Anybody that has read at least one post of my weekly column, knows I am not shy about giving to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. Or in this case clearly pointing at the problems in the academic world. Alba seems to have taken this one step further and asks: Why is no one in academia happy? Dear Alba, Believe me, I see where this is coming from, but this might be taking things a tiny bit too far, don ...[Read More]
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 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]
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]
