You’ve spent months battling with radiators and cold wet weather, but the summer is finally upon us and to make things even worse we’re heading into a heatwave. The office that just weeks ago seemed impossible to keep warm is now so sweltering it feels as though you’re stepping into the sauna when you arrive each morning. Like most people, Jamie has been struggling with this, so I’m here to offer ...[Read More]
The Sassy Scientist – Supervision Dilemmas
The quality of supervision is arguably the most important discriminant between a nice academic experience and a hellish one. For early career scientists, supervisors are the sole responsible for our choice to leave or stay in academia. As the name suggests, supervisors are there to supervise our research activity, as it is all too easy for us specialists to get lost in the details of our project a ...[Read More]
The Sassy Scientist – Challenging Yourself
Single author papers. You have seen those. Early in your career you look at them and think “Wow! This person must be really smart to publish all by themselves”. Later on, your reaction shifts to “Ahah! Look at this person, publishing the tenth paper by themselves! Nobody wants to be associated with this stuff!”. Whether in awe, in derision, or because she is actually writing one of those, Loredana ...[Read More]
The Sassy Scientist – Remembrance
Questions permeate our daily life. What socks do I want to wear today? Which of the 10 insipid meal choices at the campus canteen do I want as my lunch today? Will I treat myself and get a Mai Tai tonight, or will I stick to a refreshing, good ol’ beer? As geoscientists, asking and answering questions really is our daily job. Not all questions are as deep as Uswah’s though… Why d ...[Read More]