Throughout my education and career I have been mentored. Sometimes I have chosen those mentors and other times they have been assigned to me. Choosing these people who guide you, stick up for you, and help you along in your job search is a vital part of your career. This is a task for which there are no instructions and you learn by trial and error what sort of mentor best suits your personality and goals. I feel like I’ve learned quite a bit about choosing a mentor in the last several years and I want to share what I have learned about myself and mentors in general. Continue reading “Mentor Roulette”
Category: Follies of the Human Condition
Share the Data
Data-sharing is often much easier said than done. In the past, researchers created large and valuable databases which would often languish on the university’s server fading into oblivion after the particular post-doc or graduate student who created it had moved on. It has actually been shown that for the field of ecology, the likelihood of accessing data ever again decreases by 17% every year.
While that study is specific to a particular field, I can imagine some level of data loss in every field. Even if data was described in a publication, there is no easy way for an outside researcher to access it, or even know if that particular data would be useful in their new study. The times they are a-changing. Continue reading “Share the Data”
Lucretius the Epicurean
If you have been following Mike’s Sunday Science Poem series, you know that we are fans of Lucretius. Lucretius was a Roman poet and philosopher in the first century BC. He is famous for his only extant work De Rerum Natura – The Nature of Things, covering many topics near and dear to the hearts of modern scientists.
I am also a fan of the podcast History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps by Peter Adamson at King’s College London and LMU Munchen. Lucretius was an Epicurean, which is one of the many schools of philosophy covered. It may not be a replacement for studying philosophy in school, but listening to episodes 55-59 (including an episode on Lucretius himself) will help you understand the philosophical paradigm Lucretius was using when he wrote his great poem, especially when you are reading Mike’s series of posts on Lucretius:
Sunday Science Poem: The Epicurean Theory of Vision, and Bedwetting in Ancient Rome
Sunday Science Poem: Why You Should Read Lucretius
Lucretius Did Not Believe in Non-Overlapping Magisteria
Lucretius and The Fear of Death
There is Grandeur in Lucretius’ View of Life
Lucretius: Lightning is Not a Means of Divine Communication
Fruit flies fight over chicks
Remember your college days? On a typical college Saturday night, I would head to a local Champaign, IL watering hole and get to “observe” the mating rituals of college men. Chest puffing, feats of strength, and sometimes even fisticuffs were employed to gain the favor of a particular lady. Turns out this male-male aggression is a trait we share with the little fruit fly. Those little fruit flies have, in turn, shown us that male-male aggression can be a bit more complex than we might first expect. Continue reading “Fruit flies fight over chicks”
Word of the Year
In contrast to the much derided, but pop culture appropriate, decision that selfie was the word of the year, the editors of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary have chosen science as their Word of the Year.
HUZZAH! Maybe. Continue reading “Word of the Year”
The Finch and Pea 