In parallel to my podcast, I make extended – more raw – versions available to my supporters on Patreon. After a while, I open these episodes to the public.

This time, I open my conversation with Dr. Rüdiger Eichel, who is a professor at RWTH Aachen – a renowned technical university – and director of the Institute for Energy and Climate Research at the Research Center Jülich. It is part of the Helmholtz Association of Research Institutes, which was granted 6,4 Billion Euros by the German government for 2018-2022. This funding is in addition to another 1.04 Billion Germany invested in energy technology research.

These investments are part of the “Energiewende”, the German project to ramp up renewable energy production to, at some point, completely replace fossil fuels and nuclear power at the same time. Critics say the plans would be too ambitious, but Rüdiger Eichel seems to be convinced that it’s doable… if the public is willing to do what necessarily comes with it: a change in lifestyle.

In parallel to my podcast, I make extended – more raw – versions available to my supporters on Patreon. After a while, I open these episodes to the public.

This time I opened another conversation with my co-host Bart Geurten about the success of the Greens in the EU parliament elections, homeopathy, and postdocs.

In parallel to my podcast, I make extended – more raw – versions available to my supporters on Patreon. After a while, I open these episodes to the public.

This time I opened one of my personal favorites: my conversation with Gary McDowell, who actually studied the situation of postdocs in the USA.

Postdocs are, besides graduate students, the main workforce in academic research. Following the PhD, the postdoc position is the only way to follow a research career within academia. Many PhDs around the world are advised to go to the USA for a postdoc – or two – because it is known for its large research output and high quality research institutes. Around two thirds of postdocs in the USA are foreign born.

Bart went to the bi-annual meeting of the German Neuroscience Society (NWG) and took his brand new digital audio recorder! He interviewed a professor, a student, and an exhibitor about what they get out of this experience.

He even got one of his students to give us a poster presentation! The poster is in the attachment! But a little warning: the goal was to give the full conference experience, so he is using neuroscience jargon.

Bart also gave a talk at the Women’s Career Network WoCaNet. He interviewed the graduate students and the postdoc who organized this conference and gives us some insight into his own contribution at WoCaNet.

Pint of Science is a science communication festival that happens once a year in May. On three consecutive days, scientists go to bars and pubs to communicate their science to the public.

I talked with Elodie Chabrol, a member of the core organizer team, about her work as a freelance science communicator, and of course, Pint of Science.

In this episode of B&D we have three guests to talk to us about Brexit: Clare Hancock, an English PhD student working in Göttingen, Germany, Andrew Phillipides, a Welsh professor in Brighton, UK, and Thomas Nowotny, German professor, who also works in Brighton, UK.

We touch on several aspects of Brexit and how it impacts science and scientists, and we also talked about the general politics of Brexit.

Disclaimer: Clare only joined the conversation late, due to technical difficulties.

We open our exclusive extended edition podcast episodes on Patreon to the public after a 7 month embargo.

Arnold Schwarzenegger famously (and half-jokingly) proclaimed that if you need more than 6 hours of sleep, you should sleep faster. Many successful people claim to sleep very little and use the extra time to be productive.

But is this sound advise? I talked with Dr. Lars Dittrich, neuroscientist and former sleep researcher, about sleep.

Lars answers questions like What does sleep do? How is it regulated? What are the side-effects of acute and chronic sleep deprivation? How do I know if I sleep enough? How could sleep research inform policies and business practices?

Bart and I were having a blast, we talked about a lot of things, but the main parts are about anonymity in peer review, and science on twitter. Including a couple of tangents 😉

I talked with Steffen Lemke about “AltMetrics”, which aim to complement citation based metrics such as the Journal Impact Factor that we talked about, previously. These “alternative metrics” use data from the world wide web, such as mentions on social media, or software usage on platforms such as GitHub.

Learn more about the advantages and disadvantages that altmetrics provide, and the feasibility of application!

Final version: 21 Altmetrics: A Better Way to Evaluate Research(ers)? – with Steffen Lemke

Life as an early career researcher in academia is full of uncertainties: Low pay, high expectations to sacrifice personal life and international mobility, short-term contracts, and high competition for funding and long-term positions characterize the path from PhD to professorship. Is it all worth it? Do I have the skills for an industry job? What would I want to do outside academia? The answers depends on who you are and what your personal situation is.