Category Archives: Science

Science

Fellowship Application Done

Today is the electronic submission deadline for AHA Pre-doctoral fellowship applications, at least in the Southeast Affiliate. I submitted electronically last week to beat the rush, and mailed in the paper copy the day before yesterday.

That fellowship took over 30 hours of my time, plus some of my advisor’s time, and that of people writing reference reports for me. If I’m funded, it will provide $18,000 stipend support per year for two years. 

If you’re going to apply for an AHA pre-doctoral fellowship, let me advise you to start very early. There is ton of paperwork to deal with, even more if you are dealing with animals or human subjects.  My application ended up at 50 pages long.  However, if you have living subjects, it might be closer to 60, not to mention the legwork involved for those extra pages.

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Trip to Vanderbilt 2006

I am alive and well, having arrived in Nashville this afternoon.  I found some vegetarian food at a cheap Thai place up the street, and have been working on a presentation ever since. It’s nearly done, but I’m waiting for some simulations to finish back at lab.

I’m just going to get up early and finish it then — hopefully the data will be ready.

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A Belated New Year’s Resolution

I’m an avid user of David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” system since last year. This system has allowed me to take on more projects without a concomitant increase in stress levels. However, while I’ve been good about adding projects and working on them, I haven’t been doing so well on finishing them.

That’s really what it’s all about, right? The finished project, the final accomplishment, the closed loop.

My New Year’s resolution for 2006 is to start aggressively closing the loops, to finish my projects.  With a steady eye on the goal, I should be able to accomplish many things this year, including but not limited to:

  • Publication of two (both first author) or three (one co-author) research papers
  • Acquisition of a research fellowship (this of course depends on its acceptance)
  • A steady(/ier) stream of research- and science-related blog posts

This blog tends to be more personal than professional. While my goal is to build up an online persona that shows the world who I am, that persona needs to include more of what I really work on. It’s hard sometimes to blog about the research before it’s published. There’s a bit of an arms race in science, and sharing is all well and good — once the manuscript has been accepted.  That’s another reason for me to finish projects and the related papers: I’ll be able to write more about them.

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“Intelligent” Design Not Allowed in Dover, PA

ADDENDUM 2005-12-21: The judge’s memorandum opinion (PDF) is a fantastic read, especially after about page 20.

Finally, a judge ruled that teaching “Intelligent” Design in Dover, PA schools violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

Several members repeatedly lied to cover their motives even while professing religious beliefs, [the judge] said.

Further,

“We find that the secular purposes claimed by the Board amount to a pretext for the Board’s real purpose, which was to promote religion in the public school classroom,” he wrote in his 139-page opinion.

They have been fairly brazen:

Said the judge: “It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the ID Policy.”

I was beginning to wonder if the country was totally clueless to this hoodwinking. I guess not. Truly, this is a cause for celebration.

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