Yes, a whole post devoted to science.
First up, following a conversation about the nightmare that is the three gorges dam, I came across a really interesting article in Scientific American summarising the problems associated with the project. And the number of deaths already attributable to the lakes...what appears the most disturbing is the potential for earthquakes. the dam is located on two fault lines, and apparently dumping loads of water on top of these induces more/larger quakes. This isn't a new finding, the Americans observed it when they built a dam on a faultline. Let's not start on the effects to flora and fauna if this monstrosity breaks...but its not all bad news, there's also potentially terrible news: another 12 dams are planned for the Yangtze. Perhaps this could be a good distraction from the Olympics?
Worth reading that article. Possibly not if you are depressed...or like dolphins/pandas/flora/fauna/history/people.
In other news: I got asked to review a paper for a journal. After telling the Editor I didn't have my PhD yet and hadn't done this before - which he was fine with - I got the paper. Quite an eye opening experience. the writing was poor, the structure largely absent, and aside from one new fact was a repeat of early 70s work. Why would someone submit that? Oh and most of the major papers in the field had been ignored. Good move!!! So I reckon I learnt a lot from that and feel substantially better about my writing now!
Love, me xxx
2 comments:
Gosh, I just had a paper reviewed. One reviewer thought my scope was too wide and I would have been better to focus on one or two authors and the other thought it was too narrow and I had missed referring to some very rich literatures. And now I'm supposed to revise it?!? So *I* feel crap about my writing and my inability to see any way to please people who want completely contradictory things...[just venting]
Dude, I got asked to review a paper in my first year of PhD... this is what happens when you work in a field with almost no practitioners, all five of you end up reviewing each other's work.
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