The Ethical Palaeontologist

Team Phoenicia Needs Rocket Fuel!

noreply@blogger.com (Julia) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:56:00 +0000

Ages and ages ago, Will asked me cryptically to design a logo (well, more accurately, turn his scanned sketch into an official-looking emblem). I didn't know what it was, but I was more than happy to oblige...

And then, unfortunately at a time when I was in no fit state to blog about anything really (so I missed out on giving my initial support), Team Phoenicia launched, as entrants in the Google Lunar X Prize.

I think this is fantastic news, and I'm delighted that they've officially now qualified for the Lunar Lander Challenge. But (you knew this was coming) they can't do it all without your help. Unexpected rule changes mean they need to find some cash to pay for testing costs. So let's see. I have about 100 readers through FeedBurner. I have a few more readers who come straight to the site or through e-mail subscriptions, and I bet there are a couple of bods who read this in Facebook. If each of you donated the price of a Starbucks latte (£2.50 in London!), that would be over £250, or $500 for the team. If you donated the price of a Krispy Kreme plain dozen, £7.95, that would be over $1500 of funds for the tests.

If you can, and I know some of you have had real financial stresses recently so please don't feel pressurised, I'm asking you to donate your first tea or coffee of the day. There's a Donate button towards the bottom of the Team Phoenicia homepage. I know any amount, no matter how big or how small, will be gratefully received by Will and friends.

And if you'd like to keep track of where your hard-earned pounds, dollars, rands, euros etc are going, subscribe to the Team Phoenicia blog for regular (they hope to update it daily) reports.

Dealin'

noreply@blogger.com (Julia) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 07:14:00 +0000

They're dealin' with the doctors, reelin' from the pain
Dealin' with the clouds and cursin' at the rain
And wonderin' how on earth they should be feelin'

"Dealin'" by Carolina Rain

What's helping me with the "dealing" at the moment? The garden. Always the garden. Despite the fact that I even neglected that a little bit and as a result have almost lost two marginal ferns. The new puppy being brought into work at Paul's office (who has reached a compromise with me that he's allowed to chew my shoes and my jeans but not my hands). I also have the greatest PhD supervisors in the world ever, who have been so incredibly understanding and helpful.

Paul and I are finally getting our wedding anniversary present to each other - some nice new bedding, as we panic-bought cheapo Argos sheets and now want something nice. So the promise of shopping (with Krispy Kreme for breakfast in the café) beckons. And you know, sometimes, when I'm wearing my awesome flared jeans, with my white wedge sandals and a t-shirt, and I see myself in our overly flattering bedroom mirror, I don't think I look half bad.

Most of all though, I am laughing. I am laughing so hard that tears stream down my face. This stuff should be available on the NHS. I am referring to the Swedish Chef sketches on The Muppet Show. And I think this may be the funniest sequence of the lot - the famous "Chicky In De Basky":

Stops me thinking about other stuff anyway. Because if I start thinking about the other stuff my posts will revert back to all those whiny posts I've temporarily taken offline, and I'm not sure if that's something I want. In any case, I'm determined to enjoy the weekend!

Taxonomy FAIL

noreply@blogger.com (Julia) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:19:00 +0000

There is not a single eight-year-old who doesn't know what's wrong with this caption:

A fellow student was actually asked if the Diplodocus at the Natural History Museum was being replaced with a Tyrannosaurus. Hopefully he's now been able to go back to his friend and say that no it isn't. It's just that the people who write for the Metro are retards.

I Told You It Would Be Awesome

noreply@blogger.com (Julia) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:34:00 +0000

Okay, it's not quite what I had in mind, back in 2006, when I wrote about how BigDog + Pleo = the awesomest museum exhibit ever!, but do you see what I mean?

Real dinosaur on the loose in a museum makes learning fun, extremely dangerous

Thank you to Innerbrat for posting that link. I want a T. rex suit for Christmas too. And then I want to run around the Natural History Museum scaring small children into behaving themselves. You want to run like feral animals around the Wildlife Photography exhibit? TYRANNOSAURUS ATTACK!!!!!

I think that'd work really well.

Yes, I think the dried frog pills are kicking in.

Something's Comin'

noreply@blogger.com (Julia) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 10:00:00 +0000

So for now, I've taken a few posts down. Maybe only temporarily, maybe for good. It's been good to talk, but maybe time for this blog to get back to its original theme. May be a bit quiet for a while then.

As always though, gardening talk continues on We're Going To Need A Bigger Pot.

I'm Going To Be All Slushy For A Moment

noreply@blogger.com (Julia) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:45:00 +0000

Setting aside the fact that today has, so far, been one of the worst and lowest days for me since I came back from St Louis (for reasons I simply do not have the energy to process right now), it's my second wedding anniversary today (and also happy anniversary Brian and Tracey). We knew it was going to be a bowel movement of a day, so I'm currently waiting for Paul to get home so we can open our cards and presents, order a take-away and say "fuck it" to the rest of the world for a bit.

A few years ago, I got him a birthday card that said something along the lines of "There are 101 reasons why I love you", and the punchline was basically that inside was just one of the reasons. So I thought up the other 100, wrote them out and gave them to him.

And now I'm going to embarrass him, because I'm going to list just a few of them, because he and I have known each other for 13 years, been together for 10, and been married for two.

For making me cups of tea in the evening when I’m falling asleep in front of the TV.
For forgiving me for shouting at him when I get angry at the world.
For allowing me to never forget moments when he has sucked and taking it in good humour.
For farting on my foot and breaking any remaining taboos between us.
For warming my cold feet between his legs.
For singing "Stop oh yes wait a minute Mr Toastman" when making breakfast.
For sneezing when it's sunny.
For thinking that Old Orleans and TGI Fridays are pretty good restaurants.
For not minding that tequila makes my clothes fall off.
For being able to watch and digest the news before turning it into something I can understand.

Happy anniversary Plu. If you're reading this on the train, the champagne is in the fridge!

Leave Only Footprints

noreply@blogger.com (Julia) — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:40:00 +0000

I take all credit, of course. It was because I got a tattoo of a series of sauropod footprints on 10 May. Six days later, Will told us all about the baby sauropod tracks in Korea. And today the BBC News has a story about the footprints of a herd of 11 sauropods found in Yemen.

Work is teh suxxor at the moment, so no time to review the paper good and proper, but the tracks look beautifully preserved, and it's certainly a significant discovery. More sauropod footprints please!

Schulp A.S., M. Al-Wosabi, N.J. Stevens. 2008. First Dinosaur Tracks from the Arabian Peninsula. PLoS ONE 3(5) e2243. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002243.

Okay, How About Now?

noreply@blogger.com (Julia) — Sat, 17 May 2008 20:00:00 +0000

Right. After Christopher said he couldn't read any of my posts (not even the first 250 characters in the short feed), I had a think. And I may have solved the problem.

So the main purpose of this post is to fill up over 250 characters, check that everything comes through the feed properly, and to see if the code I've added to the bottom of the feed actually works. If you subscribe in a reader I'd appreciate a comment or an e-mail to let me know if everything is okay. It might look okay for me on my computer with my browser, but maybe not for others.

Really sorry for filling up the posts with garbagey admin stuff. If you want real blog posts why not head over to t'other blog and ooh and aah over some pretty pictures.

Tech Tags: blogmin messing my readers around the feeds are back in town

My Reward For Escaping My Home Town

noreply@blogger.com (Julia) — Fri, 16 May 2008 20:15:00 +0000

I've been on Facebook, and seen that a couple of my old schoolfriends have joined a group called "[Name of school] School Reunion", directed at my yeargroup. Great, I think, I'd really be interested to see how everyone's been getting on. Chatting on Facebook is one thing, but meeting up 12 years later for a beer would be much better (and for anyone who stayed on into sixth form it's a mere 10 years on).

But I can't join. Because the creator of the group (who unfortunately for me wasn't a great friend of mine - despite being a good two stone heavier than me she always used to call me fat...) has restricted it thus:

This is an open group on the Nottingham network. Anyone from Nottingham can join and invite others from Nottingham to join.

Great. So I can't join, and none of my friends who have joined can even invite me to join. And the same goes for everyone else who made it more than 30 miles away from our home town, no matter why we left. Damnit, there's even a photo of me in the group and I still can't join!!

Humph.

I'm going to calm down, think about whether I really do want to go back and see everyone again, and if I decide I do, I'll drop the girl an e-mail. The worst that can happen is that she laughs at me and calls me fat, right?

Tech Tags: high school reunions moving on boy I really was unpopular wasn't I

Comment Issues

noreply@blogger.com (Julia) — Thu, 15 May 2008 20:02:00 +0000

I'm having some problems with the comments on posts earlier than today. All the comments still exist, so if you want to add anything to any conversations in the Recent Comments list then go for it.

This is proving to be fiddlier than I thought it would be...

Tech Tags: blogmin fiddling around with templates HTML woes you'd have thought Blogger would be better integrated with the other Google software

And We're Back Up

noreply@blogger.com (Julia) — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:09:00 +0000

Okay. Basics are back up. I'll get the bells and whistles sorted later on today (and the blog carnival links too - I suspect anyone linking to my Boneyard JPEG will be finding little red crosses springing up). What is different? Well, this is now the only page of the whole website. The "About", "Blogroll", "Sauropodcast" and "Contact" pages are all done. You can do without "About", I'll add my e-mail address back in shortly, and the blogrolls are all down the left hand side. Stay tuned for Sauropodcast news.

What you'll mostly notice is that none of your links back to specific posts of mine work now. If this really concerns you, then you can reset the links manually. You'll have been linking to a page with a URL something along the lines of this:

http://www.ethicalpalaeontologist.com/2008_05_01.htm#bigmassivenumber

Take off the big massive number and the hash, and add an "l" on the end so it's a "html" address and not a "htm".

http://www.ethicalpalaeontologist.com/2008_05_01.html

That will take you back to the month's archive page, where you'll be able to scroll through the posts to find the one you were hoping to link to. The new URL will be the link in the title.

The feed should be fine - so subscribers won't notice anything different, except one thing. No more full feeds - if this is a problem drop me a line and I'll tell you why I've done it. Technorati tags might go back up the top. Hopefully this will all make the site a bit more streamlined so will have a silver lining behind the huge cloud of inconvenience.

Feedback is as always welcome, so if you have any suggestions leave me a comment. I miss my dark brown borders, but I have no clue how to get them back. Ho hum.

Tech Tags: blogmin new template feed

Template Change

noreply@blogger.com (Julia) — Wed, 14 May 2008 21:33:00 +0000

I'm going to try moving back to a Blogspot template. I've had a great deal of success with my other blog, so I thought I'd give it a go. The feed and URLs shouldn't change, but the feed might reset itself. It probably also means the other pages will go down for a bit too.

It's something I've wanted to do for a bit, but recent events have precipitated the move. Basically, while I don't want this to be an anonymous blog (it couldn't possibly be - you all know me!), I'd like to gradually ease it off the Google search radar for me.

If that makes sense...

Tech Tags: blogmin closing the stable door after the horse has bolted

To The First And Second Respondents

noreply@blogger.com (Julia) — Wed, 14 May 2008 14:55:00 +0000

I notice your extended visit to the site today (my personal page and this blog). Kindly address all interest and queries to my legal representative. You have his contact details.

Thank you.

Please, Sponsor A Paul Today

noreply@blogger.com (Julia) — Tue, 13 May 2008 12:12:00 +0000

For several months now, my husband has been hurling himself round the park, up and down the Great West Road and around multiple grounds of stately homes, training for the Bupa London 10,000 race in just under two weeks' time. It's his first race, and he's aiming to complete it in under one hour. And judging by his training he's going to do it!

He's running for the British Red Cross, a charity very close to his heart and who, with the absolute tragedy unfolding in Burma, desperately need donations to fund their aid missions to the area. Donations and sponsorship are transferred instantly into the Red Cross' account, so while there is no guarantee, it's highly likely that whatever you give now will go towards the Burma appeal.

Paul's set up a donation page where you can heckle as you donate (comments about the knees he nearly permanently knackered a year ago are particularly welcome). If you're a UK taxpayer you can tick the GiftAid box and Alistair Darling will cough up some extra cash. I know the US dollar is about equal in value to the Zimbabwean dollar at the moment, but everything helps, and the amount you give is not made public.

He's also got a training diary which hasn't been updated for a month, so I think you should e-mail him and abuse him until he tells you what he's been doing. I can tell you for a fact that he is out in Green Park running as I type!

I shall be there cheering him on, doing the inevitable obstacle course of aimless spectators and bewildered tourists from the start point to the finish point, whilst looking after his backpack. If you don't want to sponsor him to do the race, sponsor me not to kill anyone in the crowd "for being stupid" and put it into Paul's Justgiving account.

And if more than 10 of my loyal readers donate, I promise to put up a photo of him looking absolutely bloody knackered at the end of it, so you can mock him from your comfortable chairs.

Tech Tags: Bupa London 10,000 British Red Cross Justgiving Paul Anthony Anderson my husband is insane but it's for a good cause

Took The Plunge

noreply@blogger.com (Julia) — Mon, 12 May 2008 08:32:00 +0000

For about five-six years or so I've been interested in getting a tattoo. But Paul was dead set against it, thought they looked ugly, and I respected his decision (as we were about to get married I figured he got to have a say in what I did, and I chose to listen to him). Then, early this year, he had a wonderful change of heart. And since he had decided that not only was that a cool design, but that that would be a cool design on him, he couldn't really say he didn't want me to get one.

So on Saturday, Paul's 29th birthday, we both got tattoos. He has an awesome celtic knot with a thistle on top. He is fiercely proud of his Scottish heritage, and fiercely proud of his tattoo. It's scabbing over nicely. What did I go for?

You'll probably recognise it as being the same footprints in my little avatar over to the top left. But more than that (and this is really, really nerdy - I honestly don't expect anyone except me to think this is in any way cool), it's the narrow-gauge sauropod tracks from the Ardley Quarry site in Oxfordshire.

It's probably not the last (in fact, I'm sure it's not the last). At 28-29, Paul and I are too old to pass this off as an indiscretion of our teens to be bitterly regretted as sensible grown-ups, and we're too young for a mid-life crisis...

Tech Tags: tattoo science tattoo sauropod tracks Ardley

Washington University: Rotten All The Way To The Top

noreply@blogger.com (Julia) — Fri, 09 May 2008 11:06:00 +0000

Through the few connections I still have with Wash U via Facebook, I discovered that Phyllis Schlafly is to be awarded an honorary degree at this year's Commencement. And it hasn't gone down too well, and I'm delighted to see that Feministing has picked up on it too. You'll be able to read the full objections - I don't plan to list them all (and my honest opinion, even though I'm a palaeontologist, is that her rampant IDiocy is really no reason to deny her an honorary degree, unless it is in a scientific subject - the rest, however, is fair game!).

But I can't say I'm surprised that a university that allows an alleged violent sexual predator (against whom there really were a lot of witnesses that the university didn't bother to interview) to remain in post in a position of responsibility and power over young female students, completely unchecked, and effectively endorse his attacks on (at least) two other women before finally deciding to fire his ass, would honour a woman who quite publicly stated:

Sexual harassment on the job is not a problem for virtuous women, except in the rarest of cases. Men hardly ever ask sexual favors of women from whom the certain answer is no. Virtuous women are seldom accosted.

Just goes to show that the whole university is rotten right the way up to the Chancellor and the Board of Trustees. How sad for this year's graduates to have to share the stage with such a vile human being.

My advice to the graduating class? Whatever you do with your life, do something that undermines what Phyllis Schlafly stands for, even if it's a very small thing. Show by your actions that the students can rise above the decay within the administration. And rather than pay your respects at the next alumni fundraising drive, donate what you would have given to the university to a charity that will uphold the human rights Ms Schlafly clearly doesn't believe in. The legacy you leave will be priceless.

Tech Tags: Washington University Commencement Phyllis Schlafly sexual harassment

Landslide Destroys Jurassic Coast

noreply@blogger.com (Julia) — Wed, 07 May 2008 10:18:00 +0000

Paul sent me a link to this BBC News article:

Landslip is "Worst In 100 Years"

How tragic. I know these things happen - the cliffs around there aren't overly stable, and we were certainly told not to climb the ones around Charmouth. I remember visiting ten years ago and being able to gouge the rock with my fingers. Fortunately no one seems to have been hurt, and as long as no one tries to get into the area befor it's been stabilised this will continue.

But what of the fossils? Undoubtedly there'll be some totally destroyed by the landslip, and nothing can be done about them. They'll no doubt be picked up by keen amateurs when the beach is reopened. However, I do hope museum teams are allowed to survey the area once it's made safe, just in case anything of significance is exposed...

Of course, the area is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Just in case anyone was thinking of doing anything dangerous or silly or indeed illegal after reading that.

***

As an aside, I want to say thank you to everyone who responded to my earlier post about my PhD woes. I had a lot of long encouraging private e-mails, all of which deserve a similar reply, and it's going to take me a while to get back to everyone. But even if it takes me a while to get back online (you'll notice I've been having very little trouble banging out excited gardening posts but have been almost silent on here, Facebook and e-mail) I want you all to know how grateful I am.

I wish I was going to the Dinosaurs: A Historical Perspective conference. But that's one of the many ways that having a full-time job and a part-time PhD fucking sucks.

Tech Tags: landslip Jurassic Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest Charmouth Lyme Regis dinosaurs

Linnaeus' Legacy #7

noreply@blogger.com (Julia) — Mon, 05 May 2008 22:13:00 +0000

(I was hoping to be able to showcase my design for the Linnaeus' Legacy banner, but it still needs a little work and I should run it by Christopher first.)

There are few creatures so elusive in the forest that is the Interwebs as the blog carnival submission. So it's on with hiking boots, midge repellent and a good pair of binoculars for the wildlife walk.

Near the edge of the woods, it's easy to spot a few familiar species. Neil of Microecos is actually offering an easy mnemonic for taxonomic hierarchy when he says "Kindly please come over for gay sex", and not prospecting for mates. Christopher at Catalogue Of Organisms ponders the irritability of birds and its historical use in avian classification. Ever generous, he also offers his thoughts on the importance of type specimens in light of the imminent closure of the Utrecht Herbarium. Dave Hone donates from his archive to tell us about chimeras in palaeontology. And John at A DC Birding Blog reports on a legless lizard, a dwarf woodpecker and climate change.

Zach at When Pigs Fly Returns finishes off what has been an epic series on dragon taxonomy with a monster of a post on draconian systematics.

Pressing forward, into the tried and tested spots for finding wildlife, Jim at From Archaea to Zeaxanthol has some beautiful images of things that are not insects. Mike of A Three-Pound Monkey Brain reminds us that the third meeting of the ISPN is happening in July. I'm sure there are some readers who won't want to miss that. Hairy Museum of Natural History's curator Matt has news on the new pterosaur Raeticodactylus filisurensis.

A hidden gem, and a very welcome sighting for this edition is Michael's announcement on Palaeoblog that on 1 May 1753 Linnaeus' own book Species Plantarum was published. And Anne-Marie has a fascinating post on plantain taxonomy at Pondering Pikaia. The Darwin's Garden exhibit has opened today in New York, and Dispersal of Darwin has the low-down on this. Linnaeus would most definitely have approved.

Well off my well-trod path, I stumble upon Jura's discussion of rapid evolution in lizards over at The Reptipage. And the Te Papa blog has the full story on their colossal squid necropsy, and it's happening right now! As of the time of writing, they're getting ready to cut...

To end the foray into the dark forest of the nature blogosphere on a sad note, Darren talks about the decline of the British cat population. And that's as much cat blogging as you're getting here. But I'm delighted to see that we're celebrating British insects on a new set of postage stamps - a joint venture between Royal Mail and the Natural History Museum. And I couldn't finish without a little plug for my new blog, where I ponder gardeners' use of binomials.

Next month's Linnaeus' Legacy will be up on or around 5 June at When Pigs Fly Return. I shall hand over the binoculars to you Zach!

Tech Tags: Linnaeus' Legacy blog carnival taxonomy systematics

Send Me Your Taxonomical Posts!!

noreply@blogger.com (Julia) — Sat, 03 May 2008 19:03:00 +0000

The next edition of Linnaeus' Legacy is going up here in 48 hours' time. If you haven't sent me your posts now would be a really good time to do so!

Tech Tags: Linnaeus' Legacy blog carnival taxonomy blogmin

5 Years, 10 Years On

noreply@blogger.com (Julia) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:14:00 +0000

I thought I'd give the Scientiae Carnival a go for the first time, as I seem to be doing a lot of navel-gazing at the moment. It's been a struggle, but probably good for me.

Ten years ago I was 18, and by late April approaching my last day at school. I coasted through my A-levels on the basis that Maths, Chemistry and Physics were quite easy and my offer for Cambridge didn't worry about Biology (I got exactly the same grade on my resit of the "Transport, Regulation & Control" module as I did on the original, except that I didn't revise at all for the resit...). I was incredibly confident in my abilities. One of my closest high school friends used to call me Professor Heathcote, so sure were we all that I was destined for great things. I was totally ignorant of the realities of life in academia, but absolutely determined to be a palaeontologist. The tactful would have said I was headstrong and ambitious. Most would have said I was bloody-minded and full of myself.

Five years ago I was 23, and having met him a month before I started university, engaged to Paul. We were living in a studio flat in a grad student hall of residence, while I did my MRes. I already had my offer from Wash U, and by this time in 2003 was probably wangling another stint in the palaeontology dept, even though I should have been farmed out to the Silwood Park campus for my final project. I was by now quite adept at saying "I have a PhD offer that is not contingent on me finishing the MRes, I am one of only two people on the course and I'm sure you don't want a 50% drop-out rate, so you'd better let me do what I want". I think I had to play that card three times - once to be allowed to tutor one afternoon a week (earning the same money as the students working in bars and call centres several nights a week), once to be allowed to stay in central London, and once to be allowed to have my viva the day before I left for the US.

I was still incredibly ambitious, and prepared to go wherever I needed to go to fulfil my desire to be a palaeontologist. However, I did still say to Paul "If you don't want me to go, say so and I won't go", and he was very brave and said I had to go because if I didn't, then I wouldn't be me. I enjoyed teaching and I enjoyed research, and much like ScienceWoman, I'd have been happy doing either. But within six months I found myself saying to Josh Smith "If tenure-track is going to make me as miserable as you clearly are, then I don't want to do that. I'll go for a museum position and get out of academia".

Now? I'll be honest. The year at Wash U almost broke me. Even a week before I went over there, I showed Paul around the dept and excitedly opened the doors on the Cetiosauriscus cabinet. Now I can barely bring myself to scan in the photos of the same that I promised Jeff about a month and a half ago. When I decided to try to do my PhD again part-time, I just wanted to get the PhD done. I intended to see what life held for me in six-seven years' time and see what the job market was like, what our finances were like, whether at 33 I'd be too old to do a post-doc. Now I have realised that the PhD topic I want to do will be impossible without the ability for me to take a month off work at a time to visit collections. I could use all my holiday, but then I can't go to any conferences, or have a holiday, or even wait in for the plumber. Or I could try to take unpaid leave. But then I would need to have the means of generating the same income AND paying for the trip. I can get funding for the data collection visits easily enough, but even if I ate bread and water, gave up the weekly trip to the pub with my workmates and didn't buy another plant, I could not pay my way in the rent and pay off my student debts.

Bottom line is, if anyone thinks the geometric morphometrics of sauropod dinosaur vertebrae is of utmost importance to the scientific community, then please give me £20,000. Then I can either swan off for a month every year to visit museums or jack in the current Real Job and retrain as a teacher so I have the summer holidays free for said swanning off. If anyone seriously has £20,000 burning a hole in their pockets (I'm looking at you, Simon Cowell), my contact details are here.

But in some ways it's been enlightening. I'm brainstorming (hate that word but it's a good shorthand) ideas, and wondering whether it is possible to get a PhD in palaeontology without leaving the library. When I have some ideas (and can be sure I won't burst into tears in front of my advisors - all men hate women crying, academic men even more so) there will be a meeting. PU is already aware that I'm having difficulties working my way around the situation. And it's ground my reading to a standstill - why bother reading anything more about morphometric techniques or sauropod specimens when it's not like I can actually go and take data from any of them? The garden is good - the garden is keeping me sane and grounded. My ability not to kill plants is reminding me that I am at least good at something, even if palaeontology (and, it would appear, managing my finances and having plenty of savings) is not in that category.

For the first time ever, I have had a positive response when asking myself the question "If I were on my death bed, and I had never made palaeontology my career, would I be okay with that?". I'd be bloody pissed off if I was still doing what I'm doing at the moment as part of the Real Job though. So really in the last year (but probably caused by events nearly five years ago) I think I've lost that ambition, the passion, the desire. Both my parents, not to mention my husband, would say I'm still bloody-minded. I'd like to get the PhD, not least because (with apologies to Lady Bracknell) to quit one PhD may be regarded as a misfortune. To quit two looks like carelessness. A lot of people are rooting for me.

It was events within the science that destroyed the passion - I'm sure if I still felt that ambitious I'd find a way around the job-PhD problem. I'd probably declare myself bankrupt for one thing, give up the one-bedroom flat for a studio, or a double room in a shared house. I'd make Paul suffer with me. Or I'd have stuck it out in the US, accepted the Dean's offer for me to do my PhD in the Biology or Anthropology depts, and I might be close to defending by now. But I wouldn't be married, and that's just not something worth passing up. The Real World is just added complications.

But it's the Real World - my husband and the plantbabies (Matildus, Karma, Sideshow Bob, José Cuervo, Bastard and all the rest of them), my family, my friends and the little village in the middle of West London that we call home - that also makes everything better.

Tech Tags: Scientiae Carnival academia self-pity PhD study palaeontology

I Missed That One

noreply@blogger.com (Julia) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:12:00 +0000

Today's Sun:

Tyrannosaurus Pecks: King of dinosaurs became the chicken

Complete with horrendous "March of Progress"-esque PhotoShop transformation between Tyrannosaurus rex and a domestic chicken, although even before you get into the whole Tyrannosaurus-didn't-actually-morph-into-a-chicken thing it looks bad - "evolution" is supposed to be left-to-right but the animals are facing the wrong way.

Don't read the comments though. Unless you've been told by your doctor that your blood pressure is dangerously low and that your only hope is exposing yourself to the lobotomised.

The Science website has the abstract up now, so I'll include the citation. Full text access only to subscribers though (of which I am not one, grrr). I know the battles have raged about whether journal articles should be freely available or not. But surely it could only be a good thing if the journals made available the PDF of whatever paper they're really pushing? Even just on the day of the press release, so that the journalists and bloggers could get a look at the primary source? Some journals seem to do that and then restrict access a week after the article has come out. It couldn't do any harm, and it might actually improve scientific literacy.

Organ, C.L., M.H. Schweitzer, W. Zheng, L.M. Freimark, L.C. Cantley & J.M. Asara. 2008. Molecular Phylogenetics of Mastodon and Tyrannosaurus rex. Science 320 p499. doi: 10.1126/science.1154284.

Tech Tags: Tyrannosaurus rex journal article collagen The Sun

I Suppose It's Good To Know...

noreply@blogger.com (Julia) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:56:00 +0000

Just in on the Dinosaur Mailing List (courtesy of Tom Holtz): T. rex confirmed as great granddaddy of all birds. So what can be gleaned from the article (as of writing the reference is not on the Science website yet, but the DOI is 10.1126/science.1154284 if you feel like periodically checking) is that the authors built a molecular phylogeny using collagen. And I presume they did so because they found some in a Tyrannosaurus rex bone.

At best, it confirms what we already knew (I particularly like the comments from Mark Norell and Tom Holtz) - Tyrannosaurus rex is related to modern birds. I'm sure a lot of palaeontologists would like to tell Alan Feduccia where to stick it, but until we all see the tree we just don't know where exactly "Granddaddy" is placed relative to Aves. The technique has also thrown up at least one glaring error, concluding that anolid lizards are more closely related to mammals than to alligators.

Maybe we'll get a discussion going on this when the paper is out (I'd settle for an abstract!!), but I can't help but think that it's nice and all, but it's a bit like leaning a stick against a brick wall and claiming that now the wall won't fall down. Still, I predict the newspapers tomorrow will have headlines referring to "Tweetiesaurus", or enormous chicken drumsticks. Tabloids aren't very imaginative. They'll probably make some pithy comment about how we wouldn't have the problems with increased poultry prices if dinosaurs still existed too.

Tech Tags: Tyrannosaurus rex collagen birds molecular phylogeny

Linnaeus' Legacy Now Up

noreply@blogger.com (Julia) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:54:00 +0000

The sixth edition of Linnaeus' Legacy is now up at From Archaea to Zeaxanthol.

I'm going to be hosting the next one on 5 May. Please let me have your submissions by Saturday 3 May (as I'm being a dentist's muse all that weekend...), either by leaving a comment here or by using the many and varied methods in my contact page.

Tech Tags: Linnaeus' Legacy blog carnival taxonomy blogmin

Oooh Yes Please!

noreply@blogger.com (Julia) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:10:00 +0000

The Royal Institution are planning a Science Blogging Conference in London in August or September of this year. I really want to go, not least because I had to bail last week on Ed's invitation. I honestly was planning to go, but work and stuff... You know? It coincided with a work do, which was exhausting and a bit too generous on the champagne, and it would not have been a good plan for your Ethical Palaeontologist to roll in already tired and emotional.

I faithfully promise to at least start off this conference sober though. Unless it's on 30 August, in which case there's no way I can even attend. My presence is required elsewhere.

Thanks to Propter Doc for mentioning this. Hope there'll be loads more UK science bloggers there too.

Tech Tags: Royal Institution of Great Britain Science Blogging Conference

Aetogate: It's Still Going On

noreply@blogger.com (Julia) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 12:09:00 +0000

Although it's been quiet in the blogosphere (did like Janet's post though), Aetogate continues to be the subject of much discussion on the Vert Paleo and Dinosaur mailing lists. The SVP Ethics Committee is considering the case. Thorough investigations (in contrast to the farce that was the DCA's attempt) take time, and patience is needed. But that doesn't mean we can't talk about it, nor does it mean that we shouldn't talk about it.

Regardless of whether Spencer Lucas is innocent or guilty of any charges against him, the New Mexico Department for Cultural Affairs has made a mockery of any kind of investigation policy it has. Apart from the large number of palaeontologists calling foul (some louder than others), it has embarrassed the New Mexico Academy of Science. So it's not just us.

However, as Mickey Rowe said, SVP has no power over the museum or the state. Whatever decision it comes to, while there is an outside chance the DCA may finally sit up and take notice, they don't have to pay any attention and could quite happily flip the bird at the Ethics Committee. So regardless of the investigation by SVP, pressure still needs to be applied to the New Mexico government. Mickey has drafted a sample letter for people to send to Governor Bill Richardson.

I don't know how much notice Governor Richardson will take of international letters. Possibly more than he'll take of New Mexican letters. I have to say, this coupled with the absolutely shit time Paul and I had in ~~Lost Causes~~ Las Cruces, has not endeared the Land Of Enchantment to me. But it's worth a try, right?

This is uncharted territory for the Ethics Committee. But at some point in an institution's life everything is new and untested. This is the first public case I am aware of in palaeontology. It has been alluded to that there were earlier cases, whether investigated or not, of alleged plagiarism. I think it is certainly much easier to pick up on such breaches now the entire world is connected via the internet. Twenty years ago, there would not have been a British palaeontologist condensing and organising all the material for the American students' case. The Polish students may not have read the paper on their specimens until some time after its publication. Look back to the February 1994 archive of the DML and see that there were only a handful of e-mails per day. Compare that to the February 2004 archive.

What I do hope is that the Ethics Committee recognise that this may not be the last time such a situation arises, and that their role can encompass much more than the sale of fossils issues the committee was formed to deal with. Regardless of the eventual outcome. And I really do mean that.

Tech Tags: Aetogate Department for Cultural Affairs Stuart Ashman Governor Bill Richardson Society of Vertebrate Paleontology New Mexico