If you’re acquainted with the scientific literature, whether it’s papers, grants, or press releases, chances are that the following word formulae will be very familiar: Continue reading
Month: June 2016
Follow my leader
Whether you’re working in the world of commerce, sports, science, or just about any sphere of human endeavour, chances are that if you progress far enough you’ll be asked to take responsibility for leading a team. But to do so successfully – in other words, to get the best out of people – is far from easy, or straightforward. Continue reading
Fund the Research-er?
It’s one of the trickiest conundrums in the whole research enterprise – should you fund people, or projects? Ernst Gombrich opined in his History of Art that “There really is no such thing as art. There are only artists”, but when it comes to research money, where should it be directed – to the science, or the scientists? Continue reading
Growing pains
Insects get to undergo puberty in private, cocooned within a chrysalis. Humans have to do it in public. The biological form is difficult enough, but undergoing one’s scientific puberty is often pretty traumatic too – for both student and supervisor. Continue reading