In the past, female researchers were often dismissed as the 'brawn behind the brains' in teams of scientists, leaving men to take the credit, yet a few women managed to beat the odds to make their...
Herb Kroemer and Sherwood Rowland select seven of their Nobel and near-Nobel favourites. Max Planck, physics, 1918, and Albert Einstein, physics, 1921 Being a physicist, I naturally think first about...
'Back to Japan for more engagements and a lecture on Saturday. Monday: back to the UK for funding council meetings and then off to Poland for two lectures. Today, Wednesday, is the first time I have...
Lobbying to win a Nobel is unseemly and no guarantee of success, but that has not stopped many laureates and prospective laureates from trying. In 1995, the Nobel prizes' facade of Olympian...
How does life change after the announcement of a Nobel prize? Paul Nurse, one of this year's laureates, describes the whirlwind I had more than 1,000 emails in the couple of weeks after the...
If Nobel prizes are really so important, why do they fail to acknowledge so much cutting-edge research? If physics, chemistry, medicine or physiology is your discipline, fine. You are in with a...
Eating blowfish, driving lessons around Trafalgar Square and improving teacher training in universities. Cherry Canovan speaks to educationist Roy Niblett about his memoirs Ninety-five years is a...
From Indiana Jones and his whip to Kate Winslet's revealing portrayal of Iris Murdoch, academia on the screen seems more about libido than lecturing. Adrian Mourby lists his top ten lusty dons. Most...
Academics dreaming of that bestseller can now shoot for the British Academy Book Prize. Harriet Swain reports. There was a time when an academic's idea of communicating with the general public was...
There is no single theme running through this year's Modern Language Association conference but ethnic identity and disability feature strongly, as do the practicalities of modern academic life....
To challenge traditional interpretations of gender, we need to follow women into outer space, argues Marie Lathers. At the close of the 1979 Ridley Scott film Alien , Ripley dons an astronaut's suit...
Harry Potter may be one step ahead of the evil Voldemort, but the marketeers had his number long ago, warns June Cummins. "How do you achieve global commercial domination and not lose your soul?" -...
China's sex-education policy has focused on teaching young people self-restraint rather than instructing them about safe sex and contraception. Joanna McMillan reports. Earlier this month, World Aids...
Even though the market for e-learning is flagging, Columbia University and its partners believe that their Fathom online courses will pull in paying individuals. Stephen Phillips reports. While many...
This week's competition, in which you have to identify a book from its opening sentence, is from a ghostly little book: "Marley was dead: to begin with." The winner receives a £25 Blackwell's voucher...