Monthly Archives: June 2012

Asking the right questions

Posted on June 30, 2012 by

We professors are creative a lot less of the time than we might think we are. We must drive the education scholars crazy because we so often teach in the same old tired ways of 500 years ago, despite strong … Continue reading →

Posted in New ideas | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Impact factors and where to publish

Posted on June 29, 2012 by

How do you decide where to publish your precious research? Do you have a small stable of journals ranked in your own mind? Do some papers clearly seem to be higher value than others? We knew the field much better … Continue reading →

Posted in Publishing your work | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Mixed reports on the NSF preproposal process

Posted on June 27, 2012 by

By now you’ve heard your fate on the preproposal. Some very generous bloggers are telling the story from the panelist perspective. I think the biggest question is whether they are treated like a four page version of a full proposal, … Continue reading →

Posted in Grant proposals, New ideas | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

What’s true and what’s false about the inclusive fitness – kin selection multilevel selection – group selection war?

Posted on June 25, 2012 by

The point of this short post is to point you to a very interesting discussion going on over at Edge. Steve Pinker starts it, but the response by Dave Queller is particularly insightful. Do you speak English or Russian? What … Continue reading →

Posted in New ideas, Social interactions | 2 Comments

What have you discovered? I need to know to write this letter!

Posted on June 25, 2012 by

Why is it so hard to find out what a scientist has discovered from a letter of recommendation for her, from her web page, from nearly anywhere? If I am going to nominate you for something, if I am going … Continue reading →

Posted in Managing an academic career | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Should officers at scientific meetings be identified?

Posted on June 22, 2012 by

Should officers of a scientific society have a little ribbon on their badges to identify them, or should they circulate anonymously through the posters and coffe breaks? I don’t know how I feel about this. I’m just home from two … Continue reading →

Posted in Scientific meetings | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

We have an opening for a technician!

Posted on June 22, 2012 by

Are you looking for a position for a couple of years before you apply to graduate school? Are you interested in evolutionary biology, genomics, social evolution, behavior, and microbes? Do you want to live in a fabulous city with perfect … Continue reading →

Posted in Managing an academic career | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

The trouble with theory

Posted on June 19, 2012 by

Don’t get me wrong. Without theory, we would not know what to look for, or why. We would not make predictions about patterns in nature. I would not have known to put unique marks on wasps, or to look at … Continue reading →

Posted in New ideas | Tagged , , , , | 43 Comments

Stay for the whole meeting, skip some of the talks

Posted on June 15, 2012 by

Sometimes it seems like there is this game at meetings where people show how important they are by how little time they can stay. They just dash in, give their talks, then dash out. Don’t do this. Meetings are not … Continue reading →

Posted in Scientific meetings | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

A talk in 5 tweets

Posted on June 12, 2012 by

Over on the Oikos blog, Jeremy Fox shared some interesting thoughts on whether or not a talk should be tweetable. He did not think they should be because he likes to give dense talks that are very rewarding to those … Continue reading →

Posted in Scientific meetings | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments