What makes most scientists most excited is the same thing that—if they’ve heard about it—makes many non-scientists wonder if scientists are nuts: Way more than half of “the stuff the universe is made of” is still a mystery to scientists. Which may strike you as a crazy thing to realize, and a crazy thing to say. […]
Aaron Gordon’s writing about written reports that few people have read has probably been read more than most reports about reports that few people have read. Gordon’s report about reports was published in Pacific Standard: At one of the first academic conferences I ever attended, I heard an economist joke that dissertations are only read […]
The 30+ years since the launch of Super Mario Bros. have given ample opportunity for scholars to study the game’s possible influences in academia and society at large. Here is a short list of some representative academic works [ all of which can be read in full via the links ] that have documented ramifications […]
“This twitter account calls out press releases of studies on mice that discuss the studies as if they were performed on humans,” says Samantha Joel. The twitter feed is @justsaysinmice. The feed itself is the work of James Heathers.
TODAY IN OSLO: In front of an audience at the University of Oslo (UiO), The Luxuriant Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS) proudly announced its 2017 Woman of The Year – Dr. Anneleen Kool. Dr. Kool was in attendance to discuss her research on the botanical history of the Vikings and to display her luxuriant flowing […]
In these days where ‘Publish or Perish’ pressures are rife in academia, scholars who wish to enhance their career opportunities might want to turn to the work of dr.ir. Marcoen J.T.F. Cabbolet, who is a research affiliate at the Free University of Brussels. In a new paper for the journal Science and Engineering Ethics he […]
The Still Not Significant blog lists lots of ways to mutter, in professional language, if your research findings are statistically marginal. Among them: What to do if your p-value is just over the arbitrary threshold for ‘significance’ of p=0.05? … The solution is to apply the time-honoured tactic of circumlocution to disguise the non-significant result as […]
“No shit Sherlock science – why it’s still worth it, ” politely screams the headline on an essay by Justin Waring, Professor of Organisational Sociology at University of Nottingham, in The Conversation. Waring begins: One of the great fears for scientists is that their work will be met with derision, especially when someone has been […]
Canadian elevator buttons just might hold the key to a return in popularity for the “anti-microbial” cleaning products industry. Recently, three doctors in Toronto wrote a little study about the bacteria they found on hospital elevator buttons. The great washed public, reading that report (or scary reports about that report — maybe scarier than the one you are reading right […]
Several well-known, much-respected scientists published this letter in The Guardian: We need more scientific mavericks “Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts,” said Richard Feynman in the 1960s. But times change…. [But now,] applicants’ proposals must convince their peers that they serve national policies and are the best possible uses of resources. [A large […]