Monthly Archives: April 2007

The Solomon earthquake in close-up and wide-angle

Posted on April 25, 2007 by Chris Rowan

Update: NASA Earth observatory has now put up a much nicer, cloud free-image showing uplifted reefs on the other side of the island, a smaller version of which I’ve added below the fold. The large subduction zone earthquake that hit … Continue reading →

Categories: earthquakes

Real peer review

Posted on April 24, 2007 by Chris Rowan

In theory, peer review is the sacred core of the self-correcting machinery of science. But what’s it like in practice?
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Categories: academic life, publication

Scientists discover ‘Kryptonite’

Posted on April 24, 2007 by Chris Rowan

The press office of the Natural History Museum must have been beside themselves with this one: asked to analyse an unusual mineral from a mine in Serbia, one of their scientists types the composition he’s determined into Google and discovers, … Continue reading →

Categories: geology, rocks & minerals

Tales from junior academic land

Posted on April 24, 2007 by Chris Rowan

Head over to the the third edition of What’s Up, Postdoc? for more musings from us poor and downtrodden postdocs and PhDs. You could also go and read my latest column at Naturejobs while you’re at it – it will … Continue reading →

Categories: academic life, links

The case of the THC “shutdown”: why science is a never-ending story

Posted on April 19, 2007 by Chris Rowan

All this fuss about the “F-word” should not distract from the fact that the mainstream media has problems reporting a science story even if we do pitch it right. Take, for example, Bryden et al.‘s 2005 Nature paper, which reported … Continue reading →

Categories: climate science, public science