Collaborating with the enemy?
About a year ago I was asked to speak at a local women’s studies conference on mathematics, science and technology. I didn’t flatter myself at having been chosen, because nearly every loca...
Overlooking female innovation in science
Hamilton came to her conclusions after studying the writings of female scientists over the past two and a half thousand years, and reading descriptions of women scientists by others. She analysed the ...
Practical hints for classy demos
One of my initial goals when I enrolled on my teacher-training course at Warwick University in 1996 was to develop a portfolio of demonstrations that would entertain, interest and also educate a class...
Good teaching for good research
For as long as I can remember, the major research universities in the US have repeated the mantra that “good research makes good teaching”. When challenged about the need for investment in...
Multiple choices for graduates
As a physicist, you have the advantage of a three-way choice when it comes to developing a career. You can become a scientist, opt for work that involves science outside the laboratory, or consider of...
UK physics gets new funding boost
The JIF scheme is funded by the UK government and the Wellcome Trust, the world’s largest biomedical research charity. It was set up after several reports found that a shortage of state-of-the-a...
Students reject revamped physics degree
In a series of interviews with a wide cross-section of students who remained in the physics programme, Booth and Ingerman discovered that many students could not adequately explain the links between t...
UN promotes space science for developing nations
During the 1990s the UN and ESA organized a series of workshops to promote the development of small telescopes in countries such as Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Colombia and Jordan. Over 800 astronomer...
Taking a fresh look at maths and physics
The standard story about the development of physics as a separate discipline runs more or less as follows. After the Newtonian revolution of the 17th century, natural science divided into two parts: m...
