It’s Friday again, and that means ‘around the blogs.’ Included are a few links to topics on personal development, science itself, and public understanding of science.

Giant neural stem cells in Times Square – The two winners of GE Healthcare’s 2007 IN Cell Image Competition went on display on the NBC screen in New York City’s Times Square last week. Follow the link and check out the rest of the images, including a lot of gorgeous fluorescent microscopy. (see the image on the right for the winner by popular vote)

Personal Development

How to Give a Bad Science Presentation – Shelley shares a 6-minute video made by two Michigan students that points out some common issues with PowerPointing and how to have your audience salivating for more of your data.

What to do with a PhD outside academia? – Benoit put together a long list of articles and sources for academics to one day find a job, as opposed to the painful pursuit of a grant/postdoc/fellowship/adjunct/part-time/lecturer/etc.

Best Place to Work as a Postdoc – Or, you can aim for the academic route, and find the least painful place to do it.

Too Many Techniques, Too Little Time – While you’re at it, it’s always good to keep up with evaluations of the latest techniques.

The Scientific Life and How to Get There: Book Review Times Two – Don’t dismiss them as being merely for novices, both of them are highly recommended for scientists at any career stage.

Science Itself

The Choanoflagellate Genome and Metazoan Evolution – PZ describes the importance of studying this single-celled organism and what it can tell us about the key innovations that lead to multicellular organisms. Personally, this is the remarkable feat of evolutionary history that fascinates me more even than the origin of life, but sadly there aren’t any books written on it.

There’s Bacteriophage in my Bologna – Did you know that the FDA prescribes introducing bacteriophage to reduce the incidence of Listeria-based food poisoning?

Ecosystem Surprise: Some Bacteria Are Regional – I’m not sure that this is surprising, but researchers recently “realized” that individual bacterial and phage types could have parochial or biogeographical distributions. It is interesting to see them describe those distributions though.

Proving the Usefulness of Pharmacogenetics – Taking a look at an emerging technology that’s at the heart of personalized medicine, and demonstrating its usefulness.

Public Understanding of Science

Science Writers Explained (By Science Writers) – Carl links to an AAAS site set up to demystify the media and help scientists communicate better.

Bad Scientific Arguments in the Service of Animal Rights Activism – Animal rights terrorism is a big problem, inspiring recent instances of violence. This rather long article at Evidence-Based Medicine debunks these radicals’ attempts at justifying themselves.

How Stupid Do They Think We Are? – Ian at The Panda’s Thumb debunks creationist misinformation, this time coming from Jonathan Wells of the Discovery Institute, who claimed that antibiotic resistance and natural selection have nothing to do with each other.

Image credit: Carmen Laethem, Aerie Pharmaceuticals, USA