Category: Language

  • GM food, war metaphors and the perils of political entrenchment

    GM food, war metaphors and the perils of political entrenchment

    It’s the Jubilee weekend. It’s raining. So I am looking through some tweets. Some make me think I should cheer myself up by writing a blog about songs used to make science (especially quantum physics!) public, others make me think that I really should write something about war metaphors in the current GM debate. As…

  • Making neuroscience public: Neurohype, neuroscepticism and neuroblogging

    Making neuroscience public: Neurohype, neuroscepticism and neuroblogging

    There has been a lot of debate recently about climate scepticism and climate sceptics. To define what climate sceptics are is actually quite difficult, but some may be described as (anthropogenic) climate (change) deniers, some as climate change doubters, some as critical observers of climate science, some as just sitting on the fence. There are…

  • Exploring the language of impact

    Exploring the language of impact

    I recently collected a few indicative phrases around ‘impact’, one of the pillars of the Research Excellence Framework. In one email a colleague asked me “Can we call that impact?” (400 hits on facebook linked to a TV interview linked to a still speculative health improvement measure). A tweet announced: “That’s what I call impact”,…