the process of science

I had a weird experience dealing with journals and peer review a little while ago. Recent discussions of the CRU e-mail hack (especially Janet's) has made me think more about it, and wonder about how the scientific community ought to think about expertise when it comes to peer review. A little while ago, I was asked to be a reviewer for a journal article. That's a more common experience for people at research universities than for someone like me, but it's still something that's part of my job. I turned down the request because I didn't feel qualified to review the paper. That wouldn't have…
From the American Geophysical Union's Twitter feed ( @theAGU ): Looking for a geoblogger to discuss blogging at Communicating your Science workshop Sunday Dec. 13 morning #AGU09 Contact mjvinas@agu.org (I'm not going. Have fun in San Francisco - I'll be at home, grading.)
I've recently submitted a proposal to the National Science Foundation, and it's got me thinking about how I find ideas for research. The proposal was for an instrument to enable research*, and that meant that, for the first time in years**, I had to write something that could convince other people that my research is interesting, important, and worth doing. Out of all the things I do in my job, that's the thing that I find the most difficult. I love teaching - teaching is fun, and makes everything worthwhile. (Even grading isn't so bad all the time.) And doing the research itself is fine, too…