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MIRI crosses the pond (Thoughts on PR)

March 19, 2010 By

Gift-wrapping MIRI for our NASA colleagues

NASA issued a press release yesterday to announce that the engineering test model of the mid-infrared instrument for its next-generation space observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope, has arrived at Goddard. A picture is featured in the BBC’s Science & Technology news section today. As a member of the team that is in charge of testing MIRI prior to its integration with the telescope and launch, I’m glad to see the little one has arrived safely on US soil.

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Science, statistics and society

January 21, 2010 By

What are the odds?

On Tuesday I attended Science Cafe in Leiden, a monthly discussion evening on all matters scientific and their role in society. The theme was the way chance, likelihood and statistics are (mis-)used and represented by the media, politicans and the law. Leading the discussion was Arnout Jaspers, columnist for Dutch science magazine Natuurwetenschap & Techniek, with special guest Richard Gill, Professor in Mathematical Statistics at Leiden University. Gill and Jaspers illustrated the potentially far-reaching consequences of bad statistics with two recent stories to hit the headlines: the reopening of the Lucia de Berk case, and the drug suspension of Germany’s most successful winter Olympian, Claudia Pechstein.

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The Lay Scientist: Of women and stilettos

January 12, 2010 By

AA Gill wears his with pride

Go read the post I wrote last night over at the Lay Scientist, in which I get worked up about a pair of shoes sent to me by the Dutch science funding council NWO.

Seriously though, don’t let this feminist faux-pas on NWO’s part put you off applying for this fellowship scheme. It’s a good programme and I wish they’d advertise more widely. The next deadline is on 11 February, for the mid-career Vidi scheme. Read more here.

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The Lay Scientist: Belle De Science

November 15, 2009 By

For over 5 years Belle de Jour has been one of the most high-profile and successful anonymous bloggers. In her blog, Belle talked about her experiences as a high-class London call girl. A book followed, then a popular TV series.

Today, Belle revealed herself as Brooke Magnanti to The Times. And that’s Dr. Brooke Magnanti. She’s a scientist.

I wrote a guest post on the outing of anonymous blogger Belle de Jour. Go read the rest of it over at The Lay Scientist!

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The Lay Scientist: Scapegoat Science

November 7, 2009 By

The financial crisis of 2008 was heralded as the end of the West’s love affair with free-market capitalism. The combined crashes of banking industry and real estate market should have been the final nail in the coffin for the unbridled power of corporations, who for decades have flaunted all social responsibility in search of profit. Why is it then, as we see the dust slowly settling, that nothing appears to have changed?

Earlier this week I signed up to write some guest posts on another science blog, The Lay Scientist. Edited by Martin Robbins, this blog has some excellent writing around all aspects of science, health, policy, environment, religion and much more. From Twitter I gather that Martin et al got a big nod from The Times this week, so I’m extra chuffed that I get to post there.

So if you want to read the rest of this post, follow the jump! And yes, it does go on to talk about science.

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