Category: science

Writers Needed For Science!

As some of you might know, I’m an experimental psychologist. I’m currently running an online experiment for which I need writers. It takes just over half an hour – I’m afraid I can’t pay you, but you might find the experiment fun, and you’ll be doing your bit for science!

If you’re interested, do read on:

The experiment will ask you to continue writing a scene after a brief genre-based prompt to get you going. You’ll do this three times. There’s also a brief pre-experiment questionnaire and post-experiment questionnaire. Your participation is entirely voluntary and you can stop at any time.

There’s more detailed information on the experiment page itself, which you can get to via this link:

https://cccusocialsciences.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_08jkUORvegQXDcF

Writers! I need YOU

My day job has the title ‘psychology lecturer’, which means different things to different people. Part of my time is spent conducting research. I’m involved in quite disparate topics: one minute I’m helping prove dogs can be a bit thick; the next I’m trying to figure out fundamentals of the language processing system.

Since September, I’ve been looking into the psychology of fiction. It’s a vast topic. From the perspective of the writer, one small part involves the creative act of getting words on paper. What processes are involved?

Writers! I need YOU.

Are you interested in contributing to the wobbly, baroque edifice that is science? I’d like to run a study looking into creativity and writing. I can’t say much more at this stage. But if you’re interested, please let me know. This won’t involve any great time investment, and there’s no need to visit my lab.

Small print: You’ll need to be over eighteen, have normal or corrected-to-normal vision, and be a native English speaker.

Apollo 11 Saturn V Launch (HD) Camera E-8 on Vimeo

Sublime: High-definition transfer of the 16mm film that captured the launch of Apollo 11. This camera is turning so fast that eight minutes here represents 30 seconds of real time. There are so many engineering tricks and insightful solutions on display and this is just a piece of the launch pad.

Someone remind me – why the hell aren’t we on Mars yet?

► Apollo 11 Saturn V Launch (HD) Camera E-8 on Vimeo