How do we feel about graduate advisers betting with each other on the progress of their students?I am not talking about a vast gambling ring involving misuse of grant funds. I am talking about one professor saying to another (from time to time) something...
Chill Out
A young colleague in Europe recently told me about some of the problems he has with students who don't treat him with respect. If he shows any sign of lenience, some students take advantage. Other students speak rudely to him.This colleague is quite...
Ruined
Imagine that there is one research group that doesn’t like or respect another. It is perhaps not so difficult to imagine such a scenario. In such cases, the people involved typically deal with the conflict in ways that may include aggressive tactics,...
National Parks - America's Best Idea
Tonight, Sunday, September 27, the first show in documentary series the National Parks - America's Best Idea airs at 8 pm EST/PST 7pm CST on PBS stations in the United States.I'm quite excited about the documentary. It is a fabulous way to learn about...
Induced pluripotent stem cells with one transcription factor
Just under three years ago, in October 2006, some important stem cell research was announced by a Japanese scientific team led by Shinya Yamanaka. The team showed how ordinary mouse skin cells could be transformed into cells that turned out to be pluripotent,...
National Public Lands Day & Environmental Education
Tomorrow, September 26, 2009 is 16th Annual celebration of National Public Lands Day. Public lands are all of those lands that belong to the public such as parks, forests, grasslands, scenic by-ways and waterways. These public lands include state parks,...
Mere Woman
This week I have been in a country that uses the language I have been studying for the past few years – for 3 years in undergraduate language courses and this year with a tutor. I am mostly pleased with the progress I’ve made learning the language, though...
Trigger-Happy Star Formation
Trigger-Happy Star Formation (8/12/09)A new study from two of NASA's Great Observatories provides fresh insight into how some stars are born, along with a beautiful new image of a stellar nursery in our Galaxy. The research shows that radiation from...
Team Players
In my youth I had many of those classic experiences in which someone (typically a teacher) selects two of the most popular and athletic kids and asks them to choose their own teams for some activities. The designated team captains took turns picking...
Wordless Wednesday: Fields of Flowers (Travelog Europe)
Photos of cultivars from Europe. Cultivars are a variety of a plants and flowers developed from a natural species and maintained under cultivation. Purple cone flowers. Leek, the Netherlands Black-eyed Susans (a yellow cone flower). Leek, the Netherlands...
Diversity in Science Carnival is back
Calling all bloggers and blogging communities! Call for submissions for the Diversity in Science Carnival. The blog carnival that celebrates people, innovations, and programs that promote diversity in STEM! The upcoming edition coincides with Hispanic...
Please Share Your Worst Accounting Nightmares
It would really cheer me up a lot if some of you would share stories of your worst accounting woes, especially if some of your experiences are worse than those currently afflicting my departmental colleagues and me.Get competitive. Send in your worst...
In Memorium: Ms. Gloria Eggerson, Math Educator
Ms. Eggerson taught me math in 7th grade (Riverview Jr. High) and also 10th grade Geometry (Whitehaven High School), both of Memphis, Tennessee. She also taught my mother, my uncle, my younger sister, my older cousins and their children. For 29th years...
You're Great. Take a Hike.
These are the summary comments from recent reviews for a manuscript of mine:This is an intriguing and important paper. It will be of great interest and should have a great impact. This is an interesting paper. It got me thinking.Editor decision: RejectThis...
Making Breakthroughs and Breaking the Color Barriers in the Great Outdoors
The Breakthrough.I’m busy, busy, busy like a bee. I have been busy writing. Writing is a necessary part of science. I know my dissertation meter has moved in a while. It doesn’t mean I haven’t been writing. It’s just that I am reluctant to count a word...
What is it About Faculty Meetings?
There is something extremely annoying about faculty meetings, and I have never fully explored exactly what it is about them that I so dislike.I do not loathe my colleagues (with very few exceptions). In fact, I like quite a lot of them, and I am quite...
Wordless Wednesday: Urban Waterscapes (Travelog Europe)
The cities I visited in Europe were marked by internal waterways – rivers and canals. Here I share my views of the urban landscape as it meets the urban waterways. Canals of Amsterdam, the Netherlands Canals of Amsterdam, the Netherlands Canals of Amsterdam,...
It's a Female Thing (?)
Many of us in certain fields of science teach Science courses in which male students outnumber female students. When we teach large introductory courses for non-majors, however, we see a gender ratio that is more typical of universities today; i.e.,...
Pollinators make the world go round (Travelog Europe)
This is part of my Urban Wildlife Watch:Travelog Europe Series where I introduce wildlife and botanicals I came across while traveling to Europe August 18-31, 2009.Pollinators are animals that visit flowers and distribute pollen among individual flowers....
What to Expect When You're Clueless
Consider the situations of two undergraduate students who will be applying to graduate programs in Science during this academic year, in the hopes of starting grad school the following year. These two students are both smart -- neither is brilliant,...
Scientific Overlap
It recently came to my attention that a certain scientist had submitted identical proposals to two different funding sources at the same time. Submitting "overlapping" proposals to the same funding agency is prohibited by some (but not all?) funding...
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