Levels of editing of a scientific paper There are four key steps to crafting a paper and getting it ready for submission just as there are four levels for editing or reviewing a paper. Thes...
https://blog.oup.com/2018/06/double-helix-editing-levels-scientific-paper/
Learning on the job: The art of academic writing Most academics don’t have formal training in writing but do it every day. The farther up the career ladder one goes, the more writing beco...
https://blog.oup.com/2018/05/learning-on-the-job-the-art-of-academic-writing/
Triggered ideas: finding inspiration Where do find your ideas? Are they buried deep in you and suddenly percolate up? Are they glimmers that appear over time until they coalesce into ‘an ...
https://blog.oup.com/2018/04/triggered-ideas-finding-inspiration/
Can you pick up the ‘core’ of ten languages in a year? I previously wrote about how Scientific English is a specialized form of language used in formal presentations and publications. I...
Ten reasons to love thinking Thinking is one of the great human abilities. Anyone can do it, anytime, anywhere. One of the best places in the world to be is inside one’s head, thinking. I...
Deep in the red Yesterday, the second of August, was Earth Overshoot Day for 2017. This date “marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year...
https://blog.oup.com/2017/08/in-the-red-earth-overshoot-day/
Stephen Hawking’s smile Where can you share space with royalty, science rock stars such as Stephen Hawking, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Peter Cox, real rock stars like Brian May of Queen, mo...
https://blog.oup.com/2017/07/stephen-hawking-starmus-festival/
How to “bee” a smart animal The public is turning out to be, whether knowingly or not, animal ethnographers. The diversity of pets, farm animals, and wild animals they track with lens i...
Man’s best friend: the pig Cute and heartwarming videos of dogs fill the internet. My favourite is the bacon dog tease, but others catch my attention because they reveal extraordinary ani...
The difference between “Truth” and “truth” Politically, 2016 has been a wildly, tumultuous year. We go into 2017 on a completely new footing. One that has many of us fearing we face...
https://blog.oup.com/2016/12/absolute-versus-false-truth-science/
The good and bad of ghostwriting I just found out that a scientist whom I greatly admire is writing his first book. Only he’s not. He’s hired a writer to do the heavy lifting. The hired...
https://blog.oup.com/2016/11/science-ghostwriting-pros-cons/
Hey, language-learning platforms! Even when speakers are proficient in English, Scientific English can still present challenges. Some bill it as ‘a foreign language’ even for native Eng...
https://blog.oup.com/2016/10/language-learning-platforms-scientific-english/
Scientific method and back pain Do you have back pain? Statistics show you likely do. Or you have had it in the past or will in the future. Back pain can be a million different things, and ...
Brexit wrecks it for science We are all reeling from the vote for Brexit. No one in my scientific circle was for exit. Now all are heavily lamenting it. Even cursing it on Facebook. Scienti...
And the Nobel Prize goes to… In science, perhaps the most famous recent award is for the prediction of the existence of the Higgs Boson particle, discovered at CERN’s Large Hadron Colli...
https://blog.oup.com/2016/06/dna-nobel-prize-history-science/
The hardest question for scientists But this question of conscience goes beyond science. There is one clear axis along which we are all asked to act in life – in favour of ‘self’ or �...
Defining biodiversity genomics Many say now is the century of biology, the study of life. Genomics is therefore “front-and-centre”, as DNA, is the software of life. From staring at star...
https://blog.oup.com/2016/03/defining-biodiversity-genomics/
Leap day, giant viruses, and gene-editing 2016 is a leap year. A leap year, or intercalary year, is a year with an extra day inserted to keep pace with the seasons. In the Gregorian calenda...
The Cancer Moonshot Announced on January 13th by President Obama in his eighth and final State of the Union Address, the multi-billion dollar project will be led by US Vice President, Joe B...
We should all eat more DNA 2016 is here. The New Year is a time for renewal and resolution. It is also a time for dieting. Peak enrolment and attendance times at gyms occur after sumptuous ...
The magic of Christmas: It’s Santa’s DNA Knowledge that we all have DNA and what this means is getting around. The informed public is well aware that our cells run on DNA software calle...
The Angelina Jolie effect It is hard to quantify the impact of ‘role-model’ celebrities on the acceptance and uptake of genetic testing and bio-literacy, but it is surely significant. A...
The woman who changed the world Society owes a debt to Henrietta Lacks. Modern life benefits from long-term access to a small sample of her cells that contained incredibly unusual DNA. As R...
Kuwait’s war on ISIS and DNA Kuwait is changing the playing field. In early July, just days after the June 26th deadly Imam Sadiq mosque bombing claimed by ISIS, Kuwait ruled to instate m...
Genomically speaking Today, the amount of global genetic data is doubling on the order of every seven months. This time span has shortened significantly over the past years as the field of ...