Continuing “Joe’s Answer Bag Week”: Dear Joe, How do you have time to maintain such an AMAZING blog and also be a PhD student? I’m a postdoc and struggle to maintain my daily half-assed reblogging. I’m just curious, as I’m really interested in communicating science, but all signs seem to point to research research RESEARCH in the future. Keep up the good work!!! -The Mighty Ribozyme From: the-mighty-ribozyme I can tell from your Tumblr name that you know what it’s like on the inside. What’s your flavor? Hammerhead? HDV? Group II intron? (That’s some inside humor for the RNA fans out there. We’re a lively bunch at parties) Do you want to know the truth? It’s can be really hard. Grad school is freakin’ hard. Balancing PhD research, moving towards graduating soon, having a life, spending time with my lady, remembering to eat and get dressed, AND fulfilling my passion of communicating science? I feel like a juggler with one arm sometimes. Molecular biology and biochemistry of the sort that I do is frustratingly time-intensive. It’s like art or film. The hands-on work that goes into the finished product is orders of magnitude larger than the end result. But we’re all friends, right? I’ll bring you behind the scenes of my day and my motivations behind all this: I am usually in lab six of seven days, maybe 50-60 hours a week of late. I wake up, take my dogs out, eat with my wife, and start checking my Super Secret Science Sources™ to see what catches my eye for the blog or just for enjoyment. I ride in to campus, tweet a few things in the AM, and get a few lab tasks going. If it’s a hairy day at the bench (like today), I might not sit down at the computer again for 3-4 hours, maybe longer. But as I am letting reactions incubate or running gels, I’m reading. I’m reading Twitter, I’m reading my feeds, I’m reading my dashboard, I’m reading papers, I’m reading articles. It’s hard to say what makes me decide to post something, but I just feel it. I try to unplug when I get home to my wife and hang out without the internet for a while (to varying degrees of success). We eat, have a drink, I work out or play soccer pretty regularly, and then it’s off to the land of REM neuronal recharge (aka “sleep”). In practice, it’s really much more frantic than that. But I’m always thinking, jotting notes, asking questions, trying to capture fleeting moments of inspiration.  Like any blogger, I don’t get to post everything that I want. Many of you probably don’t even notice when my posting rate goes down, but to me it just huuuuurts. I’d love to imagine that thousands of people out there were obsessively refreshing the page, screaming “When will Joe post again?!” but let’s get real :)   Sure, it would be really easy for me to just throw some pictures of nebulas up, maybe some random meme here and there, copy and paste an article from another website (ahem) … but that’s not what this blog is about. I’m here to bring science to people who might never see it otherwise, to show them that embracing that feeling of wonder can happen every day. I do this because science is at the core of our society, and it can be amazingly fun to learn about it. I do it because I can’t not do it. I’m pretty good with words, but it’s hard to verbalize the feeling I get when I see people learn, smile, and enjoy this stuff. My cup runneth over. Some of the feedback I have gotten from you all … just wow. Thank you all. I think anyone with the passion to do this can fit it into their life. You just have to figure out how it works for you. Even if you can only post once a month, there’s no wrong way, no minimum, no rules. Even connecting science to one person is a success. Be firm, and make sure people know that this is an important part of your life in addition to research. Even I get a lot of pressure from the “powers that be” to not spend time on things like this. But we must.  As for the future? When I graduate later this year, I don’t know where it will take me. I’m beginning to think I’m at least “pretty good” at talking science, eh? I’ve got some fun plans for projects I want to do through this blog as it continues to evolve. My creative side is getting itchy. Whether I’m at a lab bench, in an office, working for myself, writing, speaking, filming, ranting … whatever happens down the road, communicating and popularizing science will be a part of it, and this blog will always be home. I think it’s safe to say I won’t be a professor, though :) Any prospective employer have a problem with my mission? I have a blog full of friends who’d like to talk to you.
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Continuing “Joe’s Answer Bag Week”:

Dear Joe, How do you have time to maintain such an AMAZING blog and also be a PhD student? I’m a postdoc and struggle to maintain my daily half-assed reblogging. I’m just curious, as I’m really interested in communicating science, but all signs seem to point to research research RESEARCH in the future. Keep up the good work!!! -The Mighty Ribozyme

From: the-mighty-ribozyme

I can tell from your Tumblr name that you know what it’s like on the inside. What’s your flavor? Hammerhead? HDV? Group II intron? (That’s some inside humor for the RNA fans out there. We’re a lively bunch at parties)

Do you want to know the truth? It’s can be really hard. Grad school is freakin’ hard. Balancing PhD research, moving towards graduating soon, having a life, spending time with my lady, remembering to eat and get dressed, AND fulfilling my passion of communicating science? I feel like a juggler with one arm sometimes.

