Problem? What Gender Problem?

Sigh. You know when you are sitting there in a scientific meeting, thinking good sciency thoughts when…you notice. Oh damn.
Let me do some quick calculations on the program notes here…hmmm, zero, zero, two, one, zero, zero, one, one, two, zero, two. Ugh. 22% in one set of platform presentations, less than 10% in a set of roundtable breakouts.
Women scientists, that is. Dammit. Guess I have an email or two to write…
Go read DrDrA’s post on the success of senior women investigators in acquiring NIH funding to cheer yourself up- it’s at least better than this dismal showing.

Secret Science

Although I frequently josh the OpenAccess!!!!111!!!!111!!!! crowd I am careful to note that I agree with the sentiment that as much science as possible should be readily available to the world audience. I applauded the move by the NIH and other funding agencies to require that manuscripts produced under their grant awards be placed in the PubMed Central repository. This last point is actually pertinent to today’s discussion.
Are unusual efforts to keep science secret a violation of these publication rules? In spirit if not in actual point of law?
A few colleagues and I have been discussing some highly important RULZ sent out by an academic society at the opening of their annual meeting. The short version is: NO BLOGGING!!!!!

NIMH to Investigators: "UR Doin It Rongz"

I recently had the opportunity to hear NIMH Director Tom Insel give a presentation of current and upcoming NIMH funding priorities. He referred to the charge of the most recent NIHM Strategic Plan which lists four major categories.

* Promote discovery in the brain and behavioral sciences to fuel research on the causes of mental disorders
* Chart mental illness trajectories to determine when, where, and how to intervene
* Develop new and better interventions that incorporate the diverse needs and circumstances of people with mental illnesses
* Strengthen the public health impact of NIMH-supported research

Okay this sounds like normal translational stuff, right? The question is always to determine how committed a given IC is to the theme. NIMH appears to be quite committed indeed.