Base load or baseline power comes up in most discussions about energy and energy policy. The baseline is the amount of power that must be ...

People (including me) sometimes describe academic careers as one long “hazing ritual.” Being on the other side of the process, I think there...

There is one fact that everyone knows about cheetahs. They’re adorable . Actually, the one fact that everyone knows about cheetahs is t...

From a joint blog from a couple of people I've known for a long time, Jim Murray and Russell Wyeth.

“Lie back and think of England.” Queen Victoria, by most accounts, did not enjoy sex. And yet, she had nine children. It’s a reminder ...

If you’re hurt, a physician doesn’t give you an IQ test to figure out how painkiller to prescribe. (“Oh, you knew the meaning of ‘lugubrious...

There’s a joke that academics speak in paragraphs. It’s poking fun at the stereotype of academics being long-winded, but it brings up a go...

A while ago, I was at a graduate program workshop that was geared towards recruiting under-represented minorities in science. One of the pa...

Our university is going to merge and grow with the aim of becoming an emerging research institution, and is going to establish a medical sch...

This past Saturday was National Lobster Day (15 June every year), and I thank Kayle Goff for her devotion to the cause:

This snuck by me on Friday: Governor Perry has signed the bill that will create a new university in South Texas. Perry highlighted the Val...

Inkfish covers a paper that asks people at various stages of education to draw neurons . Hey, did they copy from me ? I make a cameo appea...

Nina K. Simon is one of those writers who writes about one thing on the surface, but has lessons that apply to many areas. In her list of wh...

Things that a student heard at a workshop for students wanting to go into doctoral programs: A 3 page CV is too long. Ph.D. programs are...

In a new pos t on the planned BRAIN Initiative, the National Science Foundation characterizes neuroscience as: Desperately seeking a theor...

On a Science magazine policy podcast , incoming editor Marcia McNutt was asked about being Science ’s first woman editor (5 minutes into ...

When you read a bad paper, whose fault is it? Robert Horvitz (quoted in Box 1 here ; hat tip to  Mike Taylor ) and Fred Schram (who I qu...

Fiddler crabs’ eyestalks let them get a peek above the waterline. Photo by hankplank on Flickr ; used under a Creative Commons license...

We now return to one of our regular features, “Let’s impugn all the bloggers.” Let’s start with Geoffrey North, using the pulpit of Current ...

Some time ago, I hatched a plot with Kelly Weinersmith . It was like this: Yes, exactly like that. It was an idea that pinged around and...