All scientists are thieves. We’re stealing money out of the pockets of the poor unsuspecting public. Or at least that’s what one commenter said recently in response to my post on giving up tenure, and it’s not the first time I’ve heard that argument (if you can call it an argument).
O Rose thou art sick. The invisible worm, That flies in the night In the howling storm: Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy: And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy. –William Blake Peter Lawrence has weighed into the debate on the state of research in an article for Lab Times, boldly…
I work in a downtown area where shops come and go. Some have staying power, and some are just a flash in the pan. A new jewelry shop recently opened up just downstairs from my office. As I walked by the shop, I asked myself, what do they offer that’s of value to me?
What the bleep is a mastermind? Is it some kind of scheme involving aliens in collusion with their human puppets in the guise of businesspeople to take control of us all? I was talking with an old friend and colleague recently, and the question was implicit within the conversation. It soon became clear that the…
It was a Friday morning, and I had just emailed my department chair, along with the dean above him: “I will be sending my letter of resignation shortly, but you can take this as the informal notice.” Who, in their right mind, would give up a tenured job at the prestigious University of North Carolina…
The student was at the board, hands covered in chalk, mixed with a bit of sweat. He was in the middle of his oral prelim exam, and being grilled about his hypothesis. How would he design his experiments to test it? Did he have the proper controls in place? Would his measurements be within the…
I recently talked to a fellow scientist about grants, and he commented that he’d seen push-back over the notion that you must market your work to get funding. Many people seem to confuse marketing with hyped-up used-car ads or get rich quick schemes. Yes, marketing is sometimes used for those purposes – but it is…
“We are all individuals!” chants the group, repeating after Brian. “I’m not!” says a guy, jumping up and down and waving his hands above his head. —the effects of groupthink distilled into a hilarious 30 second scene from Monty Python. We all, to a lesser or greater extent, buy into groupthink. If we didn’t, we’d…
It all started with an email: “My chair flipped out when I told him.” Someone had signed up for an intensive grant writing course, then backed out because his chair didn’t want to make the investment with their “dwindling pool of funds.” Instead the chair said he would spend his own personal time helping the…
The question in the title was prompted by a comment I received on a previous Naturally Selected blog post about the three deadly sins of grant writing. The commenter chose to pick on my grammar in the post, insinuating that because, in her opinion the post exhibited poor grammar, I wasn’t to be listened to.
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