We regret to inform you…Part II.

In an earlier part of this blog I was bemoaning the difficulties of getting funded to carry out research. It’s the most common challenge for all scientists. One obvious solution, is for there to be more funding available; however, federal funding for science not related to defense has remained largely flat for nearly a decade […]

‘We regret to inform you’…Part I.

As a scientist who secures most of my funding through federal grants, this is the most common outcome to my efforts in writing research proposals, an email that begins with these words and goes onto explain that the proposal has been declined. This is usually received anywhere from 6 – 12 months, and often longer, […]

What would Darwin think?

February 12th was Charles Darwin’s birthday, the fellow most responsible for developing our ideas around how life evolves was born in 1809. It’s been 156 years since he published, perhaps the most famous book in science, ‘The Origin of Species’. One wonders, however, if natural evolution that Darwin first described is approaching an end. Recently, […]

What is a species?

If you want to steal a microbiologist’s wallet or purse, wait until 4 or 5 of them are sitting around a table together and then pop the question, ‘What is a species?’ The ensuing discussion/argument will quickly become focused, passionate, and all-consuming, no one will be watching their wallet. The question of what is a […]

Crows

At low tide the other day I observed an interesting sight, a pair of crows crabbing. Anyone who has gone down onto seaweed covered rocks and pulled back the rock weed has observed a menagerie of small intertidal creatures, amphipods wriggling around, mussels living in crevices, and often a crab or two suddenly exposed and […]

Whither the weather

During this string of comparatively balmy December days in Maine, it’s interesting to think about what’s up with the weather. I am not a meteorologist, but I like the numbers associated with weather. For example, as we approach years end, according to the website Weather Underground, Portland has had 39 inches of rain, making it […]

Impact This!

Science is a profession that relies on being able to quantify things. Discovery is often driven by our ability to make more and more accurate measurements of whatever is of interest, whether it is the weight of an atom, or how many genes are in a cell. One of the most squishy things to measure […]

My Microbes Made Me Do It!

So far as I know, and Google backs me up on this, no one has used this as their defense in a criminal trial; however I’m confident that with our ever creative legal system its time will soon come. A number of years back there was the ‘Twinkie defense’ where the defendant claimed that his […]

Paying to publish to not go broke

In basic science, the coin of our realm, is the scientific paper published in a peer-reviewed journal. Peer review means that at least two of one’s scientific peers have critically read the paper, stated their opinions on its scientific worthiness, and assuming they find it worthy, recommended it for publication. This review process is normally […]

Monarchs

My wife asked me for advice on investing money in the stock market the other day, and a full thimble of knowledge was all I needed to wax on about the stock market, and how for a long-term investment it is quite safe, but there are no certainties, and always an element of risk, etc. […]