Academic Mixtape 4
good stuff to read
The NIH recently published a blog post to explain all of the things that program officers cannot do for you if you talk to them. It reads like discouragement from contacting your PO. Drugmonkey puts this in context with advice, explaining that “as per usual the less familiar with the NIH system will be at a disadvantage without additional context.” So he is encouraging people seeking NIH funding to continue to call up their PO, and has provided lots of nuance.
Meanwhile, one of the NSF Biology blogs is mostly like, “Got any questions? Please please give us a call. It’s our job to talk to you if you’re thinking about applying for NSF funding.” ← not an actual quote (but that’s the vibe of the thing).
Did you hear about the new NSF Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science?
On the top end of Australia, a new species of rove beetle that lives symbiotically with termites was described. This beetle’s mimicry involves growing a full-size backpack out of its butt that looks like a termite. Absolutely wild. Here’s the news bit in Science and the full paper in Zootaxa that you probably don’t have access to.
To follow up on my recent post about what’s going on at West Virginia University, here’s an open letter from some WVU faculty that explains the stakes at hand so very well.
Phil Plait (of the Bad Astronomy newsletter) explains why he’s done with twitter. Yup. Samesies, Phil.
A new report from the UN puts a bigger number on the financial cost of invasive (adventive, non-native, exotic, introduced, whatever you want to call them) species. Also, by the way, for a good long while I’ve been disenchanted with the terminology surrounding “invasive species.” This isn’t from a position of naiveté, my dissertation was on this topic before I moved on to other ant-y things. Even though some fraction of the species introduced by people from one part of the world to another can cause serious problems, might it be more helpful to employ terminology that’s not so militarized or packed with other assumptions or value judgments? This isn’t a new idea but I wished we talked about this more. It seems that some of the writing about this don't seem to be biologists but I think the might be something to learn here. I think looking at this problem though the less of “invasiveness” might be limiting the scope of what we choose to investigate and how we might address the issues at hand. The bottom line is that these are species that experience success in new places. Why is it always have to be an “invasion?”
A survey from the AAUP (that’s the American Association for University Professors) has some pretty stark numbers about the perceived undesirability of faculty jobs in states that have recently passed laws and policies that are destructive to universities and academic freedom. Lots of folks are looking to bail, and recruiting is getting a lot harder. I’ve seen this anecdotally among junior colleagues but this survey backs up the vague impression. (By the way one of the things AAUP does is set you up with low-cost professional liability insurance in case you work in an environment where you’re concerned that someone will sue you for just doing your job. Maybe a good idea for those who are sticking it out in Florida, Texas, and other places with governments hostile to higher ed.)
The CHIPS and Science Act is funding a ton of scientific research. Or is it? Congress has left a lot of the bill unfunded, here’s the story in Inside Higher Ed.
It bet it’s worth your time to find out what the Presidents Council of Advisors on Science and Technology is recommending about science communication. They’re asking federal agencies to build public engagement deeper into their mission, and calling for an increase in social-science informed efforts to engage the public. A lot of the efforts by scientists to communicate their work (and more broadly, their discipline) with their communities is falling flat because these efforts are not adequate strategic or based on solid social science, so glad to see a push for more evidence-based practices.
“I take risks on solo hikes, navigating animal traps and dangerous terrain. But for a woman, men are the biggest threat.”
A major leader and champion in US Chess has resigned from her post because of the pervasiveness of sexual misconduct in the organization.
Here’s a nice opinion piece from the current president of ASU (with a professor from the same campus) about the great value of public education, and how we can do better. It was published in Deseret News. It reads to me like he could have submitted it to the New York Times. Maybe he did. It’s funny because within a day of this piece, the NYT chose to publish an ill-willed op-ed that made essentially the opposite point.