The Black Hole

We would like to see major organizations make their reviewer comments available to other funding organizations for grants that “just missed” getting funded.

The idea of successive iterations across stages of development is not incongruent with the concept of mastery, and one might expect that further iterations drives greater competence.

The current system of academic science is not organized to support all scientists equally.

Many of the mental health challenges universities are trying to address tend to be exacerbated by the pride of academics themselves.

For those of us that held strong at the onset of the pandemic, this is when the wave of despondency generally hits.

Some people need to be pushed to achieve their best work, but it is not a one-size-fits-all solution.

Both David and Jonathan hope that many new and good things can come from this period of lockdown.

Three scientists share their thoughts on how the scientific community can help combat racism in all its forms.

The scientific community often relies on impromptu interactions to spur where the next set of experiments might go.

We must identify and resolve the gaps in our current scientific training, and revisit and refine the incentive structures we’ve created around our scientists.

A potentially interesting approach would be to consider substantially less standardization in the metrics that assess academic institutions.

Use this time to think about your career trajectory and what aspects of your work are important to you.

In light of the current pandemic, it’s worthwhile to consider the importance of both public and private investment in basic research programs and the growing role of science in our society.

We have an incredible opportunity to explore some new virtual conferencing solutions, and have team leaders be more present in their labs than usual.

Academic mentorship is a very important part of the education and training of scientists, but it comes with its own set of unique challenges.

Many revolutionary advances in science can trace their origins to chance encounters between scientists from different areas of study that spark new ideas and thinking.

It is very hard to practice science well, which is why it is so important to use the scientific method.

Career planning and mental health in academe were some of the most-read topics addressed on the Black Hole in the past year.

Many scientists are leaving academe, but why they leave and who remains will have substantial implications for how we train future scientists.

Any decision to do something new is based on our confidence in ourselves to succeed at it.