Launch: Stage 1

I would like to officially announce the date for Launch: Stage 1 of Penny University.  Drumroll please… Thursday May 2nd, 2013*!

The image above holds a clue to each of the first three interviews.  We’d love to know what you think they might be about, so post your guess in the comments or send us a Tweet.  Then you can visit Penny University on the launch day to see if you’re right (or even remotely close) when we post the first interview!

We have been hard at work for the last few months and have an amazing variety of subjects covered in our interviews thus far.  A number of interviews are finished, some are on-going, and others are just beginning.  Not to give too much away, but you can definitely look forward to learning some new (and unexpected things) things about: Romans, microscopes, South Africa, and more!  If you’re interested in taking part yourself or know of some exciting research that you think we should feature then get in touch.

We’ll be back in a about a week, but until then – under the remit of fun/educational – I will leave you with a computer generated joke that rated higher than one third of human submitted jokes to a Laugh Lab survey: “What kind of murderer has moral fibre?  A cereal killer.”

BADUMTISH!

The other computer generated jokes didn’t do quite so well and if this is representative of the standard, then I’m not surprised: “What kind of line has sixteen balls?  A pool cue!”

Turrah.

*I know Thursday doesn’t seem like a very ‘exciting’ day for a launch, but this way when you all procrastinate on Friday – and you know you will – you can read an interview and at least learn something new (and that ladies and gentleman is called ‘productive procrastination’)!

Pardon?

Hello!  Welcome back to the Penny University blog.  I hope that everyone had a great Summer.  I wanted to update everyone on the progress of our launch.  You have probably noticed that is has been delayed (since it is most definitely Autumn 2012 right now).  This is due to a current biological botheration, where I am unable to hear everything all of the time, which makes audio recording and editing rather difficult!  As it seems this slight complication is going to persist for a while longer, we thought it was time that we officially launch Penny University with a slightly altered format, henceforth known as Launch: Stage 1.  Once this issue has been resolved, the podcast can start in earnest, with Launch: Stage 2.  I mean, Penny University is going to be so good, it really deserves two official launches anyway, right?

Call for researchers: If you are PhD student or post-doc, no matter whether you’ve just started a new research project or you already have some exciting results, then now is the time to get in touch with Penny University!  We’re looking for people to get involved with Launch: Stage 1 and Launch: Stage 2 – so even if you are really busy at the moment you can register your interest to get involved in the future.  It will only take a few minutes of your time, so head on over to our contact section and get in touch for more details – we can’t wait to hear from you!

Now, until our next thrilling update, when we’ll announce the date of Launch: Stage 1, remember: “Every honest researcher I know admits he’s just a professional amateur.  He’s doing whatever he’s doing for the first time.  That makes him an amateur.  He has sense enough to know that he’s going to have a lost of trouble, so that makes him a professional.” – Charles Franklin Kettering