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Updated NRC data, rankings site outage
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AUG
10
2007
1
PM
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Better Adaptation
If the people with skills that are the most valuable outside of academia leave universities in disproportionate numbers (as I think they do), students will miss out on what they have to offer, and there the risk that academia will grow progressively more insular. How might one counteract this effect?
One straigh...
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AUG
09
2007
12
AM
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Survival of the "Fittest"?
There's an intriguing article in yesterday's Times about a new theory about the factors that gave rise to the Industrial Revolution in England.
For centuries, England's citizens lived on the brink of starvation. Although innovations would periodically increase agricultural productivity, greater access to food ...
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JUL
30
2007
1
PM
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Negotiating Equal Pay
Awhile back I wrote about the Ginther and Kahn paper that compared men's and women's rates of hiring to tenure-track positions and promotion to tenure. The paper found that the differences between men and women could be entirely explained by marriage and children: having young children penalizes women but not men. ...
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JUL
27
2007
4
PM
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The Importance of Communication Skills in Science
The Poincare conjecture was until recently one of the great unsolved problems in mathematics. Stephen Smale proved the conjecture for 5 or more dimensions in 1961, Michael Freedman proved the conjecture for 4 dimensions in 1982, and Grigori Perelman proved the final case for 3 dimensions in 2003. All 3 mathematici...
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JUL
25
2007
8
PM
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Alternative Career: Glam Rocker?
Brian May is finishing his doctorate in astrophysics with a thesis entitled, "Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud." May is probably better known for writing "We Will Rock You" as the guitarist for Queen. May interrupted his doctoral studies when the band started becoming successful in the early 70's.
N...
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JUL
20
2007
8
PM
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What have they been up to with all that money?
While the NIH budget doubling has created a crisis for life sciences grant applicants, what about its benefits? One of the most pronounced effects of the budget doubling was a huge building spree by medical schools. Presumably there has also been an increase in research output, right?
A new NSF report makes me ...
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JUL
18
2007
11
PM
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New phds.org job board
I've been a little quiet recently because I've been hacking away on an update to phds.org: a shiny new job board.
I've done a complete rewrite of the back end with the goal of enabling future expansions. The most visible changes:
* New UI. I have redone the site's layout with the goal of making things easier...
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JUL
16
2007
4
AM
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Doubling in the Physical Sciences: AAAS article
Beryl Lieff Benderly posted an interesting article on AAAS's ScienceCareers website entitled Careful What You Wish For which discusses the doubling troubles at NIH and notes that the American Competitiveness Initiative in Congress threatens to double funding at NSF, NIH and DOE. Beryl's article cites Paula Stephen...
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JUL
06
2007
8
PM
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Risky Business
The Chronicle reports that the National Science Board are urging the NSF to fund riskier projects with the potential for big breakthroughs rather than safer, more incremental projects. (Here's the NSB report)
Taking more risks is likely to be a good thing for NSF. Consider the financial analog: it's like hol...
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JUL
04
2007
12
AM
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The Flattened World
Today’s Wall Street Journal has a very interesting article by Pui-wang Tam and Jackie Range – “Some in Silicon Valley Begin to Sour on India”. (Contact me if you can’t get a copy of the article). The authors interview a number of small and large business managers in Silicon Valley who have pulled out their outsour...
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