A reaction to the racial disparity in NIH grant success rates

in which a picture is worth a thousand words….

but you need to go read the post by Hermitage.
Also, here’s a link to the Chronicle bit on the disparity in undergraduate scholarship awards mentioned in the post at The Hermitage.

White students make up 62 percent of full-time students enrolled in four-year colleges but receive 76 percent of institutional merit scholarships; and white students are 40 percent more likely to receive private scholarships than minority students are.

And the OER Rock Talk blog thread on the racial disparity continues…

How Scientists See Each Other

A visual depiction across the training stages. This is absolute truth.
Click for the full image.

More on the criteria for earning the Ph.D.

GMP is raging.

I am in a physical science field where journal publications are the most important, and many (many!) faculty have the criterion of 3 journal publications, preferably from the dissertation work, as necessary for graduation. I was quite peeved when I realized that this student would graduate with zero papers

ok. peeved. Why?

I asked the student if there was a reason that he was graduating without a single journal paper; if there was a reason that he must be graduating now and not in, say, a year?…He said it’s because his wife and he had been living apart for some months and he also happened to find a job there. I almost blew my top off

Look. We’re already in a bad place here, GMP.

Congratulations to Assistant Professor Becca!

One of our own, Dear Science Blogosphere, has inked her signature upon the line to accept a tenure track Assistant Professor slot. Please head over to the “Fumbling Toward Tenure Track” blog to offer your congratulations and best wishes to the blogger known as Dr Becca.
I have a slightly greater than passing familiarity with Dr Becca’s plan of research for her initial months and years as head of a brand new lab. I can assure you, Dear Reader, that there is a great deal of interesting and useful new science that we can expect to result from this new program over the next years and decades.
Best wishes, DrBecca, and congratulations on reaching this stage of transition to independence. This, in and of itself, is a testament to all of your hard work and creativity leading up to this point. You deserve this opportunity and I have little doubt will make the most of it. Remember this when the going gets tough!
DM

Quite possibly the funniest thing I’ve ever read from a n00b Prof!

after a whopping 4 months on the job, Engineering Professor says:

I think my lab is finally running out of things that can go wrong.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ wipes eyes ]

HAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ clasps stomach ]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111!!!!!!!!111!!!!!!

On polite discourse in mixed company

There are certain things I have recently been informed that it is improper to discuss in mixed company.
So I’ll put the rest of the discussion after the jump.

2010, the year of the science blog

ok, not really. But I think we’re going to look back and say that this is when scientific blogging started being mainstream activities. I view it through the blog collective lens.

Prior to 2010, Nature Network and Scienceblogs sucked up all the air. Which was cool and all but it didn’t leave a lot of room. Or there wasn’t enough of a market, so to speak.

So what happened?

Discover magazine got serious by acquiring Ed Yong and Razib and by so doing created a third-way of collectivized scienceblogging.

Then, Scienceblogs and Nature Network had major (the former) and minor (the latter) assplosions. Talent departed with various levels of spleen being vented and rancor being…rancored.

This led, inevitably perhaps, to the formation of Scientopia and Occam’s Typewriter from a core group of emigres from each of the large collectives, respectively.

In parallel Wired magazine tried the Discover Magazine blogs model and Scientific American at least laid the groundwork (i.e., hired Bora Zivkovic as community manager) for what I suspect will be another instance of the Discover Magazine blog collective model.

PLoS blogs launched…unclear to me under which model but I bet it will eventually look more like the Sb / Nat Net / Scientopia / Occam’s Typewriter type of model.

In the breech, the wily upstart LabSpaces pulled a fast move by emulating the path buried in the origins of Scienceblogs.com. They pulled together a healthy number of existing privateer blogs, created a great deal of enthusiasm and really went to town. I’d say they easily won the enthusiasm and energy title for new blog collectives.

Along with this, the model of blog collective organized by scientific topic expanded as well. The all-geo site is currently just Highly Allochthonous but going by the Twitter energy of recent geoscience meetings I see a lot of upside future. Perhaps more interestingly, The Gam joined oldtimer Deep Sea News as a second Oceans blog collective. Strong work.

So science blogging continues to grow and, more importantly, become more formalized into go-to collectives and organizations. Some commercial, some not.

I can’t help but think this is related, perhaps not causally but as a reflection of the same trends, to a growth in recognition of

The Society for Neuroscience continues to tip toe but the Twitter chatter at the 2010 meeting was much more substantial. Even the tiny (and, let us admit, conservative) College on Problems of Drug Dependence started a blog.

I see many more local Universities and research institutes using Twitter and Facebook…and even establishing blogs as part of their PR mission. PR as institutions, sure, but part of that is to brag about the science their investigators are conducting and publishing.

Last but not least, Jeremy Berg, Director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences used blogging with skill and enthusiasm to advance his agenda.

