Take a lesson on open data from scientific megaprojects, says Sara Osman.
The coming of age of biology
Reply
Monthly Archives: November 2017
Naturejobs podcast: Life in the PhD lane
The Naturejobs team looks at careers in sports science and life as a PhD student in 2017 following publication of Nature’s biennial PhD survey, which sought the views of 5700 students worldwide.
Jenny Kedros, research manager at Shift Learning, the educational research agency that helped analyse the data, talks about the survey’s main findings to chief careers editor David Payne.
You can read about the results in the article Graduate Survey: A love-hurt relationship. The underlying raw data available via this Figshare link.
A picture is worth a thousand words
Karin Bodewits and Philipp Gramlich share their thoughts on how an infographic CV could set you apart from the crowd.
By Karin Bodewits & Philipp Gramlich
In most western countries, the number of PhD graduates in the life sciences has increased by around 50% over the last ten years. As the job market, in both academia and industry, has been largely flat in most countries, this PhD glut is creating undesirable patterns of employment — and unemployment. Some academics are calling for ‘academic birth control’, but the academic system itself profits from the resulting endless supply of cheap labour. Continue reading
Using design principles to inform scientific posters
Amanda Butler, Amy Chan and Helen Lycett share their knowledge of making great posters.
When it comes to communicating science, there’s a lot to think about. Design is an important and often overlooked aspect —many researchers focus most of their efforts on content.
But design deserves at least equal, if not more, attention. Fortunately for scientists, design is a science and can be learned. Get more scientific with your design — it’ll help you get a message across.
Posters are a popular way to showcase new research to the scientific community. The use of intelligent design principals is vital to maximise the impact of your poster. Here’s some advice for making better posters. Continue reading
TechBlog: Bioconda promises to ease bioinformatics software installation woes
{credit}Johannes Köster/GitHub{/credit}
Bioinformatics is notoriously complicated, what with its arcane command-line interface, complex workflows, and massive datasets. For the uninitiated, simply installing the software can present a problem.
A new paper on the bioRxiv preprint archive describes one possible solution, a bioinformatics-focused package collection called Bioconda.
An evidence‑based career change: My move into medical writing
Matthew Edmonds took a very scientific approach to career planning. His previous ideas were based on old information, he realised. So he re‑assessed things, and changed direction.
A long and winding road into medical communications
Take time to explore your options – there is no perfect path for finding your career, says Erica K. Brockmeier
