Over the past 400 years or so, a set of mostly unwritten guidelines has evolved for how science should be properly done. The assumption in the research community is that science advances most effectively when scientists conduct themselves in certain ways. The first person to write down these attitudes and behaviors was Robert Merton, in 1942. […] … learn more→

Despite representing only 4% of the world’s population, the United States accounts for over half of science Nobel Prizes awarded since 2000, hosts seven of The Times Higher Education Top 10 science universities, and incubates firms such as Alphabet (Google), Meta and Pfizer that turn federally funded discoveries into billion-dollar markets. The domestic STEM talent pool alone cannot sustain this research output. The U.S. […] … learn more→

So what’s the difference between writing a chapter about your empirical research for an edited collection as opposed to a journal article? This is a question I do get asked, so here is an answer. You might think that the journal article and the book chapter are completely different animals – journals require articles that are […] … learn more→

A shard of smooth bone etched with irregular marks dating back 20,000 years puzzled archaeologists until they noticed something unique – the etchings, lines like tally marks, may have represented prime numbers. Similarly, a clay tablet from 1800 B.C.E. inscribed with Babylonian numbers describes a number system built on prime numbers. As the Ishango bone, the Plimpton 322 […] … learn more→

I am a little late this week. That’s because Monday’ s welcome but quite heavy rain caused a power outage. Not the neighbourhood or even the street. A quite small power outage confined to one part of our house. We could still use the kitchen and we had the tele and lights so it wasn’t […] … learn more→

Research suggests that doctoral researchers often don’t understand supervisor feedback on their writing. When they get their text back with its red/blue tracked changes and comments, they don’t always get what they are being asked to do. I remember that a doctoral researcher once told me that she had spent hours trying to work out what […] … learn more→

Many of us compartmentalise different types of writing. Creative writing is for novelists, poets, playwrights, and so on. Research writing is done by people who are not creative writers. It consists of monographs, journal articles, book chapters, reports, and so on. Then there are a bunch of research tasks we don’t really think of as […] … learn more→

Two comments that supervisors often write on doctoral texts are (1) “add link” and (2) lacks flow”. But what do these comments actually mean? In this post I’m going to provide a couple of very basic pointers to flow and linking for any reader who isn’t sure what these terms are about. I’m not going […] … learn more→

It might seem surprising, but federal research funding isn’t just for scientists. A component of many federal grants that support basic research requires that discoveries be shared with nonscientists. This component, referred to as “broader impacts” by the National Science Foundation, can make a big difference for K-12 students and teachers, museumgoers, citizen scientists and other people […] … learn more→

We very often start out on a research project with a BIG question. Or a big problem or puzzle. Why do people think that there is no climate crisis? Why are universities not funded properly? How can we cope with increasingly turbulent weather? How can we ethically use AI in teaching?  You get the idea. Add […] … learn more→