The outcomes of the Brexit referendum in the UK and the presidential election in the USA have seen plenty of families being divided along political lines, but it’s worth remembering that science too can create schisms around the dinner table – and probably no topic is more divisive in this regard than evolution. Continue reading
Professor: You know, I never wanted to be a head of department.
Lab members appear, wearing white coats and carrying micropipettes. Continue reading
A quick tip of the hat from TIR to the American Society for Microbiology’s journal mSphere, for pioneering a new paradigm in the scientific publishing process. Continue reading
Dear readers,
Don’t forget that TIR’s silent auction of original artwork runs until the end of the month! Full details on how to bid and what’s on offer can be found in the original post HERE.
Thanks for the support,
Oliver & Brooke
To coincide with Valentine’s Day and to mark the first year of TIR, we would like to make a special offer to our readers – a silent auction of some of Oliver’s unforgettable and iconic science illustrations! Continue reading
What’s the best portrayal of a scientist on TV? (Hint: it’s not who you think). Continue reading
TIR‘s guides to writing scientific papers, writing scientific English, and asking questions in seminars remain some of its most popular posts. But there’s one really important decision that comes before any of those things can happen – choosing a PhD. The choice of a PhD is one of the hardest decisions a young scientist has to make, partly because it’s very difficult to know what the relevant parameters are. Continue reading
Research nowadays is fixated with the notion of generating “high impact” work. “High impact” work is published in “high impact” journals and funding bodies are looking for “high impact” proposals to support. An appealing comparison can be drawn with the world of music, which has its own synonym for the phrase.
It’s “mainstream”.
In medicine, especially battlefield medicine, the triage system is used to ensure that time is apportioned in the most efficient manner possible. Adopting a similar system might make assessments in science more satisfactory, and fairer. Continue reading
Fake news has been getting a lot of airtime recently, particularly in the wake of the American presidential election. There’s been much hand-wringing about how best to deal with the phenomenon, but the likelihood is that academics already have the solution.
Total Internal Reflection 