Usually, the abstract of a scientific paper is quite a wordy thing. Shorter than the paper itself by a considerable margin, but it still says a lot. It gives a general overview of what the paper is about and what techniques are used. But every now and then you see an abstract where the authors […]
The Ig Nobel prizes were announced last night. Which was hilariously good timing seeing as yesterday I idly wondered if they’d been announced yet for this year. Sadly I didn’t get to actually watch the webcast live due to choir practice, but all the same it’s basically a gift wrapped post for this blog. So […]
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) is an incredibly useful characterization technique. Assuming certain properties are met, the nucleus of an atom interacts with a magnetic field. The exact nature of that interaction is highly dependent on the environment around the atom. So you can get a ton of information about the structure of a molecule by […]
Animals, of course, play a big role in many scientists’ lives. Sometimes they are research subjects. Sometimes they’re a source of inspiration. In my own work, large portions of my thesis were written with my laptop sitting delicately on top of my cat Schroedinger. At the other end of the spectrum, I frequently had to […]
Today, we are talking about the most beautiful footnote I have ever read. Or at least the best footnote I have ever read in a scientific paper, as the rest of us cannot hope to aspire to the footnote talents of Sir Terry Pratchett. Whether they will admit it or not, every scientist has at […]