Coleman Lab

Today in Science Without Anguish: how we handle experiences that don’t fit our mental map. The many ways that cognitive dissonance plays out in academic research and the problems this causes us. www.sciencewithoutanguish.com/blog/to-chan...

I reviewed my success rate for an ECR mentoring talk. Surprisingly I noticed the funding decisions on proposals made 15-25y ago bore little resemblance to which had the best plans with benefit of hindsight. A big lesson in what rejections mean and don’t mean. But they still hurt!

Thanks for sharing. The more we do that, the easier it gets for us all and the fewer great young scientists we lose from research because of total misunderstanding about what rejection does and doesn’t mean.

Science WITH Anguish?

Grant rejection today. It never stops hurting no matter how successful or how many you dealt with before (this is no. 57). Thanks to my team for helping me handle it today. 😀 Tomorrow we go on.

ECRs dealing with rejection: you are not alone! Hot tip: saying this helps me too!

Today in Science Without Anguish: Is blame bringing you down?

How we shackle ourselves by blaming others, also degrading workplace culture and raising our stress levels.

But can we avoid it without blaming ourselves instead?

www.sciencewithoutanguish.com/blog/is-blam...

Burnout. @lizandmollie

Today in Science Without Anguish: how failing to notice when the wind is behind us makes us believe the world is against us when things don’t go our way.

www.sciencewithoutanguish.com/blog/im-good...

The short cuts to lost potential We know how it goes – a day spent reacting to other people’s emails or “quick chats” while our own to do list remains untouched at the end. Or losing ourselves in the first item on our list...

In this week’s Science Without Anguish:

‘Short cuts to lost potential’.

How confusing the simplifications we make to understand the world with the real thing can lead us astray.

www.sciencewithoutanguish.com/blog/the-sho...

Science Without Anguish series 3

This week: the mistakes we make understanding our world that we would never make in our science
www.sciencewithoutanguish.com/blog/heurist...

Coming up next week: how what grabs our attention most and first impressions skew our thinking.

This week in Science Without Anguish: how simplifying our view of the world based on limited evidence can lead us astray. www.sciencewithoutanguish.com/blog/heurist...

Science Without Anguish series 3: out now!

www.sciencewithoutanguish.com/blog/dont-be...

Could clear thinking about research life make it easier?

Next week: The short cuts our minds use to make sense of the world and the problems this can lead to.

Science Without Anguish Series 3 in out:

Don’t believe everything you think!

Confusing our mental shortcuts with reality.

Excusing ourselves but blaming others.

Not realising we’re doing it and making life harder for ourselves in the process.

www.sciencewithoutanguish.com/blog/dont-be...

How much of what we think we ‘know’ is just trust in the person that told us?

And what price do we pay for confusing the two?

Coming soon in Science Without Anguish:

‘Don’t believe everything you think!’

sciencewithoutanguish.com

Starts Monday 22nd Sep

Science Without Anguish Series 3 starts Monday 22nd

'Don't believe everything you think!'.
sciencewithoutanguish.com

How heuristics & biases make our research lives more difficult and ways to reduce this. Stereotyping, snap judgements, confirmation bias, attribution errors, negativity bias….

Science Without Anguish Series 3 starts Monday 22nd

'Don't believe everything you think!'.
sciencewithoutanguish.com

How heuristics & biases make our research lives more difficult and ways to reduce this. Stereotyping, snap judgements, confirmation bias, attribution errors, negativity bias….

Very exciting opportunity here to work with former member of our group and rising star @andrea-loreto.bsky.social Highly recommended!

Hi @andrea-loreto.bsky.social, welcome to BlueSky!

Morale?

I have colleagues there who are leaving NIH for jobs in China, France, Canada, industry, or retiring early.

That’s real.

Great to see @maxstetina.bsky.social here.
Max did a very productive internship with us last year looking at evolutionary conservation of SARM1 and NMNAT2.

Job alert!

Cambridge Neuroscience Administrator (Part Time, Fixed Term)

www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/51034/

“Smile!”, they said, “Things could be worse.”

So I smiled …. and they did get worse.
😢

I wrote an Article about the Netflix drama, Adolescence.

Free version here

archive.is/goNeQ

Not sure if to laugh or to cry, but worth hearing either way…

So sorry Bryan. Wishing you strength at this difficult time.

Amazing to welcome HRH The Duchess of Edinburgh, Patron of Race Against Dementia to our lab! An incredible opportunity to showcase our work with living human brain slice cultures and the importance of investing in dementia research. We are very lucky to have her support.

Next up: NASA to review heliocentric model of solar system

Perfect meme doesn’t exi….🤣🎯

When I was a postdoc people used to talk about the “brain drain” of our brightest scientists moving to the US. Now there is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the whole of Europe to put that into reverse…IF we fund science properly.

Postdoctoral by-fellowships at @churchillcol.bsky.social Closing date next Friday 14th March at 12:00 midday!

Grateful for all the people mobilizing across the US and the world for #StandUpForScience! Many reasons motivating this movement, but yesterday as I was reviewing undergrads applications for summer internships, I was reminded of how important this is for the next generation of scientists.