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November is the month for writing for some reason. It could be that the nights are drawing in so we spend more time indoors, and writing is definitely a good indoor activity. Alternatively, it might be that the end of the year is approaching, maybe people start taking a look back at resolutions made in January, or September, and realising that action is needed for those plans to be fulfilled. Whatever the case, it’s a great opportunity to look at changing your relationship with writing, and starting to integrate it more regularly into your day-to-day work.

The Vendredis de la Rédaction – a monthly appointment with your writing whatever your discipline or status – are back again for 2024. The first session of the year will take place on 26 January, sign-up is open (QR code in image).

Following on from a family science project on our dependence on plastics, and thanks in large part to a school project on bees, I happened upon this book. I just happened to have a morning off in Glasgow where I had time to browse the shelves of a large and well-stocked bookshop, and discovered two books by Dave Goulson on bumblebees. I started with A Sting in the Tale, an autobiographical account of how the author got into bumblebee research, and a few projects in which he has been involved.

I read an article in 2020 about the fact that women scientists were publishing less than their male colleagues during the exceptional time that we were living through (1). I didn’t find this information surprising, indeed I remember complaining to a friend at the start of the first lockdown that there was gender bias in which parent would be the first port of call for problems with schoolwork or just dealing with boredom.

As you may know, in April 2019 I took the opportunity to attend a writing retreat for academics and facilitator’s course run by Prof. Rowena Murray in Scotland. Since then, despite coming back on a total high and full of ambition, I’ve been trying to convince myself to get out of my comfort zone and put it in practice here in France. It’s an incomparable system for anyone in need of a space and structure to facilitate their writing.

As an author’s editor, I spend most days reading other people’s writing, most often with a view to detecting grammatical and other errors and improving flow. I flatter myself that – thanks to my research background, and my ever-growing experience with the types of texts I work on, as well as the fact that I often get to see the follow-up studies – I sometimes spot scientific flaws too.

Although I spend a lot of time reading science, and since shifting from the bench to the desk I have been able to expand my horizons, I still love a popular science book. Over the last few weeks I’ve been reading “She has her mother’s laugh” by Carl Zimmer, which was recommended in the Nature end-of-year reading list in 2018.*

Félicitations à tous les auteurs de cette belle étude, et fière de ma contribution !

Nidogen-1 Contributes to the Interaction Network Involved in Pro-B Cell Retention in the Peri-sinusoidal Hematopoietic Stem Cell Niche

https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(19)30244-X