Comments for first half of January 2010

Biochem Belle looks at post-doc salaries and asks, “Are departments so hard up?” Yeah, they are. She also does some thinking about social networking for scientists, and I put up a fairly long comment about why you can’t convince a skeptic that social networking is worth it.

Doctor Becca asked for a glance into what an email from a search committee chair might mean.

Endless Possibilities does not like conferences. I increasingly have a love hate relationship with them.

SciCurious at Neurotopia is annoyed that media outlets don’t provide citations when they’re covering new research. I point out that sometimes, researchers are the problem...

Professor in Training asks what people want to see on faculty websites and why anyone wants grant proposals on paper.

Zuska at Thus Spake Zuska really got me thinking with this post about Hispanics in higher education.

Dave Munger asks what makes a good blog or a failing blog. I suggest that a clear purpose makes for good blogging. The Better Posters blog exists to stop people putting up ugly posters at conferences. The Marmorkrebs blog exists to promote a research organism.

Susan Steinhardt on the BioData blog wonders if lab notebooks are obsolete; I extol paper’s track record.

Climate Progress looks at the recent article on Don McLeroy and company in The Washington Monthly with an eye towards climate science. A couple of commenters imply that the Texas State Board of Education influences university decisions; I point out they don’t.