Institutional heavy hitters in molecular biology and genetics

Data from Thomson Scientific’s Essential Science Indicators, 1 January 1997–31 October 2007

Ham cartoon

Student numbers are at risk as UK demographics shift

Universities will have to ‘seize new markets’ to remain competitive. Rebecca Attwood reports

Where fans put Franz before the archduke

Wikipedia reveals not the ‘wisdom of the crowds’ but the rule of the mob, argues Tara Brabazon

Comparative but not superlative

Roy Harris is bemused by a dense, ill-tempered screed on the English language as oppressor

First impressions competition: March 20 2008

This week’s competition, in which you have to identify a book from its opening sentence, is from a satire on nineteenth-century French society:“The little town of Verrières could pass for one of the...

The Book of the Week: Geoffrey Hill: Collected Critical Writings

David-Antoine Williams on a poet's restless mind

The Week in Books

George Gissing: A Life by Paul Delany, professor in the department of English, Simon Fraser University. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, £25.00, ISBN 9780297852124."George Gissing believed that the twin...

Seeing Dark Things: The Philosophy of Shadows

What are shadows? Can we literally see them? Can we only see them, or can we also feel them? Do they have colours? If so, can they have chromatic colours, or are they only ever black or grey? How do...

No time for Schadenfreude

Critics of US foreign policy may live to regret finger-wagging from the sidelines, argues Paul Cornish

The Case for Greatness: Honorable Ambition and Its Critics

Aristotle is lecturing in the Lyceum about what constitutes the nature of a great man. His pupils, among them Robert Faulkner, take notes. Suddenly, Aristotle breaks off. "There!" he says, pointing...

Sex, Culture and Justice: The Limits of Choice

Clare Chambers has written an interesting, important, wide-ranging and well-argued book that contains a controversial proposal that will, no doubt, be widely debated.Her book is unusual in two...

Top 10 Academic Bestsellers: Blackwell, Bristol

1. Banking and Capital Markets Companion: Fourth Edition by Gerald Montagu and Colin PaulLaw Matters, £29.95. ISBN 97818464101542. Project Management: The Managerial Process (with MS Project CD and...

Scots research funding up as teaching cash squeezed

Budget rise of 3.4 per cent aids knowledge transfer, but academic job cuts are feared. Tariq Tahir reports

V-c keen for course design to break disciplinary divide

Aberdeen reforms could offer students all-round education in arts and sciences, writes Tariq Tahir