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2012-07-03 05:02:23 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)

An important new open-access journal has just been launched. Now we must try to make it a success.

http://gowers.wordpress.com/2012/07/02/a-new-open-access-venture-from-cambridge-university-press/

2012-05-08 23:20:03 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

What a budget! Australia's budget for the next financial year (2012-13) will start a $54M response from the government for "investing in science and maths for a smarter future".


The press release by Ministers Evans and Garrett <a href="http://ministers.deewr.gov.au/evans/budget-2012-13-investing-science-and-maths-smarter-future">here</a> summarises a $54m response to the Chief Scientist's <a href="http://www.chiefscientist.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/Office-of-the-Chief-Scientist-MES-Report-8-May-20121.pdf">report</a> (warning: 48 pages) which is entitled "Mathematics, Engineering and Science in the Nation's Interest".

Momentous actions from the budget report are:
• $20.0M over four years to support university&#8209;led outreach projects to encourage school students to study mathematics ands... more »

2012-05-04 05:40:06 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

The IMU Blog on Journals started as a way of gathering the opinion of the mathematics community on journal ratings. That discussion seems to have now come to a natural end and it will probably be closed soon.

How do people feel about the IMU blog continuing to operate for community discussion on other topics, like the very active one going on now about the Elsevier boycott?

Any thoughts?

2012-02-28 22:53:44 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

New blog post: Stereotype-abiding mathematicians of the world, unite!

http://travels.peterrowlett.net/2012/02/stereotype-abiding-mathematicians-of.html

(A follow up to Mathematicians are people too http://travels.peterrowlett.net/2012/02/mathematicians-are-people-too.html )

Featuring +Christian Perfect, +David Roberts, +Nalini Joshi & +Trixie Barretto.

2011-12-13 22:54:40 (10 comments, 28 reshares, 18 +1s)

A while ago, I tweeted that "Maths is in my heart". Trixie Barretto was inspired by that to make a video of me: which is now posted on vimeo: http://vimeo.com/33615260.

2011-12-11 09:31:25 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 0 +1s)

Will buy this for myself I mean my son.

2011-12-11 09:28:27 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 0 +1s)

My collaborator, Van Vu, is seeking applications for a postdoc (or more precisely, a Gibbs Assistant Professor) position at Yale in the general area of random matrix theory. (His contact email is van.vu@yale.edu.) Further information on the Gibbs postdoc is in the link below.

2011-11-27 23:15:54 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Apparently, this is what science kits for girls should look like. Beware: your retinas might burn. There may also be anger.

2011-11-19 22:33:15 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 0 +1s)

The mathematics journals blog is now open!

2011-11-14 22:29:42 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 1 +1s)

"Nature journal libel case begins" The case concerns the previous Chief Editor of "Chaos, Solitons and Fractals". It'll be interesting to see which way the decision will go.

2011-11-10 15:22:56 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 1 +1s)

Is everyone aware of the great work done at Retraction Watch? This blog attempts to "provide a window into the scientific process" by tracking retractions of papers. Here is the latest one in mathematics.

2011-11-06 14:59:16 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Hidden away on p.241 of this issue of the Gazette of the Australian Mathematical Society is the Report from the Working Group set up by the IMU (International Mathematical Union) and ICIAM (International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics) to consider the feasibility of ranking journals in mathematics. (Disclaimer: I chaired the working group.) This topic and the report's recommendations have turned out to be very controversial. I hope that it will be read by a very wide group of mathematically interested people around the world.

2011-10-23 23:33:13 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

The Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature study, a large independent study of historical global temperatures that was notable for the climate change scepticism of many of its researchers and supporters, have now submitted their findings (which show close agreement with previous data, even after accounting for several objections raised by sceptics in the past) for publication, and made their data set and software publicly available.

A short summary of the results can be found at

http://www.berkeleyearth.org/Resources/Berkeley_Earth_Summary_20_Oct

2011-08-25 02:22:22 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

One wishes there was a Youtube3D to host these sorts of images. (Maybe one day I will be able to convert my cosmic distance ladder talk into such a format.)

2011-08-06 11:10:23 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

This is Ira Glass talking to creative people about getting past The Gap. Every single creative person I've talked to about this has said some version of "I wish someone had told me this," so I'm posting it here in the event that one of you reading my dumb G+ stuff is sort of like me ten years ago.

...which is to say younger, thinner, and terrified about wasting your time making crap that nobody cares about.

I recommend printing it out and hanging it up in your creative space next to the Cult of Done Manifesto.