Reading assignments, vol. 1

A very short list of some new and old links of note this week:

This week:

• Bonny Swoger at Scientific American discusses information skills we should incorporate into science education.
• Chemjobber notes the attrition rate in PhD programs. The comments below are discouraging, including a comparison of PhD vs MD lifetime earnings.
• Read these comments by scicurious about the relevance of getting a PhD to science writers.
• I found Derek Lowe's commentary on a PLoS One article about human factors in selection of compounds for biological screening interesting.
• On CENtral Science and NorthJersey (source), an account of a 29-year-old chemist poisoning a coworker.

Old links rediscovered:

• Webcomic artist/blogger Drew points out the idiocy of caffeinated soap at The Worst Things for Sale.