Molecular biology and biochemistry of the sort that I do is frustratingly time-intensive. It’s like art or film. The hands-on work that goes into the finished product is orders of magnitude larger than the end result. But we’re all friends, right? I’ll bring you behind the scenes of my day and my motivations behind all this:

I am usually in lab six of seven days, maybe 50-60 hours a week of late. I wake up, take my dogs out, eat with my wife, and start checking my Super Secret Science Sources™ to see what catches my eye for the blog or just for enjoyment. I ride in to campus, tweet a few things in the AM, and get a few lab tasks going. If it’s a hairy day at the bench (like today), I might not sit down at the computer again for 3-4 hours, maybe longer. But as I am letting reactions incubate or running gels, I’m reading. I’m reading Twitter, I’m reading my feeds, I’m reading my dashboard, I’m reading papers, I’m reading articles. It’s hard to say what makes me decide to post something, but I just feel it. I try to unplug when I get home to my wife and hang out without the internet for a while (to varying degrees of success). We eat, have a drink, I work out or play soccer pretty regularly, and then it’s off to the land of REM neuronal recharge (aka “sleep”). In practice, it’s really much more frantic than that. But I’m always thinking, jotting notes, asking questions, trying to capture fleeting moments of inspiration. 

Like any blogger, I don’t get to post everything that I want. Many of you probably don’t even notice when my posting rate goes down, but to me it just huuuuurts. I’d love to imagine that thousands of people out there were obsessively refreshing the page, screaming “When will Joe post again?!” but let’s get real :)  

Sure, it would be really easy for me to just throw some pictures of nebulas up, maybe some random meme here and there, copy and paste an article from another website (ahem) … but that’s not what this blog is about. I’m here to bring science to people who might never see it otherwise, to show them that embracing that feeling of wonder can happen every day. I do this because science is at the core of our society, and it can be amazingly fun to learn about it. I do it because I can’t not do it. I’m pretty good with words, but it’s hard to verbalize the feeling I get when I see people learn, smile, and enjoy this stuff. My cup runneth over. Some of the feedback I have gotten from you all … just wow. Thank you all.

I think anyone with the passion to do this can fit it into their life. You just have to figure out how it works for you. Even if you can only post once a month, there’s no wrong way, no minimum, no rules. Even connecting science to one person is a success. Be firm, and make sure people know that this is an important part of your life in addition to research. Even I get a lot of pressure from the “powers that be” to not spend time on things like this. But we must. 

As for the future? When I graduate later this year, I don’t know where it will take me. I’m beginning to think I’m at least “pretty good” at talking science, eh? I’ve got some fun plans for projects I want to do through this blog as it continues to evolve. My creative side is getting itchy. Whether I’m at a lab bench, in an office, working for myself, writing, speaking, filming, ranting … whatever happens down the road, communicating and popularizing science will be a part of it, and this blog will always be home. I think it’s safe to say I won’t be a professor, though :)

Any prospective employer have a problem with my mission? I have a blog full of friends who’d like to talk to you.

