
It has been brought to the attention of the Student Union that the Proctors have been using evidence gathered from Facebook for disciplinary matters. Specifically, photos from Post-Exam Celebrations on Merton Street have been sent to members of the University (including those already finished) as evidence of their being involved in "trashings". As such, we advise those of you with Facebook…
scientificactivist | February 26, 2007A couple of current American Rhodes Scholars ruffled a few feathers today after writing an unabashedly critical account of their Oxford experiences for their undergraduate alma mater's paper, The Harvard Crimson. Melissa Dell and Swati Mylavarapu write:
Take it from two veterans, the glitter and prestige of big name scholarships may be less appealing under closer inspection.
This admission may be shocking, since to many, being a "Rhodes scholar" foretells a future of success and celebrity. After all, William J. Clinton, Kris Kristofferson, and David H. Souter '61 are just a few former Rhodes…
scientificactivist | August 20, 2006This announcement is a couple of days late, so please accept my apologies, although I can blame it in part on a lack of internet access.
Anyways, as of 15:30 GMT last Thursday (August 17th), after enduring what was surely the longest transfer viva in the history of man (two and a half hours--hell, they should have gone ahead and given me my degree right then and there), I am now an official Oxford D.Phil. student. (The D.Phil. is Oxford's archaic equivalent of the Ph.D.) That means I can look forward to another 2+ years of hardcore science here in the Department of Biochemistry. Yes!
So,…
scientificactivist | July 19, 2006Since January, I've been covering Oxford's animal rights movement, and the response of local scientists, primarily through the organization Pro-Test. This post from the archives describes a particularly informative Pro-Test event.
(26 May 2006) On Monday, May 22nd, an audience of about 100 people joined the pro-research organization Pro-Test at a public meeting in the Oxford Town Hall, and in standard fashion The Scientific Activist was there to report all about it. The purpose of the meeting was to make the case for animal research from a variety of perspectives, get feedback from the…
scientificactivist | July 2, 2006I've been following Oxford's pro-research organization Pro-Test since its inception, and a few weeks ago I wrote a post describing its second large march through the streets of Oxford. Pro-Test has received quite a bit of well-deserved press in general, but I was recently directed to another very comprehensive account of the latest march. On his blog, freelance journalist Kieren McCarthy also wrote a long post on the event that's about the same level of detail as my account, but he ends up putting me to shame with professional-quality photographs and, even better, audio recordings of almost…