Students reach molecular biology from a variety of sources, but what if we started them off from it instead?
Continue readingTerms of empowerment
The Dunning-Kruger chainsaw massacre
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).
Continue readingDevil’s advocate (the case against preprints in biomedical science)
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.
Continue readingMedComms is not SciComm
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.
Continue reading2025: Total Internal Reflection’s year in review
Catching the zeitgeist
Mark Ronson’s “Night people” memoir is an engaging and engrossing account of his formative years as a DJ in the New York club scene of the 90s. It also illustrates one tantalising facet shared by the arts and sciences: catching the zeitgeist.
Continue readingGreat scientists, great moustaches IX (a Movember posting)
Here’s the latest instalment in TIR’s longest-running posting series, the definitive guide to scientist moustaches! A Movember-themed celebration of some great minds and the great moustaches that went (just) before them. Links to parts I-VIII in the series can be found at the end of the posting.
Continue readingOne of the scapegoats
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.
Continue readingAt the ends of the day
One of the hardest things with active parenting is that you’re usually robbed of the hours when you’re at your most alert and creative.
Continue readingCredit where credit’s due (a short guide to authorships in scientific papers)
Did you know that there are actually guidelines for determining authorship on scientific papers?
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Total Internal Reflection 