I’m mainly blogging at the Guardian at the moment. Today I posted a piece on the fossil fuel disinvestment campaign, which has been rolling through US universities for a while. In essence, disinvestment is the opposite of investment, inviting people to think about how their money’s being used when they’re not using it themselves. There’s … Continue reading »
Tagged with science policy …
“I’m a scientist. I shall be my own Minister for Science”
Via a mate who’s just read the new Thatcher biography by Charles Moore. On Thatcher, scientific advice and “the weather”: “Dr John Ashworth, the Chief Scientist, who worked within the Central Policy Review Staff, asked to see Mrs Thatcher shortly after she had arrived at No. 10. As he entered, the Prime Minister said: ‘Who … Continue reading »
Troll Below? Science policy below the line.
Some streetart on a bridge in Dublin I have an essay in James Wilsdon and Rob Doubleday’s collection: “Future directions for scientific advice in Whitehall” (downloadable for free). It’s an invitation for the various greats and goods of science policy to not only use social media to promote their ideas but to “go below the … Continue reading »
Science policy and social media
ANNOUNCEMENT: I’m part of a new blog network at the Guardian, “Political Science“. I’ll keep this for more personal/ niche content though. My first post there considers the way the public (or forms of publicity) are used to help reform science in the All Trails campaign. It’s based on a short talk I gave at … Continue reading »
Big Pharma: Small Science?
I recently read a paper by some colleagues at SPRU on the publication patterns of the pharmaceutical industry. I thought I’d share a short write up of my notes. A version of the paper is here (pdf) or full citation: Rafols, Ismael, Hopkins, Michael M, Hoekman, Jarno, Siepel, Josh, O’Hare, Alice, Perianes-Rodríguez, Antonio and Nightingale, … Continue reading »
Animal testing, activism around science, and brown dogs
Stuffed fox in Oxford Museum of Natural History. I don’t know how it died. My January column for Popular Science UK is now online. This one’s on the public debate about animals in research. I was interested in some debate surrounding some slightly dodgy reporting of a poll on animal testing. Except, considering the paucity of the … Continue reading »
Academic freedom: bullshit?
“They’ve got more choice”. Street art in Deptford, East London. Freedom is one of those words – like fairness, science, truth, beauty – which is so complex and/ or relative in its application any straightforward articulation of it really should be avoided. And yet it is - like fairness, science, truth, beauty – all too often dimly bandied … Continue reading »
Science and growth
Last week I co-organised a debate on science and growth, one of a regular* “Science Question Time” seminars. The idea that science might equal growth is something which has dominated UK science policy discourse for several years (e.g. David Willetts’ first speech as Science Minister). But can the government pick winners, and how can we ensure public coffers … Continue reading »
Green science policy
Posters currently outside BIS offices, London One result of the recent wave of anti-GMO protests seems to be an outpouring of debate over whether the green movement is “anti-science”. The latest to cross my laptop screen was a blogpost from Adam Ramsey, arguing the Green Party are actually more pro-science than their competitors; they just need … Continue reading »
Opening up science funding
Keep Science Public – from Science is Vital Rally, Autumn 2010 Adam Smith (no, not that one, or that one, or that one, the science writer one) has a new series of posts for the Guardian on science policy starting today. His first post raises several questions, including who should set the goals for science? … Continue reading »
