Author Archives: thegreatantidote

I think that Johnson was a far more English writer than Shakespeare. Because if there’s one thing typical of Englishmen, it’s their habit of understatement. Well, in the case of Shakespeare, there are no understatements. On the contrary, he is … Continue reading →

All right. So if it’s not one thing, it’s another. At first I was stressing out about this whole actually becoming a PhD candidate thing (which is now official, which means I’m going to celebrate by getting business cards and … Continue reading →

So this weird thing that happened in my lab recently: my boss hired his girlfriend as our tech. Hmmm. Seems like a bad idea right? Well, anyway, it’s working out fine, mostly because she’s super easy to talk to and … Continue reading →

So I went to this talk on Thursday about open science by Michael Nielsen. He quit studying quantum computing, in which he was apparently doing quite well, so he could “work on open science” so he must know what he’s … Continue reading →

So there it is. I have been told I can continue as a real PhD student (!!!) with a few provisions. For whatever reason though, the whole process made me feel pretty terrible. Probably has something to do with my … Continue reading →

So I have been stuck for the last couple of months actually doing work. Hopefully this will all be over after I do my transfer viva (AKA pass my quals) and move from provisionary status to actual candidate status. You … Continue reading →

This great article about science blogging and how to combine it with a successful career in academia suggests writing positive posts (e.g. “this article is really great, this is why I love it”), which I was planning to do. I … Continue reading →

So I went to this writing workshop today. We did this silly writing exercise. It was supposed to be just a conversation between two people without any action or scenery or whatever, just to see what we put down on … Continue reading →

I’m going to take this opportunity to point out my own personal joy at the recent influx of inappropriately hilarious science blogs/bloggers/tweeters. Cases in point: ZOMGscience Drunken Science JAYFK [February 5, 2011 addendum] Fake Science Seems as good a way … Continue reading →

I have a new addiction to podcasts. This is my attempt at being your gateway drug. You know you want to. So in October I moved to England, which in addition to having been a great move scientifically, has also … Continue reading →