This was originally posted at: http://blogs.egu.eu/palaeoblog/?p=1215 As an academic palaeontologist within a university, I have almost no industry links or prospects in my present or future. However, Dr. Alice Bell, science-policy aficionado, has invited me to join several distinguished guests in sparking a discussion about the links between industry and academia. This was following a twitter […]
This was originally posted at http://blogs.egu.eu/palaeoblog/?p=1168 What an awful title, eh. Well, you can avoid making this mistake! A recent Guardian post by Conversation UK’s Akshat Rathi (he’s popular on the blog today!) discusses some of the common mistakes in popular science writing and how best to avoid them. It’s fairly general, and by no means […]
This was originally posted at: http://blogs.egu.eu/palaeoblog/?p=1204 In palaeontology, there are so many things more important than dinosaurs. For example, the study of large-scale patterns in the history of life on Earth, commonly known as macroevolution, is all about uncovering patterns of speciation and extinction. We are currently about to enter the sixth mass extinction within the […]
Co-rex-ions.
This was originally posted at: http://blogs.egu.eu/palaeoblog/?p=1194 “Every day, people are denied access to something they have a right to.” That’s the opening line from a new appeal from students Joe McArthur and David Carroll. Open Access describes a form of publication of research where articles are made instantly available for free, and with unlimited reusability rights, […]
This was originally posted at: http://blogs.egu.eu/palaeoblog/?p=1178 If there was ever an overdue discussion in palaeontology, it was how we reconcile the differences in time scales when looking at different periods in our history. This is becoming increasingly more important as scientific research is being asked to have demonstrably greater ‘impact’ in terms of some social, economic, […]
This originally appeared at: http://blogs.egu.eu/palaeoblog/?p=1162 “I am sick of impact factors and so is science.” Stephen Curry said it best back in 2012. The impact factor is just one of the many banes of academia, from it’s complete misuse to being falsely inflated by publishers. I want to draw attention to a new article that addresses […]
This originally appeared at: http://blogs.egu.eu/palaeoblog/?p=1152 Last night, I was honoured to have spoken at the final evening lecture at the Cambridge Science Festival, along with Nick Crumpton, Anjali Goswami, Rob Asher, and Stephanie Pierce, about why palaeontology is important. Below is a rough transcript of some of what my talk was about. Unlike the others, I […]
Sharing this purely because it’s amazing. Hat-tip to John Hutchinson for sharing! This originally appeared at: http://blogs.egu.eu/palaeoblog/?p=1149
This was originally posted at: http://blogs.egu.eu/palaeoblog/?p=1138 For some time now, there has been much debate about whether our beloved dinosaur, Triceratops, is a distinct species, or a younger version of a bigger ceratopsian, Torosaurus – the great Toroceratops’ debate. Proponents of both sides of the argument have made detailed quantitative and qualitative points, and there doesn’t […]