The scienceblogging aggregator to end all aggregators

This is unbelievable. BRILLIANT!
Bora Zivkovic, Anton Zuiker and Dave Munger have come up with something really special.

Scienceblogging.org

Scrolling down you will note over 50 sites of online science being aggregated. So to quickly review all that is new in the discussion of science online, all you need to do is swing by and give it a quick scan.
I like.
Bora explains here, Munger here.

The zomg! grad school carnival is up at 49 percent

Go Read.
I’m not huge blog carnival reader but, wow, this is one of the biggest ones I’ve seen.
I guess people have a lot to talk about with respect to graduate school.
Naturally, I can’t possibly remember graduate school so that’s my excuse for not contributing.
Actually, I do have one thought. In the midst of some rather dismal dissertation writing months, a friend of mine (grad student, different department) was apparently tired of my moaning. He said “Why are you doing this if you hate it so much? No, really, why?“
This was, as it happened, a really good question to pose. The sucky didn’t end with grad school. I’ve had plenty more episodes of work annoyance since then.
It wasn’t a panacea then, and it isn’t now, but my friend’s remark really helped me to focus on one thing.
I like this stuff. I like doing science, I like my research models, I like being half-way decent at certain parts of my job.
They do make it worthwhile plowing through the times in which things suck ass.

Got Neurotree? Got Psych, Fly, Physics, Marine Ecology…phew!

It has been a while since we’ve discussed Neurotree.org, a data base of training genealogy focused on the training and collaborative relationships between neuroscientists. If Academic Family concepts are new to you, it is pretty simple. If you trained as a postdoc in the lab of Professor Richard Schwanger, ol’ Dick becomes your academic parent. Likewise, since Dick trained as a graduate student in the laboratory of Professor Hairley Bleu, she becomes your academic grandparent. I’ll leave it up to you to work out who your second cousins, once removed, are.
At any rate, I happened to wonder about the academic family of Marc D. Hauser recently (for obvious reasons) and this reminded me of Neurotree.
Check out this analysis. Nice steady growth across the years although it is interesting that a traditional Fall boost in entries didn’t last past 2008 (like I said, it has been a while since I reviewed the Neurotree site in any depth).
Also, note the expansion of the project into PsychTree, FlyTree, PhysicsTree, Marine Ecology Tree…actually, Madre de Dios, they’re doing everything!
The academictree.org site seems to be the root. Infectious Disease? Philosophy?
Go sign in and add yourself.
This is different from all the social media strategies seeking to be the scientific version of Facebook, LinkedIn, etc, if you ask me. This is an archival record of training histories and academic relationships which serves both as an interesting history-of-science type of resource as well as a concurrent networking tool. Six Degrees of Isaac Newton is a fun party game but what really makes this a real career asset is the networking. It doesn’t take very long for the knowledge of who previously trained in the lab you (postdocs and gradstudents) inhabit to dissipate. Sure, you could grill the PI about all of her previous trainees..but c’mon. Neurotree (or your relevant subdiscipline tree) allows you to browse about up and down the families to find out who knows which person that you might tap for your next training stop, collaboration or a key bit of advice.
Of course, these trees are only as valuable as they are populated. A more complete tree means a better tool for networking.
So go on over and search for your name in a relevant tree. Somebody may already have added you but if not it is simplicity to create a login and enter yourself. See if you can find anyone else in your tree and create the familial link. Search out people in your field and see if some key relationship is missing- link up other folks.
If you see an error somewhere, shoot an email off to the listed contacts and get it corrected.
In short, participate.

LabSpaces.net evolves into a science blogging collective

and a powerhouse at that.
LabSpaces was previously a science news aggregator but now has jumped hard into the science blogging game with some key acquisitions. Many of them are some of our good blog and Twitt friends including:
DamnGoodTechnician
Odyssey of Pondering Blather (joining the kids, old man? )
biochem belle of There and Back Again
Dr. Becca of Fumbling Toward Tenure Track
Genomic Repairman
…and they have a bunch of other bloggers over there that you will like (and may already know).
kudos to Brian Krueger for assembling this new blog collective. Looks like great reading ahead.

The thesis committee is there to stop the natural tyranny of the PI

Gerty-z of Balanced Instability blog posed an age-old problem in post-graduate education.

I was talking to a graduate student the other day. It was a hallway interaction, she had not searched me out for advice. I have known this grad student for several years, and she is one of the superstars in a highly-ranked graduate program. By every metric, she should be graduating. Now. Turns out, her advisor has been suggesting that she stick around for another year or two.

ruh roh! Conflict of Interest raises its ugly head.
I bring this up because this is not the first time I’ve heard a similar story. In fact I’ve heard of what appears to be at least one entire department that is riddled with this tendency to prolong the graduate school interval as long as possible, seemingly only to extract more value out of productive trainees.

Now #NatNetFAIL?

