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Sure you’re not meant to take it seriously
It’s a little over two years since my first post for physicsfocus and I’m sad to say that this one is going to be my last. I found out last month from Chris White – the physicsfocus editor,...
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Still not in the World University Rankings Top 50? Five sure-fire routes to...
Last time round I bemoaned the “inspirational leader” model of management that infests universities but promised that I’d be a little more constructive in my next post. In the meantime, this splendid...
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Why a level playing field needs good leadership
Recently Philip Moriarty discussed on this blog both the importance of a recent Cambridge University event on what success means for women within the HE Sector and diversity issues more generally, but...
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Follow the leader?
I very much hope that a meeting I attended last week at the University of Cambridge will prove to be a key moment, and a major catalyst, in accelerating change in academia. Delivering Equality: Women...
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Moving on – when it’s not your decision
Science is one of the most adventurous careers one can choose. There are so many opportunities for changing your field of study that it allows you to live the dream – having a job that will never get...
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The dark side of post-publication peer review
Peer review is a cornerstone of science: before work is published in a journal it is sent to an independent expert, who quickly and anonymously assesses its quality; if the work is up to scratch, it...
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So long, Sid
As we get older, one aspect of the festive season becomes increasingly evident, an issue that younger readers may not have considered. It concerns the Christmas cards that do not arrive. Or,...
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An experiment in post-proposal peer review
I’m a huge fan of post-publication peer review (PPPR). It’s the future of scientific publishing and it’ll be de rigeur – rather than a novelty – for the next generation of scientists. Because if that...
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Thinking about how girls think about themselves
Self-perception colours our choices, limits or drives our ambitions, and affects how we come across to others. So role models and cultural icons matter when it comes to the messages we give our...
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Why Twitter is a friend to early-career researchers
Most readers here will already know about Twitter, the site where we condense the everyday minutiae of our lives into 140 characters interspersed with pictures of cats, food, and cats eating food. If...
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I am not a smart man
“I’m a physicist”… “Wow, you must be clever!” This is an interaction most physicists would admit to having at some point. Physics is difficult: everyone knows this. We take pride in it. Ours is the...
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Should I stay or should I go now? The postdoc mobility myth
Far back in the mists of time, in the great and glorious days of Britpop, Forrest Gump, and John Major’s “Back to Basics”, I was a postdoc[1]. It was my first postdoctoral position after completing my...
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Hug a medical physicist today
Coinciding with the birthday of Marie Curie, 7 November is the International Day of Medical Physics and a time to celebrate our medical physicists. So if there is one in your vicinity, give them a hug...
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Higgs deserves his Nobel Prize – but there’s more to physics than the...
Everyone loves a fairytale. You might think that the 2013 physics Nobel prize is a fairytale too – two theoretical physicists predicting something unimaginably small and abstruse, that turns out not...
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For better learning, harness the power of play
Christmas, 1965, and an 11-year-old boy eagerly rips open the paper from a large parcel he’d been eying under the tree for what seemed like most of the Advent period. Too small to be a Scalextric, too...
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We should all be aware of our unconscious biases
As scientists we believe we are rather good at weighing up the evidence and forming judgments appropriately. That is what we are trained to do and we would be horrified if we were accused of making...
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Perform or perish? Guilty confessions of a YouTube physicist
This week is YouTube’s Geek Week so it seems a particularly (in)opportune moment to come clean about some niggling doubts I’ve been having of late about physics education/edutainment on the web....
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Why scientists need software engineers
I build telescopes. This is what I tell people, if they should show the slightest interest. It usually instils just enough awe and sometimes a little jealousy; astronomy is the vocational equivalent...
View Article#sciconfessions: Our bloggers spill their darkest secrets
Over the last few days, scientists have been telling all on Twitter. Failed experiments, stupid mistakes, accidental E. coli poisoning… you name it, someone has admitted to it. See the latest...
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When you tell someone you’re a physicist, explain what you actually do
Physics is a diverse, constantly growing field. So why do people treat me differently when I tell them that I’m studying it? The response is almost always that they never understood (or worse, never...
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