Prolific commenter Bob has submitted a guest post - interesting stuff! There has been some discussion on this blog about whether we are producing too many PhDs, given the size of the job market. Some have stated that Congress is not likely to get involved with the issue of PhD production. That is currently not tr... read more

Reader Eric has some strong words about the current situation at the NIH: > "As a scientist, it hurts me to say that I don't want academic scientists to get out of their recent NIH funding quagmire. Let them suffer painful contraction...they deserve it. Let's throw in a sudden cut-off of their cheap foreign labor... read more

Scott Jaschik has written a nice piece on the new rankings at Inside Higher Ed. Here's the story.

Debbie Swope died on Friday after a long bout with cancer - her obituary appeared in today's paper. Debbie was a postdoc at NIEHS and ran the postdoc office there. I met Debbie while running the Sigma Xi Postdoc Survey. She was very helpful with the project, and ended up working with Sigma Xi in several other... read more

A couple of interesting signs of trouble at NIH: First, Bob notes this piece in *The Scientist*: 'Looming crisis' from NIH budget: Four years of flat funding causing major shifts in US biomedical research, university officials and senior scientists warn Congress Looks like NIH has dispatched some senior fol... read more