By nature.com Communities Team on 27 Aug 2010
Today’s map comes from Jeffrey Lancaster, a graduate student at Columbia University. Read more
Posted in Science maps |
By nature.com Communities Team on 27 Aug 2010
Blogs Eva Amsen is impressed to learn that bacteria sourced from a British cliff were able to survive a year and a half’s exposure to outer space. But she’s strikes a note of caution: Well, that’s nice. But I also find it a bit worrying. If space is treated as a giant petri dish – which it was for this particular experiment – shouldn’t we be more concerned about the fact that we’re contaminating the very system that’s being studied? Were the bacteria well-contained? Who says there aren’t now some British sea cliff bugs propagating on a meteorite on a … Read more
Posted in Weekly round-up |
By nature.com Communities Team on 25 Aug 2010
We continue our series of maps with this guide to the scientific highlights of Malta. The Mediterranean islands are not usually regarded as a hotbed of science but, as the map suggests, the archipelago has plenty to offer – from research labs to natural reserves. Read more
Posted in Science maps
By nature.com Communities Team on 24 Aug 2010
As many of you will have seen, we’re curating a series of Google Maps showing key scientific locations in cities around the world (so far: London, Münster, San Francisco). We’re very keen to add further locations, and are hoping a few of you will relish the idea of putting such a map together for your own city (or region). If so, here’s a recipe for creating your map. Read more
Posted in Science maps |
By nature.com Communities Team on 20 Aug 2010
Blogs We welcomed three new bloggers onto Nature Network this week. Jane de Lartigue, maven of the microscope, describes her inspirations: One of my favourite pieces of science writing is by Mark Smith, entitled ‘Animalcules and Other Little Subjects’. He describes with boyish charm and child-like enthusiasm the world contained within a jar of pond water, brought to life by a microscope. This to me is the essence of the joy and wonder of cell biology that never ceases to leave me in awe. Richard Williams, meanwhile, has a somewhat unusual career history, initially training as a biochemist, then spending … Read more
Posted in Weekly round-up
By nature.com Communities Team on 19 Aug 2010
The latest map in our series tackles one of the true world capitals of science: San Francisco and the surrounding area. With centres such as Stanford, NASA Ames, Berkeley and UCSF few areas on the planet have such a rich concentration of top research facilities. As Jo Scott shows in her map, SF is also home to numerous museums and public spaces for science, as well as the inevitable Nature office. Read more
Posted in Science maps |
By nature.com Communities Team on 17 Aug 2010
The North-West German city of Münster may be relatively small (population 270,000), but it packs an academic punch with eight universities/colleges and 48,500 students (all figures from Wikipedia). Read more
Posted in Science maps |
By nature.com Communities Team on 13 Aug 2010
Blogs Another new blogger joined the Nature Network ranks this week. Jim Caryl is a microbiologist from the University of Leeds, UK. His rather unusual project (and blog name) involves subjecting his bacteria to a ‘Gene Gym’. Jim explains the workout in his introductory post: As I’m working towards understanding bacterial fitness, I will be making a variety of gyms and assault courses for some rather unfortunate and flabby opportunistic pathogens, so I can better understand which assault courses result in the bugs bending double and sucking for air before dying out, and which result in the bugs overcoming their … Read more
Posted in Weekly round-up |
By nature.com Communities Team on 10 Aug 2010
In a previous post, we announced three major improvements to the functionality of Nature Network’s blogs: customisable banners, blogrolls and better comment formatting. Those features are now in the latter stages of testing, and we’re giving a handful of bloggers access to the test server to try them out. Read more
Posted in Uncategorized |
By nature.com Communities Team on 06 Aug 2010
Blogs We welcomed two new bloggers to the Network this week. Arvand Pillai is a biology student from Dubai, but currently studying at University of Austin, Texas. His blog Fins to Feet will range across the sciences, but will tend mostly towards issues of comparative anatomy, paleobiology, taxonomy and other aspects of ‘deep time’ natural biology. Pream Neote, meanwhile, hails from Cork, Ireland. Her blog Carpe Diem, Science will chronicle her journey from an undergraduate to a graduate to a science communicator. More established blogger Lauren Blair wrote a critical post about the peer-review system, asking ‘is anyone fixing it’. Read more
Posted in Weekly round-up