A Twitt from @drisis alerted me to this post over at Nature’s blog empire. In it, one Ian Brooks muses:

Do i fit in Nature Network anymore? Is it time to consolidate and “out” myself and find a new Network to join.

I don’t know. I haven’t been around here for so long, I don’t know how Nature Network is holding up; I’ve lost touch with this place and most of the bloggers here (which I’m very sad about). I know some of the regular bloggers are frustrated with The Rules and the dreadfully slow log ins (it took me almost 2 minutes from entering The Network URL to start writing this post. That is an utterly unacceptable lag time).

Sounds a bit familiar to those of us on the ScienceBlogs.com side of the pond, doesn’t it? A vague sense of discomfort. Loss of community. “Why am I here?” reflections. And a sense that the complaints are many and varied, even if any given issue does not affect every single person. A storm is abrewing at Nature Networks, make no mistake.

I also enjoyed the comments that emerged in the wake of Ian’s post. Recall the sorts of snootery mooted about by these NatNet folks about the tawdry interest of Sb bloggers in their….traffic? Not to mention their difficulties with our lack of civility? And accusations that there ‘just isn’t enough science at Scienceblogs.com, wot, wot old chap’?

Well now they are irritated by the Science-only dictum, bridling against the limits on cursing, complaining about a perceived pusillanimity of NPG about the infamous English Libel law and demanding, DEMANDING I SAY, their traffix stats. STAT!

All there in the comments and original post. Heck, even Henry Gee (you remember SpittleFest, right?) is whining about how he feels sadly unwelcome after his (female as it happens) boss chastised him for pissing on her carpet posting a (no doubt hilarious) blog entry about rejecting a manuscript on his iPhone from the loo.

[sidebar: I love the fact you can reference comments at NatNet now, bang up job on that at least.]

Brooks has more opinionating on Nature Networks here.

Oh and final note, Ian? You are no PhysioProf.

#IOweBora, do you?

crossposting from drugmonkey.wordpress.com.

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By now many of you have read Bora Zivkovic’s lengthy Op/Ed on the history and future of scientific blogging. This was written upon the sad occasion of his departure from blogging at ScienceBlogs.com. An impromptu tribute to Bora popped up on blogs and Twitter.
The central themes are the essence of Bora. That he encouraged a nascent blogger (e.g., scicurious). Connected them with the greater blog community. Sent them their first traffic. Etc. And from the more established folks the themes of improving their blogging-through “bloggable” alerts, link fests, carnivals and more. Bora created the Open Laboratory end-of-year print summaries of the best-in-blogging. He and another collaborator put what is now the go-to meeting of the year for online science communication, SciOnline.
These themes are but the tip of the iceberg because of course every person has an individual story, even if only in 140 characters or less.
Together this evidence reveals the central place Bora Zivkovic occupies when it comes to scientific communication online. It also reveals the deep appreciation many have for his efforts.
Abel Pharmboy notes on his new blog that there is still a disconnect between Bora’s labors and his ability to make a living from what he does. Abel suggests that it is time for the community to step up and deliver a more tangible appreciation for Bora.

let’s take “I Owe Bora” to a new and literal level. Lots of you know that he has been in a bit of financial difficulty and I know that he’s too proud to ask for help. In standing for his principles, he’s giving up over $100/month from ScienceBlogs and the network is still two months behind on their payments. Several people have asked me how they might help out The Blogfather. So, I’d like to put up a PayPal donation button for all of us to show our appreciation to Bora and put our money where our mouths are (and tweets and posts are).

I agree completely.Go over to Abel’s post or just click this link.

Blogrolling: Take it to the Bridge

It is a young blog but there are extenuating circumstances. I think you will enjoy Take it to the Bridge authored by commenter namnezia.
The station at the end of tenure track

In practice though, even if you are tenured, you still need to fund your research, and a two-year wild goose chase with no positive outcome will result in no publications and make it harder and harder to renew your funding. So any advantages tenure gives you are counteracted by the need to stay funded.

Shop-vac

so then you go down there and have to maneuver this large shop vac through the clutter of old baby paraphernalia which is all over the basement, and as you are vacuuming up the water you realize you are only wearing your socks and they are wet and the extension cord for the vacuum is sitting in a puddle, and you realize you have not thought this through before starting because you are exhausted after putting the kids to bed who were acting like they had eight espressos

Takin it to the bridge:

Being a big fan of James Brown, in the middle of the song “Like a Sex Machine”, as it is reaching one of its many crescendos, the rhythm steadies and he banters with the band – “Are you ready to take it to the bridge?”, meaning the bridge of the song, “Can we take it to the bridge? Take it to the bridge…ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR…”, and the the band bursts into this funky guitar riff which just makes you want to pee in your pants with joy.

Word, word and word.
welcome to the author side of the blogosphere namnezia.