(Made rebloggable by request) Joe’s Tips on Grad School Interviews … for the Natural Sciences Hi Joe! I’ve been following your blog for a while now and I really enjoy all of your posts. I actually had a couple of questions regarding grad school since I have a couple of interviews scheduled in February. How would you prepare for an interview? Up until now I have only read a couple of papers from professors whose research I am interested in, but other than that I don’t really know what to expect. Also, what influenced your decision to go to the school you are in now? Thanks! Elizabeth Funny you mention grad school interviews. Blog’s been a little quiet today because we are hosting one of our recruitment weekends here in Austin! So anyone applying here can come drink with me. There are no hard and fast rules for grad school interviews. I can only tell you what I tell our own recruits, and you should take it with a grain of salt, because I am only one opinion: Your recruiting visit is not a comprehensive examination of your scientific knowledge. If someone turns it into one, then that person is having a bad day, or is a real hardass. They know your grades, your GRE scores and your experience, and they have an idea of your abilities already. In a sense, they have a big “file” on you. They want to see curiosity, signs that you are aware of what differentiates fields (like knowing the value of a developmental lab vs a biochemistry lab), and a willingness to ask questions and pick up on the answers. I mean, they invited you there and are spending money to entertain you. Clearly they are interested. When you’re meeting with faculty: It’s good to have a general idea of what they work on, but if you only interview with people you completely and totally understand, you can lose out on great opportunities in fields you haven’t been exposed to. Not to mention that even if you think you know everything about someone’s work, you really have no idea. You’re a n00b. So know in general what they do, but you don’t have to know their whole body of work.  ASK THEM STUFF! Faculty love to talk about themselves (it’s a rule), so I would often lead interviews with stuff like “I’ve never worked with _________, but I am interested in how you are applying them to __________. Can you tell me more about where your lab is going?” That will take half the interview right there. You can also ask them about non-science stuff, to prove you are a complete human being and not a science cyborg. I talked about football for an entire interview once. You will run into people that come into grad school interviews saying “I am going to interview with X, Y and Z and I am going to work on this or that. Period.” These people are either rare geniuses (probably not) or they are afraid to think outside the box. Before grad school, chances are you havent really been that exposed to many subjects. So open your mind. Don’t be afraid to say “I want to try several fields, there’s so much opportunity out there.” Don’t say things like “I’m really interested in cancer”, because that is a meaningless statement. Say things like “I am really interested in how viruses can cause cancer and how the immune system fights them.” Talk to as many current students as possible. Find out what stipends are like, how often most of them TA, what insurance benefits are like, what average graduation times are, if there are any profs to avoid, how much does it cost to live there, are people social, are there programs to develop skills beyond the lab (presentations, writing, business), what do people do for fun? If “stipend” and “benefits” bring up confused looks, run away and do something else. Imagine shopping for graduate school like shopping for a mail-order bride. Because you’re gonna be married to it for years, and you want to knoweverything that you’re getting into. You don’t have to know all the answers on a visit, just prove that you are willing to find them out. Lastly, a disclaimer: Remember that I do not have my PhD yet (but will soon) and I have not published in Science or Nature. I’m just a guy who talks about science on the internet.
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(Made rebloggable by request)

Joe’s Tips on Grad School Interviews … for the Natural Sciences

Hi Joe! I’ve been following your blog for a while now and I really enjoy all of your posts. I actually had a couple of questions regarding grad school since I have a couple of interviews scheduled in February. How would you prepare for an interview? Up until now I have only read a couple of papers from professors whose research I am interested in, but other than that I don’t really know what to expect. Also, what influenced your decision to go to the school you are in now? Thanks! Elizabeth

Funny you mention grad school interviews. Blog’s been a little quiet today because we are hosting one of our recruitment weekends here in Austin! So anyone applying here can come drink with me. There are no hard and fast rules for grad school interviews. I can only tell you what I tell our own recruits, and you should take it with a grain of salt, because I am only one opinion:

  • Your recruiting visit is not a comprehensive examination of your scientific knowledge. If someone turns it into one, then that person is having a bad day, or is a real hardass. They know your grades, your GRE scores and your experience, and they have an idea of your abilities already. In a sense, they have a big “file” on you. They want to see curiosity, signs that you are aware of what differentiates fields (like knowing the value of a developmental lab vs a biochemistry lab), and a willingness to ask questions and pick up on the answers. I mean, they invited you there and are spending money to entertain you. Clearly they are interested.
  • When you’re meeting with faculty: It’s good to have a general idea of what they work on, but if you only interview with people you completely and totally understand, you can lose out on great opportunities in fields you haven’t been exposed to. Not to mention that even if you think you know everything about someone’s work, you really have no idea. You’re a n00b. So know in general what they do, but you don’t have to know their whole body of work. 
  • ASK THEM STUFF! Faculty love to talk about themselves (it’s a rule), so I would often lead interviews with stuff like “I’ve never worked with _________, but I am interested in how you are applying them to __________. Can you tell me more about where your lab is going?” That will take half the interview right there. You can also ask them about non-science stuff, to prove you are a complete human being and not a science cyborg. I talked about football for an entire interview once.
  • You will run into people that come into grad school interviews saying “I am going to interview with X, Y and Z and I am going to work on this or that. Period.” These people are either rare geniuses (probably not) or they are afraid to think outside the box. Before grad school, chances are you havent really been that exposed to many subjects. So open your mind. Don’t be afraid to say “I want to try several fields, there’s so much opportunity out there.”
  • Don’t say things like “I’m really interested in cancer”, because that is a meaningless statement. Say things like “I am really interested in how viruses can cause cancer and how the immune system fights them.”
  • Talk to as many current students as possible. Find out what stipends are like, how often most of them TA, what insurance benefits are like, what average graduation times are, if there are any profs to avoid, how much does it cost to live there, are people social, are there programs to develop skills beyond the lab (presentations, writing, business), what do people do for fun? If “stipend” and “benefits” bring up confused looks, run away and do something else.

