A poignant indictment of our profession

[Dr Mike]

Wow. Belatedly catching up and Nik's latest is really...intense. I know a lot of people feel despondent and get disillusioned about science, but it's brave to write about it so frankly.

[challenge]

I read it and wept a bit. It sums up a lot of feelings I have had about science. It reminds me about the whole "those 10% of GREAT astonishing FAB results that make you feel like you can conquer the world" ... until the next 90% of the repetetive work shows its face again. Then again, I wonder if it isn't one part of the rollercoaster to feel like that and then get more energy and "beat the machine" and get at it again?

[Mad Dan Eccles]

As high as 10%?

[challenge]

In my head it's 10%... and most people think that is low MDE

but it depends if you look at time actually spent in lab/doing things and the happy results or the time spent feeling happy compared to nittygrittydetailed and repeat-til-your-eyes-bleed time. I still think it might have been more than 10% that i was happy. Problem was the 20% of pure despair "this is not working I spent the last couple of months doing stuff that doesn't work". A bit too much of a roller coaster ride for this slightly prone to bipolar behaviour and perfectionist

[Beatrice]

My high points in the lab, however you define them, are nowhere near 10%. I'd guess about 2-5% overall.

I guess the question for those who have left science: is it really any different in any other profession? I imagine life in an office could be more positive, say 50% satisfactory and 50% unsatisfactory, but is there ever even a trace of the sort of joy you get with a eureka moment?

[tmahony]

Great writing, Nik.

[Nik Papageorgiou]

I don't understand... do you mean that "Status Quo" wasn't uplifiting?

But seriously, thanks for your comments, everyone. It's good to find fellow researchers who are not offended by this.

It's true that this is the way things are in Science now. But can we change it for the better? Should we even try?

[Octavia]

Turning around an oil tanker - it always seems impossible. I don't even know where one would start, really.

I am trying to think if there was any other, for lack of a better word, Professional System, where things seemed really messed up and then ultimately people did something about it. And if so can we learn any lessons from it.

[Nik Papageorgiou]

Well, scientific research once was all about the science, but sadly that was at a time when it could be done more like an occupation for the rich (who could afford higher education). As a supervisor of mine once said, "when science became a job instead of a hobby, it was all over".

Baby steps. I think the first thing we should revise is the assessment of scientific work predominantly on the basis of publications and impact factors. I know that's "the only way to know who's worth his salt" but would we be wrong to think that it has become a vicious circle?

[Dr Mike]

Not wrong at all. But this is a lousy time to start a revolution - there's no money!

[amy c.]

Dr. Mike, I'm sure scientists have been over and over this, but is there really no work left to be done inexpensively? On a gentleman's-hobby basis?

I ask because I'm already seeing this with the professionalization, if you want to call it that, of fiction writing here, in which people are led to believe that they can't do it if they haven't spent $50K at the feet of some marginal writer who's in the club; then post-MFA been hired on as faculty elsewhere, or free to jet around to summer workshops, or become major grant recipients. Which is all nonsense, of course. Have also seen the disappearance of gentleman editors/publishers -- not because it's impossible to get books on the shelves, but because young people expect to get paid, to make a substantial salary, and not to do it as a labor of love. Which is a real loss and you can see it on the shelf -- we really need those editors. Very few writers do what Jenny does, or what I'm doing now: I've made a pile the last few months, will take a year off to write (and, as you've seen, be around here less often, since what I'm doing now isn't very sciencey at all).

Anyway. Are there? Inexpensive places to go?

[John from Florida]

Well, Amy, I can't really see and molec bio stuff being done cheap. Our bread and butter sort of stuff like antibodies ($500 for a half ml tube) and the like are massively expensive, even the fine chemicals and plasticware don't come cheap. I think the average consumables budget per person is...I'm not positive but something in the neighborhood of $50,000 a year per head. Then you have to worry about things like specialized waste disposal (like for clinical samples, radioactivity, toxic chemicals). And don't forget the journals - you need to keep up with the literature but only a wealthy person could afford all the subscriptions.

The only thing I know about where amateurs can and do make a real contribution is in astronomy. I think despite all our hyperexpensive telescopes sitting on top of volcanoes, there are still visual events that are caught by alert enthusiasts with relatively inexpensive equipment. I remember reading about a massive interactive astronomy project but I can't find it on the internet because I don't remember what it is called. Does anyone else know what I'm talking about?

What are you doing that isn't sciencey if I can be nosy? And please don't desert us completely...

[Nik Papageorgiou]

Amy, I have to say it: I envy you. Wish my novel got a shot in sun... still trying.

[hedge]

Have I missed something - Amy, have you got a book deal???

[amy c.]

Hardly. But thanks to vagaries of the US economy and K12 spending, I've got a lot of money landing on my head this month and next, enough to carry me through the next year or so. After a very scary early '09. Can't pass up the chance to spend it on fiction, esp. since I'm physically healthy enough to write now (wasn't for a while), have kid old enough to be gone most of the day, and have a good reader who's made it his mission to push me to publish. Which is good. So there's a story I'm working on now, old ones I need to dust off and finish, and a novel in the works. We'll see if I'm desperate enough by early '11 to do the necessary to keep writing fiction instead of K12 sci.