A Galactic Spectacle

A Galactic Spectacle (8/5/10)The Antennae galaxies, located about 62 million light years from Earth, are shown in this composite image from the Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue), the Hubble Space Telescope (gold and brown), and the Spitzer Space Telescope...

Raising the Bar

Does anyone else feel that the standards for achieving something -- a position, an award etc. -- change when you accomplish that thing? That is, something that is considered prestigious becomes less so if you achieve it?From my correspondence and other...

Don't Take It Personally

So, how's everyone feeling after the release of the NRC rankings? Did you sit by your computer, waiting for the magic moment when the results appeared on the internet? Or did you torture your department chair (and/or dean) to tell you the results last...

Selected readings 9/28/10

Interesting reading and news items.Please leave some comments that indicate which articles you find most interesting or that identify topics you would like to read about, and I will try to include more articles of a similar nature in the futureThese...

Woman of Mystery

Some people are happy to have their daily/weekly schedule posted where it can be seen by everyone or by a particular group, and this can be very useful for organizing meetings and such. For some people, having a viewable schedule is even required as...

Quilts, Cowgirls & Lilacs

Attempts to get a National Women’s History Museum bill passed in the Senate are stalled because two Republican Senators have put a hold on the bill, which would allow plans to go forward to build the museum, at no cost to taxpayers. In the NY Times on...

Overscheduled

There has been much angsty press in recent years about how kids don't have much free time to kick around and just be kids anymore. Those of us who grew up in an era when our parents sent us out the door to walk 3 miles in a blizzard to school or let...

Call for Submissions for Diversity in Science Carnival - Hispanic Heritage Month

September 15 marks the beginning of Hispanic/Latino American Heritage Month. Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated from September 15 - October 15, annually. What better way to celebrate this diversity awareness month than with blog articles...

Listen Up

Imagine that you have been making one particular not-very-complicated point for many years in various faculty meetings, individual discussions, memos, and e-mails. This point is about an administrative matter, not something related to your research;...

Wordless Wednesday: Water Quality

This Saturday, September 25, 2010, many communities around the world will celebrate World Water Monitoring Day. Citizens - young and old, will come together to test the quality of the water they live near and depend on for sustenance. The...

Those Happy Golden Postdoctoral Days

Subtitle:Happy Postdocs : Not An OxymoronDisclaimer: I have no direct experience with postdocs in biomedical or other life sciences fields. My point of view derives entirely from experiences in the physical sciences.Context: In the physical science academic...

Spelling it Out

As I have been writing letters as part of the tenure and promotion evaluation of assistant professors at other institutions, I have been struck by the great variation in the "tenure code" documents I have been sent to help me write my letters. Typically,...

(Un)appealing Option

A few weeks ago, I discussed writing letters as part of the tenure evaluation of assistant professors at other universities. Another tenure-related topic is what happens when tenure is denied.My understanding of how tenure-denial appeals work is limited,...

Dodging a Postdoctoral Bullet

In general, I am not a particularly sadistic person; at least, no more than the average professor. Every once in a while, though, as I am mulling over a potential blog post topic, I think to myself "This one is going to freak out the [select one or more:...

Jargonauts

My daughter is involved in a particular extra-curricular activity that has an incredible number of special terms, abbreviations, acronyms, and other words and phrases that are incomprehensible to the uninitiated. Just like Science! I have learned some...

And a new Science Blog is born...SouthernPlayalisticEvolutionMusic

I was always in love with music. I learned how to change radio stations on our old school 8-track record player console by the age of 3. I knew what I liked: piano melodies, bass guitars, drum beats, and catchy hooks, also known as chorus. And...

Conference Tourists

Some conferences are so highly selective that a small fraction of conference-goers give presentations, but other conferences are less selective and the majority of attendees give presentations of some sort (talk or poster). These less selective conferences...

Affirmative Action for Dead People

Someone wrote a letter of complaint to The New York Times, noting that there were typically about 8 times as many obituaries for men as for women.The Times' obituaries editor responded that the newspaper only publishes obituaries for people whose former...

Summer activity recap - having adventures all summer long.

I have been busy. As I am sure you all have noticed by my blogging frequency. (And let me say I am very thankful that you all have still been with me through all of this). 2010 is definitely becoming a breakthrough year professionally: defending...

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