About Rick Lewis
I was a structural biologist with an interest in understanding at the molecular level how bacteria grow and divide. Part of both division and growth cycles depend upon communication across the cytoplasmic membrane so that essential activities on the outside of the bacterial cell are co-ordinated with intracellular events. I left Newcastle University in 2019, after 16 years spent establishing then overseeing the growth of structural biology within the University. I now work at the RSPB as a fundraiser for nature conservation projects.
Popular Content
I recently swapped a career in biochemistry for one in the conservation of Nature, In this ‘After the Paper’ blog I summarise some of the background to my journey from the nanometre scale to the macro scale and some current goals and ambitions.
How the turmoil surrounding Brexit is already having an effect on academia in the UK.
I first started to write this post in the immediate aftermath of the UK Parliament descending into a pantomime-like farce; with fewer than 100 days ‘til the UK is destined to leave the EU, our elected representatives chose to spend their last days before the Christmas 2018 recess shouting abuse at each other. Let’s hope in the 71 days remaining before Brexit day, almost enough time for Phileas Fogg to go around the world, that UK politicians spend the time less shambolically but also that they suffer no more intimidation from mobs intent on blurring the lines between populism and extremism.
Recent Comments
The worst review I was on the receiving end was back in 1999: a major point of our story about activation in a signalling protein was linked to a conformational change in a widely conserved residue. The reviewer killed our paper with a comment about how this discussion was misleading as the role of this amino acid in signalling has "not held up over time" and then cited an abstract to poster at a meeting that none of us had attended and for which the text of the abstract was not available on-line. I just checked pubmed and the authors of said poster have still not published their paper presumably because it's their story and not ours that did not hold up over time.
Oops, my mistake, I meant I doubt the authors of the meeting abstract reviewed our manuscript!
The worst review I was on the receiving end was back in 1999: a major point of our story about activation in a signalling protein was linked to a conformational change in a widely conserved residue. The reviewer killed our paper with a comment about how this discussion was misleading as the role of this amino acid in signalling has "not held up over time" and then cited an abstract to poster at a meeting that none of us had attended and for which the text of the abstract was not available on-line. I just checked pubmed and the authors of said poster have still not published their paper presumably because it's their story and not ours that did not hold up over time.
Hi Ruth, yes we did, but in a much lower ranked journal than the 'magazine' we had targeted. Though this particular paper became quite well cited I wonder if I was at the same stage of my career now as I was then, would I still have been competitive for Fellowships? The CVs I see these days from ambitious folk looking to take that next career step upwards are far stronger than mine was, 20 years ago.
As a coda I should also add that I doubt the authors of the meeting abstract referred to above did not review our manuscript.
The worst review I was on the receiving end was back in 1999: a major point of our story about activation in a signalling protein was linked to a conformational change in a widely conserved residue. The reviewer killed our paper with a comment about how this discussion was misleading as the role of this amino acid in signalling has "not held up over time" and then cited an abstract to poster at a meeting that none of us had attended and for which the text of the abstract was not available on-line. I just checked pubmed and the authors of said poster have still not published their paper presumably because it's their story and not ours that did not hold up over time.