Math for biology
Edward O. Wilson, in the Wall Street Journal writes: "Great Scientist ≠ Good at Math". For many young people who aspire to be scientists, the great bugbear is mathematics. Without advanced math, how...
View ArticleAAPA hears about ongoing abuse of students at field sites
I'm sitting in a packed room this morning at the meetings of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, in a session on ethics in the field. The most important presentation in the session...
View ArticleBlogging in biological anthropology profile
Nature's"SpotOn" feature has interviewed University of Rhode Island biological anthropologist Holly Dunsworth about her social media mastery: "Social Media for Science Outreach – A Case Study: Blogging...
View ArticleScience and piracy
Paul Salopek has a story for National Geographic about the impact of Somali pirates on oceanographic science: "A Hidden Victim of Somali Pirates: Science". One of the most important scientific projects...
View ArticleAAA: "President Obama Supports Scientific Integrity of Anthropology"
The American Anthropological Association blog (on the Huffington Post) included a post last week by AAA President Leith Mullings, commenting on President Obama's address to the National Academy of...
View ArticleSpeak up and matter
Current Biology is running a short editorial by Geoffrey North, wishy-washing its way through a non-opinion about the value of blogging in science ("Social Media Likes and Dislikes") [1]. North gives a...
View ArticleWhen sequencing genomes is too boring for journals
Sequencing bacterial genomes is now the scope of project routinely undertaken by undergraduates just learning how to do research. What was once an empirical project suitable for a multinational...
View ArticleMarketing is not anthropology's answer
Ryan Anderson raises a little rabble in a post about the problems of anthropology: "Anthropology: It’s not just a “promotion” problem". I don’t think we need to promote anthropology–we need to change...
View ArticleHistory dissertations under wraps
Via a reader, this article in the New York Times about the American Historical Association's vote to recommend that newly-minted PhDs be allowed to hide their dissertations away: "Historians Seek a...
View Article"I think the senior people, they actually think that if you work very hard,...
Science magazine has an article in its "careers" section about the job prospects for the hundreds of young physicists who worked on the Large Hadron Collider: "After the LHC, the Deluge". The numbers...
View ArticleFear and the impact factor
Mark Johnston, editor-in-chief of the journal, Genetics, recently published an editorial decrying scientists' reliance on "impact factor" of journals to make decisions about grants, tenure, and awards...
View ArticleWhen humanities and science intersect
I haven't linked to the "scientism" conversation that has been unfolding between Steven Pinker and a number of specialists in the humanities this summer. It's complicated and involved, and I didn't...
View ArticleDo archaeologists have soul?
Sara Perry has a guest post on Savage Minds, describing the process of developing an archaeological field school focused on heritage studies: "Creativity, Intellectual Freedom & the Field School"....
View Article"Open access spam" and how journals sell scientific reputation
John Bohannon is a reporter for science magazine, who has been engaged in an investigative report for the last year about "open access" journals: "Who's afraid of peer review?". Bohannon's project was...
View ArticleTime to trash anonymous peer review?
This week's Science magazine is organized on the theme of science communication. In addition to the John Bohannon "sting" operation I discussed in the last post ("'Open access spam' and how journals...
View Article
