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Make it Funky

Back when I was starting in my faculty position and failing to get grants funded and papers accepted, I had a tendency to blame the system. “How could they not SEE how brilliant my ideas are and how IMPORTANT my … Continue reading

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Musings about tenure

I was just thinking about an interesting post by Hope Jahren about what it means to have tenure. I agree with her in that I think that the point of tenure is not really to enable academic freedom in the … Continue reading

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Speaking Spookily About Autism

On Sunday, while my kids and I were watching football, this advertisement came on TV from Autism Speaks:   It’s a public service announcement featuring singer Toni Braxton and her autistic son, and focuses on the long odds of Toni … Continue reading

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One day, you too shall be a great Reviewer #3

Recently we discussed whether publications should be required before a grad student earns a PhD. While opinions varied, I think there was consensus that the process of writing a paper and carrying through the review and revision process is a … Continue reading

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Girly Engineering

Recently I came across this video. It is for a toy called Goldie Blocks, which is marketed as “engineering toys for girls”. The video is quite clever it shows these two girls taking all their princess and ‘girly’ toys and … Continue reading

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Poster Boy

“Here’s my poster for the Society for Neuroscience Meeting!” “Looks nice, but where’s the rest of your data?!?” “I chose not to include it, you don’t want to give away the whole package, otherwise nobody is going to read the … Continue reading

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Enough is enough! How much is enough?

Here’s a quick poll for you readers who are in academia or have been. In your university, how much work does a PhD student need to do before he or she is allowed to graduate? Do you need a set … Continue reading

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Calaveras 4.0

In México, November 2 is Día de Muertos or Day of the Dead. One venerable tradition is to write little obituaries for living people you know with a little skeleton of themselves, or a sugar skull with their name to accompany it. … Continue reading

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Life on the margins

So I’ve done all the formatting tips and tricks: 11 pt Arial, 12 pt line spacing, half inch margins, hyphenate, and the damn Specific Aims are still 6 lines too long. Yep you guessed it, it’s grant writing time!! It’s … Continue reading

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