Imagine shopping for graduate school like shopping for a mail-order bride. Because you’re gonna be married to it for years, and you want to knoweverything that you’re getting into.

You don’t have to know all the answers on a visit, just prove that you are willing to find them out.

Lastly, a disclaimer: Remember that I do not have my PhD yet (but will soon) and I have not published in Science or Nature. I’m just a guy who talks about science on the internet.

Q:Hi Joe! I've been following your blog for a while now and I really enjoy all of your posts. I actually had a couple of questions regarding grad school since I have a couple of interviews scheduled in February. How would you prepare for an interview? Up until now I have only read a couple of papers from professors whose research I am interested in, but other than that I don't really know what to expect. Also, what influenced your decision to go to the school you are in now? Thanks! Elizabeth

thesaharaofbraindust

Funny you mention grad school interviews. Blog’s been a little quiet today because we are hosting one of our recruitment weekends here in Austin! So anyone applying here can come drink with me. There are no hard and fast rules for grad school interviews. I can only tell you what I tell our own recruits, and you should take it with a grain of salt, because I am only one opinion:

  • Your recruiting visit is not a comprehensive examination of your scientific knowledge. If someone turns it into one, then that person is having a bad day, or is a real hardass. They know your grades, your GRE scores and your experience, and they have an idea of your abilities already. In a sense, they have a big “file” on you. They want to see curiosity, signs that you are aware of what differentiates fields (like knowing the value of a developmental lab vs a biochemistry lab), and a willingness to ask questions and pick up on the answers. I mean, they invited you there and are spending money to entertain you. Clearly they are interested.
  • When you’re meeting with faculty: It’s good to have a general idea of what they work on, but if you only interview with people you completely and totally understand, you can lose out on great opportunities in fields you haven’t been exposed to. Not to mention that even if you think you know everything about someone’s work, you really have no idea. You’re a n00b. So know in general what they do, but you don’t have to know their whole body of work. 
  • ASK THEM STUFF! Faculty love to talk about themselves (it’s a rule), so I would often lead interviews with stuff like “I’ve never worked with _________, but I am interested in how you are applying them to __________. Can you tell me more about where your lab is going?” That will take half the interview right there. You can also ask them about non-science stuff, to prove you are a complete human being and not a science cyborg. I talked about football for an entire interview once.
  • You will run into people that come into grad school interviews saying “I am going to interview with X, Y and Z and I am going to work on this or that. Period.” These people are either rare geniuses (probably not) or they are afraid to think outside the box. Before grad school, chances are you havent really been that exposed to many subjects. So open your mind. Don’t be afraid to say “I want to try several fields, there’s so much opportunity out there.”
  • Don’t say things like “I’m really interested in cancer”, because that is a meaningless statement. Say things like “I am really interested in how viruses can cause cancer and how the immune system fights them.”
  • Talk to as many current students as possible. Find out what stipends are like, how often most of them TA, what insurance benefits are like, what average graduation times are, if there are any profs to avoid, how much does it cost to live there, are people social, are there programs to develop skills beyond the lab (presentations, writing, business), what do people do for fun? If “stipend” and “benefits” bring up confused looks, run away and do something else.

Imagine shopping for graduate school like shopping for a mail-order bride. Because you’re gonna be married to it for years, and you want to know everything that you’re getting into.

You don’t have to know all the answers on a visit, just prove that you are willing to find them out.

Lastly, a disclaimer: Remember that I do not have my PhD yet (but will soon) and I have not published in Science or Nature. I’m just a guy who talks about science on the internet.

The PhD Is Not What It Used To Be - Culture of Science

The meaning of a PhD has changed significantly in recent decades. We are graduating more than ever before, yet the number of tenured faculty jobs continues to decline. Meanwhile, the post doc years have become longer and there’s no guarantee of a stable position at the end of a decade of what’s often tireless work, personal sacrifice, and low income (compared to peers). Depending on the field and school, it’s also a lifestyle that many young people cannot afford unless they begin with the means to make it work or take on significant student loans–not for tuition (which should be covered) but food and housing.

Sheril Kirshenbaum looks at whose responsibility it should be to educate prospective students in what lies ahead in today’s Ph.D. job market. Professors or graduate advisors?

This is a debate that needs to take place.