December 2014
Christmas wish list
For our last post before the Christmas break we decided to collect people's scientific Christmas wish lists from the department. We got a diversity of answers ranging from the realistic to the fantastical. Thomas Guillerme wants a super computer "that runs everything instantly, like if you have to run a loooooooong MCMC, it spits out […]
Literacy Levels
Scientists and science communicators often make the point that the public are scientifically illiterate and that this needs to change. But why? The line goes that as we live in an age of science so everyone should be comfortable reading, writing and talking about science such is its pervasiveness in 21st century society. Robert Hazen […]
Vox populi – when science and the public engage
Scientists are now being held to greater accountability by a variety of communities (both public and private), and the idea that scientists should be trusted to work in the interest of the public good, by virtue of their profession, is no longer accepted. So we now have a situation where government leaders and policy makers […]
When Worlds Collide – Science Vs Hollywood
Film directors often call on scientific experts to lend some legitimacy to their production. A recent, notable example was that of the theoretical physicist Kip Thorne advising Christopher Nolan on the realism of the physics in Interstellar. I think directors ask for the counsel of scientists in cases where they seek to make a film […]
Public service announcement: How not to email a professor
Quite regularly you get emails that annoy you… often they are flippant emails, and sometimes from students. Harmless or probably naïve that they are, they do get up some peoples’ noses. But every once in a while you get one that really gets your goat. Several months after some media coverage of a research paper […]
The Sinai Hairstreak: rarer than the Giant Panda and the Snow Leopard
In 2010 I graduated from the Department of Zoology in Trinity College Dublin. I spent the next year travelling and completing any wildlife related internship or voluntary position I could get my hands on. I soon faced a dilemma; should I follow in the footsteps of my friends in academia and find a PhD or […]