Open secret?

Several journals have Previews, or News and Views, or whatever they may choose to call an introductory short piece about an article in that journal. This introductory piece is typically written by another scientist in the field.

From my very limited dataset, the scientist writing the Preview was also a reviewer on the paper (presumably, one of the positive ones...) Is this generally true? If I see a Preview, can I usually assume that the author was a reviewer? Or do journals regularly contact still another scientist to read the pre-print and write about it?

Ring, ring

Except it's never "Ring, ring" these days, it's the theme from Super Mario Bros coupled with vibrate...

What do you as a speaker do when someone's cell phone goes off during a seminar? (The question also applies to other noisy distractions, like hallway noise or a jet overhead, but the cell phone is ever the standard-bearer of unwonted noise.)

For very loud interruptions, I favor the sip of water approach, which makes the speaker look unfazed and vaguely productive. But most of these noises are loud enough to distract but not loud enough to drown out the speaker.

In the early days of cell phones, it was a novelty and the speaker would often make a joke about it. But that diverts attention and gets old fast.

Some speakers will simply pause so as not to compete with the noise. Advantage: the audience's attention is undivided when you resume. Disadvantage: long pause in your talk, and it feels obscurely like the cell phone owner won.

Others will continue talking right over the sound, perhaps at higher volume to compensate. Advantage: no break in your stride, and the speaker sounds unflappable. Disadvantage: audience may not catch what the speaker says or are too distracted to parse it.

I think the best solution, unless the sound is very loud, is to continue talking over the interruption, but then to reiterate the point once the noise has ceased, ideally with a smooth, "In other words..." or "To recap..." or "That is,..."

Less good transitions include, "To repeat without the Lone Ranger soundtrack" or "As you would have heard had it not been for the jerk in the third row..."

Open Lab 2009

I am famous, for having blogged about my bodily fluids. Who would have thought the internet was the sort of place where people would like that? I am just shocked.

Go check out the other Open Lab winners for a sort of year-end carnival.

Sleeping on it

I like to think about science in the evening, after dinner. It's a good time for me to think structurally about upcoming experiments: what order to carry them out; reagents to order; protocol details; analytical aspects. If I'm on a roll, I'll write down a list of everything in my head and tuck it in my bag for the next day.

For me, this clears my mind--all the ideas buzzing around get written down so I don't need to carry them in my brain, and I can go to bed clear-headed. For Dr Hyde, though, evening is the worst possible time to think about experiments. He starts ruminating and brain-storming and fretting, and insomnia is the inevitable result. Writing things down just makes him think more about them.

So we live in a strange evening split, where I am often thinking about my upcoming week but I cannot mention any of it to Dr Hyde, who will grab his head and cry "No, no science now!"

Instead he thinks on the bus in the morning, which I can't do at all--too groggy and easily distracted. So if we ride the bus together, he wants to tell me his latest, and I only nod and smile because I really can't follow logic in the early morning.

It's good we eat dinner together or we might never find out what the other is up to.