Like everybody else, I’m fascinating by the fast-moving world of ChatGPT and its kin. Today: what do these tools mean for authorship, in a world where scientists are already using them to help them write their papers? Tools like ChatGPT are often referred to as “artificial intelligence”, but that’s a terrible label for them –...

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It’s been a while since I’ve indulged in my obsession with weird and wonderful Latin names – I think the last one I blogged about was Ignotus aenigmaticus, last November. But my obsession hasn’t abated. (You’d think writing a whole book about eponymous Latin names might have gotten it out of my system – but...

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Last week I asked how much you’re bothered by the ads on Scientist Sees Squirrel – which occur because I use WordPress’s free (= ad-supported) hosting. The votes are in, and most of you aren’t bothered. More specifically: 55% of those who voted say they aren’t bothered by the ads (and if you’d like to...

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Each winter semester for the last 5 years or so I’ve taught a course for upper-year and grad students in scientific writing. My course has three components to it: (1) a series of (mini) lectures; (2) an accompanying series of small-group workshops; and (3) a series of assignments, via which each student submits, piece by...

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As you’ll know (because you’re reading this), Scientist Sees Squirrel uses advertising-supported hosting on WordPress. The upside is that you can read this blog for free.* The downside is, obviously, the ads. My impression is that these have gotten more intrusive lately. Going ad-free would have a small cost. My question for you today: if...

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How does a book come to be translated? How does a book come to be translated into Estonian, a language with only about a million speakers? What’s the connection between translation and the oldest living tree in the world, or translation, Soviet gulags, and Ronald Reagan? If you’re curious about any of these things, then...

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Each year, when I teach my Scientific Writing Course, I find my students committing many of the same writing sins (which is only fair, as I commit many of them too). But from year to year there always seems to be a different standout. This year it’s “in this study”. Once, I would have counted...

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A few weeks ago I annoyed a lot of people by explaining how I think for-profit journals are like salmon. That post had a line suggesting that there are ways to make publishing cheaper – but not free (or close to it) because “publishing well costs money”. Today I’m going to pick up on that...

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For all the strengths of our peer review system, there are reasons to worry that it has flaws too. One important worry is that peer reviewers (or editors) might be biased in their assessment of manuscripts based on their knowledge, or guesses, about the identities of the authors. Might manuscripts by female authors be treated...

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I’ve just received my copy of the new Estonian translation of Charles Darwin’s Barnacle and David Bowie’s Spider. It’s now sitting in a very special section of my bookshelf: “my” translations. So far, there are Turkish, Japanese, Korean, Russian*, and now Estonian editions of Charles Darwin’s Barnacle; this spring they’ll be joined by a Chinese...

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