Futurepub
FuturePub is a relatively new event, hosted by Overleaf, that combines a meetup with short talks from people working on the cutting edge of scientific publishing. It has already become such a staple of the London science tech/publishing scene that it was hard to believe that Tuesday’s sold-out event at…
Book review: Random Body Parts
By Leslie Bulion and Mike Lowery Expected publication: March 1st 2015 by Peachtree Publishers ISBN 156145737X Random Body Parts is an upcoming kids book with funny poems about different body parts. Leslie Bulion’s poems combined with Mike Lowery’s artwork make each page a fun introduction to the purpose of your…
Breaking glass and restriction enzymes
In one of my undergraduate chemistry lab courses the teaching assistants ran a “Break List”. Every time you broke a piece of glassware, you got a score, depending on how expensive that piece of glassware was. Test tubes were only a few points, but breaking the rotavap would instantly get…
Book review: The Cartoon Introduction to Climate Change
The Cartoon Introduction to Climate Change By Grady Klein and Yoram Bauman, PhD Island Press, 2014 ISBN 9781610914383 Based on the cover alone, I thought The Cartoon Introduction to Climate Change would be chaotic, but the inside is very well-organized. The main text runs in boxes between the cartoons, and…
Big crystals and being original
This weekend I was thinking of new ideas for Finch and Pea posts. I made a list of ten things to write about, and one of them was Mexico’s giant crystal cave. I first found out about that cave about 7 or 8 years ago, when I was writing a…
Futurepub
FuturePub is a relatively new event, hosted by Overleaf, that combines a meetup with short talks from people working on the cutting edge of scientific publishing. It has already become such a staple of the London science tech/publishing scene that it was hard to believe that Tuesday’s sold-out event at…
Book review: Random Body Parts
By Leslie Bulion and Mike Lowery Expected publication: March 1st 2015 by Peachtree Publishers ISBN 156145737X Random Body Parts is an upcoming kids book with funny poems about different body parts. Leslie Bulion’s poems combined with Mike Lowery’s artwork make each page a fun introduction to the purpose of your…
Breaking glass and restriction enzymes
In one of my undergraduate chemistry lab courses the teaching assistants ran a “Break List”. Every time you broke a piece of glassware, you got a score, depending on how expensive that piece of glassware was. Test tubes were only a few points, but breaking the rotavap would instantly get…
Book review: The Cartoon Introduction to Climate Change
The Cartoon Introduction to Climate Change By Grady Klein and Yoram Bauman, PhD Island Press, 2014 ISBN 9781610914383 Based on the cover alone, I thought The Cartoon Introduction to Climate Change would be chaotic, but the inside is very well-organized. The main text runs in boxes between the cartoons, and…
Big crystals and being original
This weekend I was thinking of new ideas for Finch and Pea posts. I made a list of ten things to write about, and one of them was Mexico’s giant crystal cave. I first found out about that cave about 7 or 8 years ago, when I was writing a…
Lego scientists stop motion
Like Ben Wyatt from Parks and Recreation, I used my time off work to make a stop motion animation. Mine’s a bit longer than his, though – but only a bit! I used iStopMotion for iPad and the Lego Research Institute (and an additional Lego chemist mini figure) to make…
Things I wrote in 2014
Every year I resolve to write more, and every year I don’t manage to find the time or energy to actually do so. I abandoned my writing project about scientists and musicians somewhere halfway through the year (probably around the start of that conference season) and it’s been bugging me…
Book review: Career Options for Biomedical Scientists
Career Options for Biomedical Scientists Edited by Kaaren Janssen and Richard Sever Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2014 ISBN 978-1-936113-72-9 PhD students in biomedical sciences are often trained only for a future career in research. Their supervisor only had experience in research, and might expect their students to follow the…
What would you do with $4.1 million?
James Watson sold his Nobel Prize for $4.1 million in an auction. He “needed” money because nobody was hiring him as guest speaker anymore after he repeatedly made racist and misogynist comments. Watson is donating part of the money to universities, to go toward scientific research, and he’s keeping some…
Candy sushi science
A few weeks ago, I got completely lost in the Japanese candy kit part of YouTube. There is a company in Japan that produces kits that let you make miniature versions of food, all from edible sweet materials. YouTube is full of videos of people demonstrating the various kits. Since…
