The Winding Path

Some recent articles on ScienceDaily have highlighted the usefulness of maths in advancing scientific research. Even while already well aware of that usefulness it was great to feel my interest in mathematics being rekindled as I read about how some researchers used new models to investigate how the brain controls muscles and movement, how our nervous system, after creating more cells than necessary, competes to quickly reduce the number of cells to efficient levels, and how chaos theory can improve monitoring of sleep patterns in infants.

But of course it’s not all bright and happy, with one group of researchers showing how a previously devised statistical model didn’t stand up to experimental verification.

And my uni friends thought it was bad when I was excited about ANOVA…

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Even though I’m well on the path towards a research career, I haven’t looked into the detail of jobs I might be employed to do further down the track. So when I found a Scientific Writer position advertised at uni it was heartening to find that not only is there a job I would be very competent in by the time I finish my PhD, but the pay isn’t bad either! I wouldn’t turn my nose up at $70k - $85k to write/proof read manuscripts, and read and analyse scientific papers.

Of course I’d prefer a more “hands-on” research position, but well, it’s still good to know there are other decent options.

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For a long time I’ve been thinking of writing up something about the nature of science. Sure there are already plenty of great articles around, but I hadn’t found one that captured science in the engaging way it deserves. It turns out that’s because I had my eyes closed. I’ve been a regular reader of Bora’s blog, A Blog Around The Clock for years, yet somehow I missed his awesome account of teaching a biology class about the nature of science using jigsaw puzzles as props. The idea came from a talk.origins discussion, which PZ over at Pharyngula also approved of.

So, check out Bora’s account of his lab class’ experience and see if you can get a better grasp of some of what science is about. Or let me know if you’ve found anything better.

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