Blogs

Nature Network’s newest blogger, Eric-Wubbo, has joined with a running start, contributing two blog posts on what he calls ‘talentology’ – the study of scientific talent and how it can be nurtured. He describes his way into this world:

So I decided to try out teaching, for which the most obvious choice was teaching at a highschool (simply because Dutch highschools have a chronic shortage of teachers, finding a job would be easy, and would even be valuable experience if one ever wanted to teach at colleges and such – quite some university teachers have started as highschool teachers). As I was aware that people were drawing comparisons between teaching at Dutch highschools and Hell (and listed the comparative advantages of being suspended in pools of boiling sulfur versus teaching Dutch adolescents) I decided to be careful and try an internship first. This internship turned out to be at a very special highschool – namely, one which had special classes to stimulate scientific talent.

Jacqueline Ffoyd tackles the hugely important subject of how geophysics research is closely tied to national security:

A program manager from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) explained in a meeting with the marine geology and geophysics group why they were reducing funding for deep marine research at oceanographic institutions like ours. They were moving from research of the deep oceans where submarines roam to research of the near-shore environment, essentially to better understand how to invade Persian Gulf countries and avoid shallow-water mines. Asked when ONR would fund deep marine research again, the ONR representative said sharply, “When Russian submarines show up off the coast of Bermuda.”

Thoughts like that could keep you awake at night. Step forward William Lu, whose excellent Quantum Lobe Chronicles this week looked at insomnia. Are you a hardcore insomniac or a softcore insomniac? And how do these conditions affect your daytime behaviour? Read on.

Two bloggers reported back from conferences this week. Martin Fenner was at the Health Care Social Media Camp in Berlin, where he discussed how physicians might better communicate online. Scott Keir, meanwhile, attended a smaller meeting to mull over 20th Century science communication.

Finally, Brian Clegg bemoans the handling of science in TV shows. Dr Who is acceptable, he believes, but Jonathan Creek reeks.

Forums

Following a trip to India, Angela Saini compares the working conditions of female scientists between the subcontinent and the UK:

It all made me wonder if maybe us women here in the UK need a bit more of that fighting spirit? Workplaces here are far friendlier, and there’s less and less of an excuse for women not to pursue careers in science and engineering – yet, the numbers are still pretty low. What is holding us back?

Two other relatively new forums gaining traction are Nature Biotechnology’s Bioentrepreneur forum

, with regular updates from biobusiness, and the Middle East forum. Nature has recently launched Nature Middle East, a portal for all things scientific in that region and we’re pleased to host their forum on Nature Network.