New category: Movember, men’s health

~ Brooke Morriswood ~ Leave a comment
Snapshot of the top of the new "Movember, Men's Health" posting category, with the category itself ringed in magenta.

One of the most enduringly popular postings – or rather, series of postings – on Total Internal Reflection is “Great scientists, great moustaches“. Posted every November, and combining appreciation of both scientific achievements and male grooming, this has now reached its 9th iteration and some of the individual articles continue to attract large traffic volumes every year.

To make them easier to find, I’ve now collected them all together in a new “Movember, men’s health” category (ringed in magenta on the right of the image). This will also serve as a home for any other postings that relate directly to men’s health.

Don’t forget, if you know of any great scientists with great moustaches, feel free to nominate them for the series! You can go to the category directly by clicking HERE.

The Dunning-Kruger chainsaw massacre

~ Brooke Morriswood ~ Leave a comment

Just over a year ago, I wrote about the “chainsaw massacre” being perpetrated by Elon Musk and his acolytes at DOGE. At the time, these were the most visible elements – the most visible outrages – of the Trump Administration’s war on science and coupled to the beginnings of the anti-DEI ouster, suggested two initial impulses at work: a backlash firstly against the data-driven nature of scientific decision-making (anathema to those who wish to do as they will, unencumbered by facts, details, or restraints), and secondly against merit-based advancement (because education is the great equaliser and facilitates promotion through ability rather than patronage).

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Devil’s advocate (the case against preprints in biomedical science)

~ Brooke Morriswood ~ Leave a comment

I’m a preprint fan. All the research papers from my final period in academia were posted as preprints before being submitted to journals, and I’ve also utilised preprint peer review services at Research Commons and eLife.

But in my present work as a medial writer, where I’m involved in the publication and dissemination of industry-funded biomedical research, I am slowly realising that many of the things that make preprints so fantastic in the biological sciences simply don’t apply in biomedical science, or not to the same extent.

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MedComms is not SciComm

~ Brooke Morriswood ~ Leave a comment

When scientists assess career options outside academia, there’s a prevailing misconception that MedComms is a variant of SciComm. 

The trap, after all, is right there in the name. SciComm = science communication, MedComms = medical communications, so MedComms must basically be the same activity but dealing with medicine instead of scientific research, right?

Wrong. Here’s why. 

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One of the scapegoats

~ Brooke Morriswood ~ 4 Comments

I’m a white, cisgendered, heterosexual male. I was born in an affluent Western country and lucky enough to get an elite education. I have all the attendant privileges and instinctive reassurance that comes from those accidents of birth and genetics, but in one quite profound respect I’m minoritised: I have spent 19 years – more than two-thirds of my adult life – as an immigrant.

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