“… uh-oh. Depressing to read this in Slate the day before yesterday from Phil Plait about how the Canadian National Research Council has now stated that: ‘they will only perform research that has “social or economic gain”’ …” (more)
[The Cedar Lounge Revolution, 16 May]
“My Education Week: Cormac O Raifeartaigh, lecturer in physics at Waterford Institute of Technology. On Monday morning, I give a talk about our physics degree course to students from secondary schools in Waterford and Kilkenny …” (more)
[Irish Times, 14 May]
“Science isn’t compulsory in Irish secondary schools because the Government couldn’t afford to build enough science laboratories, according to the Education Minister …” (more)
[Eoghan MacConnell, Independent, 14 May]
“I have just done a small analysis of the scientific publication output for the 10 years from 2003-2012 inclusive where the publications had the address ‘Ireland’ or the address ‘England’ in them. I have used the ISI database, which is a conservative database …” (more)
[James McInerney's Website, 23 April]
“Should Europe allow the widespread use of genetically engineered food? Why do so few students pursue degrees in science? What can be done about the gender imbalances seen in appointments to senior academic posts in the sciences and engineering? If these issues are important to you then now is your chance to make your opinions known …” (more)
[Dick Ahlstrom, Irish Times, 18 April]
“Applications to study science, technology and engineering at third level have increased significantly over the past five years. An analysis of CAO preferences by the Higher Education Authority also found that technology courses make up one fifth of all first preference applications this year …” (more)
[RTÉ News, 17 April]
“Earlier this month, the European Commission released its latest snapshot of the representation of women in science. The message that emerges from the oddly named report, She Figures 2012: Gender in Research and Innovation, is hardly surprising: Women are still underrepresented in science …” (more)
[Elisabeth Pain, Science Careers, 16 April]
“Despite the huge efforts made these days to promote science and show how much ‘fun’ it is, science is, on average, less interesting than ever! Now, anyone who predicts the demise of science, in whatever way, risks being compared to Lord Kelvin (William Thompson) or John Horgan …” (more)
[educationandstuff, 1 April]
“The shock, horror and plain sexist abuse that greeted the revelation that the talent and brains behind one of the world’s most popular science websites were those of a woman prompted Elise Andrew to wonder whether she had suddenly travelled back to the Dark Ages …” (more)
[Paul Gallagher, Independent, 31 March]
“We’ve been here before. Such was the fever to promote science at the expense of everything else in the mid nineteenth century that Thomas Wyse told an audience at the Waterford Literary and Scientific Society in 1833 …” (more)
[Michael Seery, Is this going to be on the exam?, 26 March]
“At the weekend, I had the opportunity to participate in a science communication master class as part of the Famelab competition. During it, the question of ‘why do we communicate science’ was raised and the same sort of answers I had heard before were given …” (more)
[Science is Delicious, 25 March]
“… On Wednesday, the author of the popular science blog I Fucking Love Science posted a link to her Twitter account. And her Twitter account features her name (Elise Andrew) and her photograph. To many of the fans of the blog (which has 4.2m ‘likes’ on Facebook), this was the first time that its author had been identified, and many expressed shock …” (more)
[Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, 22 March]
“Britain is failing to secure the economic benefits of its world-class scientific research because of the lack of a ‘coherent’ government strategy to commercialise new discoveries, a parliamentary report warned today …” (more)
[Huffington Post, 13 March]
“CAO points for science and technology courses are likely to jump again after application figures for college places this autumn showed another surge in demand for these courses …” (more)
[Louise Holden, Irish Times, 9 March]
“Many women are deterred from pursuing a career in science at the highest levels. Much more must be done to address the reasons behind this potential waste of human talent …” (more)
[Nature News & Comment, 6 March]
“Recent changes to the Irish State funding for scientific research and the hatchet job of ‘restructuring’ the policy formation mechanisms for science funding and development have been in the newsflow for some time. Here are a couple of very good links relating to the matter …” (more)
[Constantin Gurdgiev, True Economics, 3 March]
“We throw around the term ‘peer review’, but like so many terms, it’s often used without fully understanding what it signifies …” (more)
[Kent Anderson, The Scholarly Kitchen, 18 February]
“Irish and European science policy was on the agenda when Science Calling caught up with Minister of State for Research and Innovation, Seán Sherlock, in his office in Kildare Street recently …” (more, audio)
[Maria Delaney, Science Calling!, 18 February]
“… Anti-science attitudes are far from unusual among the Arts & Humanities fraternity, even in the supposedly enlightened environment of a University, which I think is a real shame …” (more)
[In the Dark, 14 February]
“Women are from Venus, like making cupcakes, like bright colours – particularly pink – and need to be told at frequent intervals that ‘math is meant to be hard’. That seems to be the verdict you could cull from many pop-psychology articles …” (more)
[Athene Donald's Blog, 10 February]
