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Of women, science and stilettos

Sun, 01/10/2010 - 17:54

Just before Christmas I received this leaflet in my pigeon hole at work, inviting me to apply for the Dutch "Veni, Vidi, Vici" science fellowship programme. I've posted an annotated, translated version here. With this targeted campaign, the Dutch research council NWO is trying to get more female applicants for the scheme. While applauding their commitment to attracting women into science careers, I can't help but wonder: what moron designed this damn thing? There are so many things wrong with this piece of cr paper, it's hard to know where to begin. But let's give it a shot.

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Susan Greenfield vs the Royal Institution

Sat, 01/09/2010 - 06:14

Rumours have been circulating for at least a month, but last night Susan Greenfield was sacked by the Royal Institution from her position as Director and, in apparent retaliation, announced that she would sue her former employers for discrimination.

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We are all pretty WEIRD

Mon, 12/07/2009 - 01:32

I have written before about my disdain for a lot of the pop psychology reported in the press *cough Oliver James*. I am sure that this does not represent a lot of the real research that goes on within the discipline but there does seem to be some fundamental problems within psychology that a few academics are finally shining a light on.

These fundamental problems include the lack of empiricism within the discipline (OK, fancy way of saying you're making it up) which then feeds into implicit universal assumptions about human behaviour.

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While everyone is on the subject of HPV…

Sun, 10/11/2009 - 20:45

It is distasteful to see a number of anti-vax headlines (which have subsequently been taken down) reporting the tragic death of a 15 year-old girl after she had received the cervical cancer jab. Of course we learnt soon after that Natalie Morton had a malignant chest tumour but that was after the vaccination programme had taken a hit.

None of this furore really leads to a conducive atmosphere in which we can talk about possibly extending the vaccination to boys, but I’ll give it a go.

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Rock Stars of (White Male) Science

Sat, 06/27/2009 - 14:53

Seeing GQ's Rock Stars of Science campaign for the first time gave me the same sort of instinctive reaction that I got when I saw OK Magazine's Jade Goody Tribute Edition released before she'd actually, y'know, died; or when I boarded the train to Windsor & Eton a few nights ago to find that somebody had sprayed bright-pink vomit on the floor of the carriage. I felt disgust, repulsion and hatred, but I couldn't immediately figure out why it bothered me so much.

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