Science Online London
This week Science Online London took place at the British Library, bringing together a global mix of technologists, data curators, science communicators and researchers. Organised by nature.com and Digital Science, this year’s event was dedicated to exploring the ways in which the Web has transformed scientific research and communication. Stay tuned on Of Schemes and Memes to find out more about the event: the attendees, workshops and key note talks. Scitable’s Dr Nick Morris has already summarised his thoughts in his post, Science online London- day 1 morning keynote:
The conference feels different this year, much busy than last year.
Keynote – Michael Nielsen – Open Science. The morning started with a great keynote by Michael Nielsen on Open Science. In the keynote Michael asked the question – why isn’t ‘open science’ working online? He supported this claim, with one piece of evidence, which was the Open Notebook Science Tobias Osborne which was a project run in 2009, and from my reading the author, Tobias Osborne, really didn’t seem sure the open science approach had worked or not. It seemed to me that the speaker had assumed that the audience agreed with this hypothesis that open science wasn’t working.
Do keep an eye on his blog for a series of posts exploring his experiences at Science online London 2011…. In the meantime make sure you check out #solo11 on Twitter where you can discover some of tweets from the conference, or stay tuned for our summary post that will link out to related blogs covering Science Online.
Getting Iggy
Now onto another event at the other side of the Atlantic. This week Boston blogger Tinker Ready has revealed that you can Get Iggy in Cambridge as the Ig Noble Awards approaches on September the 29th:
You can find the programme in her post.
Smoking habits
This week NPG’s News blog reveals that the world’s largest tobacco company is trying to force academics at the University of Stirling, UK, to hand over confidential research data about British teenagers’ smoking habits:
Philip Morris International is using Freedom of Information (FOI) laws to try to gain access to about 6,000 confidential interviews with teenagers as young as 13 discussing their views on smoking and tobacco. The research formed the basis for two studies published in theJournal of Adolescents, the European Journal of Public Health and the Tobacco Control journal, and examined why teenagers started smoking and what they thought of marketing by tobacco companies.
You can find out more about this study and the University of Stirling’s response in the post.
Venus, the morning star sadly struggling to shine
The Spoonful of Medicine reports that tennis star Venus Williams has withdrawn from the US Open, citing difficulties with Sjögren’s syndrome, an auto-immune disease which affects about 4 million Americans.
Like other autoimmune diseases, the immune cells of people with Sjögren’s attack the body, hitting the tear- and saliva-producing exocrine glands in particular. Thus, common symptoma of the syndrome are dry eyes and mouths — but it can also lead to joint pain and fatigue if the immune cells target other areas. “The fatigue is hard to explain unless you have it,” Williams told the New York Times. “Some mornings I feel really sick, like when you don’t get a lot of sleep or you have a flu or cold. I always have some level of tiredness. And the more I tried to push through it, the tougher it got.”
Find out more about the treatments for Sjögren’s syndrome and what Venus can do to relieve her symptoms in the post.
The science of job interviews
Speaking at the American Chemical Society (ACS) career fair, three US academics representing different types of institutions shared their advice on job applications, interviews and how to succeed in your first two years. Nature Jobs has kindly summarised the academics top tips for chemists:
Applying for a position
The composition of your application package will vary between institutions. For a faculty position at a research-intensive (R1) university, Jason Ritchie, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Mississippi, recommends formatting the research proposals that you submit as if they are mini grant proposals. “You want to show the committee that you’re going to write grant proposals that are going to get funded,” he says.
Do you have any advice to add to the mix? Feel free to join in the discussion.
On a similar theme, in his latest post, The science of job interviews, Eric-Wubbo Lameijer questions whether the current system of job applications and interviews is really the most effective way to find the best candidate:
You’re generally required to write an application letter, make a list of your experience and achievements, and if you’re lucky you’re invited to an interview, and perhaps hired. Still, as those of you who ever went through a job interview may wonder: is this really a scientifically valid procedure? What’s the true positive and false positive rate, or the correlation between interview performance and job performance?
Find our more of his thoughts, as well as a few case studies, in his post.
Congratulations are also in order for Barbara Ferreira, who has managed to land a job as a communications officer at the European Geosciences Union (EGU), based in Munich, Germany:
American readers may be familiar with the American Geophysical Union, or AGU; the EGU is the European equivalent of the AGU. It is a non-profit society that brings together individuals working in, or studying, Earth, planetary, and space sciences, and is dedicated to the promotion of these disciplines. To this aim, the EGU publishes several open-access, peer-reviewed scientific journals, as well as books. It also brings together over 10,000 scientists every year for its General Assembly.
Do keep an eye on her future blog posts to find out what her job entails!
End of the summer
As the summer is coming to an end, Victor Poor has an intriguing explanation for the longer daylight hours:
