Category Archives: Academia

On Templeton

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Sean Carroll

A few recent events, including the launch of Nautilus and this interesting thread on Brian Leiter’s blog, have brought the John Templeton Foundation (JTF) back into the spotlight. As probably everybody knows, the JTF is a philanthropic organization that supports … Continue reading →

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Posted in Academia, Religion, Science and Society | 118 Comments

Snowmass Young Physicists Survey

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Sean Carroll

Modern experimental particle physics is a high-budget, long-time-scale operation, which requires a great deal of planning. Fortunately there is a process in place, dubbed Snowmass after the scenic location in Colorado where meetings were traditionally held. (Funding agencies subsequently decided … Continue reading →

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Posted in Academia, Science | 1 Comment

Online Complexity Course from Santa Fe

Posted on December 21, 2012 by Sean Carroll

MOOCs are all the rage these days. That would be Massive Open Online Courses, for those of you still stuck in 2007. Apparently Bucky Fuller was pushing the idea back in the early Sixties? These days, with everyone spending most … Continue reading →

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Posted in Academia, Internet, Science and the Media | 11 Comments

Guest Post: Marc Sher on the Nonprofit Textbook Movement

Posted on May 21, 2012 by Sean Carroll

The price of university textbooks (not to mention scholarly journals) is like the weather: everyone complains about it, but nobody does anything about it. My own graduate textbook in GR hovers around $100, but I’d be happier if it were … Continue reading →

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Posted in Academia, Guest Post, Words | 40 Comments

Boycott Elsevier

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Sean Carroll

While I have the blog open, let me throw in a quick two cents to support the Boycott Elsevier movement. As most working scientists know, Elsevier is a publishing company that controls many important journals, and uses their position to … Continue reading →

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Posted in Academia, Science and Society | 59 Comments

Interdisciplinarity

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Sean Carroll

Zachary Ernst, a philosopher at the University of Missouri, has written up an aggravating tale of sexism in academia. (Via New APPS. I initially mistakenly said Ernst was at the University of Wisconsin, which is where he went to grad … Continue reading →

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Posted in Academia | 25 Comments

All-Male Conferences

Posted on November 12, 2011 by Sean Carroll

We all know that certain areas of academia exhibit a profound gender imbalance — philosophy, it turns out, is nearly as bad as physics. Interestingly, one often sees major conferences organized in which the ratio of men to women on … Continue reading →

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Posted in Academia, Women in Science | 41 Comments

NSF Tries to Make Family/Career Balance Easier

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Sean Carroll

Among the various difficulties that women experience when they embark on a scientific career, a big one is how to balance the challenges of work with raising a family. (In principle men could face the same challenges; in practice the … Continue reading →

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Posted in Academia, Women in Science | 25 Comments

The Core Ideas of Science

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Sean Carroll

A National Academy of Sciences panel, chaired by Helen Quinn, has released a new report that seeks to identify “the key scientific practices, concepts and ideas that all students should learn by the time they complete high school.” An ambitious … Continue reading →

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Posted in Academia, Science and Society | 24 Comments

Unsolicited Advice: Non-Academic Careers

Posted on June 2, 2011 by Sean Carroll

Since I know nothing very useful about the job market outside academia, I solicited suggestions for specific pointers and helpful websites. A bushel of useful advice and thought-provoking comments resulted. My original idea was to summarize what I thought was … Continue reading →

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Posted in Academia, Advice | 10 Comments