Academic freedom: bullshit?
“They’ve got more choice”. Street art in Deptford, East London. Freedom is one of those words – like fairness, science, truth, beauty – which is so complex and/ or relative in its application any...
View ArticleAnimal testing, activism around science, and brown dogs
Stuffed fox in Oxford Museum of Natural History. I don’t know how it died. My January column for Popular Science UK is now online. This one’s on the public debate about animals in research. I was...
View ArticleBig Pharma: Small Science?
I recently read a paper by some colleagues at SPRU on the publication patterns of the pharmaceutical industry. I thought I’d share a short write up of my notes. A version of the paper is here (pdf) or...
View ArticleScience policy and social media
ANNOUNCEMENT: I’m part of a new blog network at the Guardian, “Political Science“. I’ll keep this for more personal/ niche content though. My first post there considers the way the public (or forms of...
View ArticleTroll Below? Science policy below the line.
Some streetart on a bridge in Dublin I have an essay in James Wilsdon and Rob Doubleday’s collection: “Future directions for scientific advice in Whitehall” (downloadable for free). It’s an invitation...
View Article“I’m a scientist. I shall be my own Minister for Science”
Via a mate who’s just read the new Thatcher biography by Charles Moore. On Thatcher, scientific advice and “the weather”: “Dr John Ashworth, the Chief Scientist, who worked within the Central Policy...
View ArticleHow science works: follow the money
I’m mainly blogging at the Guardian at the moment. Today I posted a piece on the fossil fuel disinvestment campaign, which has been rolling through US universities for a while. In essence,...
View ArticleDisinvesting unis: Tip of the speedily-melting iceberg
A new form of climate change activism has been speedily flying through American Universities the last year. And it’s coming to Europe. It’s interesting partly just to see people caring about climate...
View ArticleVannevar Bush, science, the world’s brain and inventing the web
This was first published in the July edition of Popular Science UK. Subscribe to read August’s piece on health data. See their new rates for educational subs (for .sch or .ac email addresses). The...
View ArticleOccupy RCUK! Or why science funding matters
This first appeared on the Greenpeace EnergyDesk. Compared to Canada and Australia, Brits might be forgiven for feeling a bit relaxed about the relatively pro-science stance our government seems to...
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