Nautilus

The week on Nature Network: Friday 5 December

This weekly Nautilus column highlights some of the online discussion at Nature Network in the preceding week that is of relevance to scientists as authors.

The Nature Network week column is archived here.

What type of licence should authors choose when they post their articles on preprint servers? Will it restrict their options for subsequent submission to journals, or conflict with some publishers’ policies? These questions are asked by David Bickel at the Nature Precedings forum, and the pros and cons of different forms of creative commons licences are discussed by Hilary Spencer of Nature Precedings, John Wilbanks of the Science Commons, and others.

Alfredo Pereira Jr announces a conference Investigating Inner Experience Brain, Mind, Technology, to be held in Hong Kong, from 11 to 14 June 2009. This is the fifteenth in an annual series of ‘Toward a Science of Consciousness’ conferences, “known for broad, interdisciplinary and multi-faceted approaches to the age-old question of how the brain produces consciousness awareness”, writes Alfredo in the Nature Network forum which contains what must be the longest-running online conversation on the network – 485 replies to date to the quest for a definition of the term ‘consciousness’. The number of replies would be even longer if the discussion had included another conversation thread, ‘What is the most well-accepted model of consciousness?’, now up to 64 responses.

There is discussion at the science writers’ forum about Euan Nisbet’s review for Nature Reports Climate Change of Tyler Volk’s book ‘CO2 Rising’. The author uses parables and puns to describe scientific concepts. The book’s protagonist is “a little carbon atom called Dave.” Nauseous anthropomorphic twaddle, as one commenter has it, or accessible and fun, in the opinion of another?

The winners of this years’ AAAS/Science Dance Contest were announced on 20 November, writes Branwen Hide. There are four categories, graduate student, post-doctoral student, professor and popular choice with the winning dances being those that most creatively convey their PhD theses. All the dances are available on You Tube, apparently. If you prefer a science or science-related career to one of ballet or tap, Deb Koen, the NatureJobs career expert, is now answering questions from Nature Network users.

Ruth Wilson notes that the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology is running an open evening event in Second Life, 15 December 2008, 1850 – 2000 h GMT. She writes that the focus is gender equality and ‘a vision for science and society’, and that this Nature Network group is for anyone interested to comment, ask questions, share advice and recommend links. “And if you are joining us in SL, introduce yourself so we can get to know each other before going virtual.” Moving off-topic somewhat, the Resource Centre has also set up a Facebook group called ‘Make the next Dr Who a woman!’ Suggestions are invited for the time when actor David Tennant quits the popular UK science-fiction TV show. The group is pretty popular, being the topic of an article in the Daily Telegraph on Monday of this week; you can contribute to the seasonal frivolities by casting your vote for who should take the role in an online survey.

Previous Nature Network columns.

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