This is free writing while I work out what I want to put in my PhD chapter. Bits of it are probably wrong to varying degrees, but being wrong is most of doing research. Our reward at the end of a research project is to be slightly less wrong. One of the things that made […]
As I write about material culture – the study of the things that people make and what it can tell us about our cultures – in my thesis, I’m conscious that I’m trying to balance two different aspects of material culture at once. One is material culture as a thing that academics write about – […]
Scientific objects are different enough from the things you might find in your house and home that academics treat them differently. But is that the right approach?
Science is pretty damn personal.
There are a couple of things I’d like to unpack in this blogpost: the feelings of not being a “real” expert, how they come about, and what someone might be able to do about them.
When it really comes down to it, the wild success of mathematics in describing physical concepts is what makes it matter so much. The mythologies and folk legends that have sprung up around the history of science tell us that it was mathematics that led us out of our ignorant state, that it was quantitative […]
Not so long ago, I came across a comment suggesting that writing for “the general public” (I have issues with this term, but they’ll wait for another time) is a little bit like writing for children. The implication, I think, is that nonspecialists are ignorant, have short attention spans and will not understand or appreciate […]
International Women’s Day is never easy for me. I love celebrating other women, but I see myself as too awkward and abrasive to do anything worth celebrating. This year was especially hard, because it was my first International Women’s Day since I left physics properly and became a science communicator. I’m still in touch with […]
The BBC is creating a “Crossing Divides” season, which is all about having difficult conversations. For the record, I do believe that we need to have difficult conversations with others. Most of the conversations we need to have are difficult. I just don’t believe this particular game is modelling good or sensible behaviour. The game […]
Over the summer, I’ve been working on the fabulous Sound of Astronomy, writing for and editing Popular Astronomy, applying for everything and its mother in my frantic quest to get myself on my feet after graduation…and of course, taking in all of the science news I can! Whether I’m reading, catching up on podcasts or […]
Osnat Katz Moon 