Wednesday, February 21, 2007
More fashions
I was shown an article about how maybe global warming is nothing much to do with greenhouse gases but rather more to do with solar variations - one of which accounted for the little ice age a few hundred years ago. I would be more confident that the article is wrong if the greenhouse folk added something to their stuff explaining why. A footnote about solar variations being an order of magnitude too small is not quite enough.
A spat which reminds me of a change for the worse in the way that science is done these days, albeit that an awful lot of it is being done. In the olden days, it was enough to wangle an Oxbridge fellowship or a red-brick lectureship, or simply to have independant means, and then one was pretty much free to pursue for life whatever scientific endeavour one pleased. Science was not that expensive - although, pausing, I dare say there were enough science nuts who spent their fortune buying science toys of one sort or another. Those fancy brass bound microscopes were presumably expensive when they were new, never mind now. Nowadays science involves lots of resources and involves those dreadful people called team players. In order to do science one has to attract and hold the attention of whoever holds the purse strings. Which might involve being nice to some drug company (which is apt to have strong views about your results), pandering to the current fashion by dressing whatever it is you want to do in those clothes, or generally being good at the greasy pole.
I seem to remember reading quite recently about a Canadian scientist whose career was almost terminally blighted because she had the temerity (apart from being a woman) to publish something unpleasant about a drug which happened to be sold by a company which was funding her is some part or some way.
Similar considerations might mean that it is far easier to get money to do research on cures and treatments involving drugs than on those that don't.
Relatively quiet on the food scene. An excellent potato pie on Monday, served with roast beetroot, something I have never had before, and which was rather good. I gather roasting unusual vegetables in extra virgin olive oil, preferably from Ceorleone, is something one learns about by watching foodie programs on television. And an excellent pizza yesterday, the second outing for BH's new ceramic round. Not yet sure how much differance this makes, but the diameter of the thing - maybe 15 inches rather than the 10 we are used to - meant that the result was fairly spectacular.
Bedside table has acquired a further 5 inches (something more than 2,000 pages) in the form of a two volume Scott Moncrieff from the US, which appears to be around 75 years old, not a deluxe edition (no pictures) and somewhat worn (maybe even read). But, at £17, a snip from the usually expensive stalls underneath Waterloo bridge. I think it will suit me as well as anything, despite the various efforts, including one recent and well reviewed, which have come out since. Apart from anything else, I imagine that it was a lot cheaper than a new one. Not counting a posh French one which would probably be well in excess of £100.
New buildings on the site of former united dairy on the way to the baker shoot up at an amazing speed - the trick seems to be timber framing. We seem to have gone from ground, through ground floor and first floor, to rafters in about a month. Apart getting the structure up quick I guess you also have the advantage that one has got the roof on and can get on with the inside while getting on with the exterior brick cladding (I assume that is where the thing will go) in slower time. Maybe they will attempt to match the 30's Tudor (half timber with red herring bone brick infill) that the bits of dairy being kept and much of Cheam centre are built in.
A spat which reminds me of a change for the worse in the way that science is done these days, albeit that an awful lot of it is being done. In the olden days, it was enough to wangle an Oxbridge fellowship or a red-brick lectureship, or simply to have independant means, and then one was pretty much free to pursue for life whatever scientific endeavour one pleased. Science was not that expensive - although, pausing, I dare say there were enough science nuts who spent their fortune buying science toys of one sort or another. Those fancy brass bound microscopes were presumably expensive when they were new, never mind now. Nowadays science involves lots of resources and involves those dreadful people called team players. In order to do science one has to attract and hold the attention of whoever holds the purse strings. Which might involve being nice to some drug company (which is apt to have strong views about your results), pandering to the current fashion by dressing whatever it is you want to do in those clothes, or generally being good at the greasy pole.
I seem to remember reading quite recently about a Canadian scientist whose career was almost terminally blighted because she had the temerity (apart from being a woman) to publish something unpleasant about a drug which happened to be sold by a company which was funding her is some part or some way.
Similar considerations might mean that it is far easier to get money to do research on cures and treatments involving drugs than on those that don't.
Relatively quiet on the food scene. An excellent potato pie on Monday, served with roast beetroot, something I have never had before, and which was rather good. I gather roasting unusual vegetables in extra virgin olive oil, preferably from Ceorleone, is something one learns about by watching foodie programs on television. And an excellent pizza yesterday, the second outing for BH's new ceramic round. Not yet sure how much differance this makes, but the diameter of the thing - maybe 15 inches rather than the 10 we are used to - meant that the result was fairly spectacular.
Bedside table has acquired a further 5 inches (something more than 2,000 pages) in the form of a two volume Scott Moncrieff from the US, which appears to be around 75 years old, not a deluxe edition (no pictures) and somewhat worn (maybe even read). But, at £17, a snip from the usually expensive stalls underneath Waterloo bridge. I think it will suit me as well as anything, despite the various efforts, including one recent and well reviewed, which have come out since. Apart from anything else, I imagine that it was a lot cheaper than a new one. Not counting a posh French one which would probably be well in excess of £100.
New buildings on the site of former united dairy on the way to the baker shoot up at an amazing speed - the trick seems to be timber framing. We seem to have gone from ground, through ground floor and first floor, to rafters in about a month. Apart getting the structure up quick I guess you also have the advantage that one has got the roof on and can get on with the inside while getting on with the exterior brick cladding (I assume that is where the thing will go) in slower time. Maybe they will attempt to match the 30's Tudor (half timber with red herring bone brick infill) that the bits of dairy being kept and much of Cheam centre are built in.
# posted by Jim @ 3:10 AM 
