Of Schemes and Memes Blog

The Best of Nature Network: 11-17 December 2010

Blogs

A warm welcome to Karen Vancampenhout, whose blog Down to Earth began on Nature Network this week. As her blog title hints, Karen is a soil scientist, working at postdoc level in the University of Leuven, Belgium. Before digging into her subject in more detail, one of Karen’s opening posts shared tips on dealing with tricky reviewer comments :

…you start changing the easy stuff until you’re left with a few stubborn comments. Those probably are very accurate but would take weeks to put right… So you invoke the first big escape button of scientific writing: “The reviewer raises an interesting concern, which refers to the internationally relevant discussion on TOPIC (REFERENCES). Although the authors fully agree that this issue is very important, it was considered outside the scope and aim of this particular study”. There. Add a few references to the manuscript and everyone’s happy.

One of the big issues in the UK at the moment is the rise in student tuition fees, which has seen thousands of students take to the streets of London and other cities in protest. Unfortunately, the protests have been marred both by a violent minority in the protesting ranks and heavy-handed strategies by the police. Nicolas Fanget takes up the baton, by describing his outrage at the incidents. Meanwhile, Andrew Sun offers a very different perspective of student life with a post on the successes of Chinese students.

In recent weeks, some of Nature Network’s longer-term bloggers decided to move to pastures new over on the Occam’s Typewriter site. Mike Fowler adds some reflections on the pros and cons of blogging on a network, including specific points about Nature Network.

Elsewhere, GrrlScientist redraws Great Britain using phone network data, Linda Lin argues that a plant biologist is not necessarily good with plants, Mark Schrope reflects on the intrepid submersible Alvin ahead of its major refit, Kausik Datta hails and explains new research in which stem cell treatment offers hope for HIV patients, Barbara Ferreira analyses fingerprints, and Richard Williams asks Does a PhD student need a publication strategy?

In other news

We’ve put out two new releases of Nature Network in recent weeks. Importantly, Nature Network bloggers will now have access to their blog’s statistics via Google Analytics. Among other things, the site now has greater protection from spam and a more refined admin system to deal with updates and moderation.

Nature Network welcomes a new starter to the team this week. Laura Wheeler is the new Editorial Assistant for the site, handling day-to-day running of Nature Network. Laura has a degree in biochemistry from the University of Leeds and has worked as a researcher and writer for TV production companies, including the BBC.

And finally…

As usual, the last word (and picture) goes to Viktor Poór who this week reveals an alternative advantage of wearing a lab coat…

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