Just before heading off on holiday I gave notice of my intended reading matter. Pedalo-duty permitting, I hoped to get through all four books. The wind and currents of the French Atlantic coast precluded any pedalo action so the kids had to settle for surfing lessons instead, and were placed in the capable hands of an instructor.

This’ll be brief since it’s been a busy week. I’m aiming to get through my ‘to do’ list before heading off on holiday at the weekend. If past form is anything to go by, it will me take a few days to wind down. I have a plans for a grant application roiling in the back of my mind, still churning, still not quite formed. But eventually, I will come to rest. We’re going to the seaside.

Those outside science are often surprised to learn that we usually have to pay for the privilege of being published. The charges incurred by authors, argue the journal publishers, reflect the cost of the significant value that added when a raw manuscript is converted into a scientific paper. And, at a pinch, I would tend to agree. I remember seeing my very first paper appear in Biochemistry back in 1990. It was a magical moment.

I love pictures. And photographs. Unlike some, I can’t paint or draw with any great skill, but in common with many other people I get immense pleasure from photography. I’m no expert and wouldn’t even consider myself a serious hobbyist, but I have been known to enjoy composing and capturing an image with my little compact camera. Here’s one I took the weekend before last when we were at Brighton.

I’m guessing that pretty much everyone has mixed feelings about the micro-blogging service, Twitter. The ability to rapidly post ‘tweets’ of no more than 140 characters can easily be seen as both a blessing and a curse. I was certainly in the skeptical camp for a long time and easily resisted the temptation to sign up. Blogging in 140 characters, I scoffed, what a pitiful waste of time!

I have been struggling recently to find ways to rehash my post on scientific authority without causing NPG any further distress. This evening, on the train journey home, I think I finally found a way because I read one of the most remarkable scientific papers I have ever come across. The paper, by Keating et al. , brings us directly back to the ongoing saga of the British Chiropractic Association’s libel suit against Simon Singh.

Simon Singh is a brave man. He has announced that he is going to apply to appeal in his case with the British Chiropractic Association. He writes about the background to the case here. Simultaneously, Sense About Science is launching its Keep the Libel Laws out of Science Campaign. It should be widely reported in the UK media today.

My most recent post, “Respect my Authority!”, which was an attempt to explore the origin of scientific authority, has been removed by Nature Network because their legal advice deemed it to contain some dubious assertions. The matter was handled with great care in phone conversations with Corie and an email from Timo. I am grateful to them for the consideration they have shown. I have no doubt this was a tortuous decision.

I have just come home from a gathering of Skeptics in the Pub in the Penderels Oak in Holborn and I am excited and dismayed. Simon Singh – bloodied but unbowed This was a special meeting to discuss developments in the court case being brought by the British Chiropractic Association (BCA) against the popular science author, Simon Singh.

The germ of this post started with a remark by Kristi, who was struck on a recent visit to the UK by the number of people reading on public transport. I was reading a piece from this week’s Nature as I rode the underground last Friday night on my way to a recording of the TV show QI, and the name Archibald Vivien Hill suddenly leapt off the page.

There was a very nice piece in yesterday’s Nature by Ananyo Bhattacharya (a former PhD student of mine who now works for the journal). Ananyo discusses the current structural ‘wish list’ with some of the world’s most ambitious protein crystallographers. Perhaps I’m a little biased but I think it’s beautifully written.