In days of yore, when I was in graduate school, I was asked by a senior professor whether I was in graduate school because I couldn't find anyone to marry me.According to a recent e-mail message from a reader, some professors are still asking young women...
Non Stop?
If you are in a research group that has regular meetings, do you meet throughout the summer (or, at least, for most of it) or does your groups suspend regular meetings in the summer?There are different kinds of group meetings, of course. Some meetings...
My Answers
Recently, I was a virtual "panel member" for a post organized by The Hermitage, who collected and assigned 4 questions to different bloggers. I wasn't very inspired by the questions (through no fault of H's), so I didn't post my answers, forcing H to...
Opposites
A colleague of mine was recently asked to help organize part of the program of a conference, and was asked to recruit someone to work with him on this. This colleague was specifically asked to find their "opposite".THIS INTRIGUED ME.It intrigued me for...
NIH v. NSF
After reading the recent NY Times article (and associated commentary in the blogosphere) about discrepancies in proposal success rate of black vs. white PIs at the NIH, I tried in a rather feeble way to find these data for NSF. I know NSF collects demographic...
Dependent
From time to time, my husband and I have been been invited to be Visiting Professors (or Guest Professors or Visiting Scholars or various titles like that) at other institutions, for a sabbatical or for a shorter visit. Such invitations are always nice,...
Like a Business
Today in Scientopia, I discuss ways in which professors are/aren't like managers in non-academic settings (not that I know anything about being a manager in a non-academic settin...
In Loco Parentis
Last week's post about the sleepy undergrad inspired some comments that suggested (with varying levels of vehemence) that the professor involved should intervene in some way and facilitate medical treatment of a possibly serious condition. [In fact,...
The amino acid alphabet
Amino acid alphabet soupVia Astrobiology Magazine, 8/19/11All living creatures on this planet use the same 20 amino acids, even though there are hundreds available in nature. Scientists therefore have wondered if life could have arisen based on a different...
Can You Top This?
Recently, a colleague said to me:I just had the strangest interaction with a student.He was quite emphatic that this was the strangest interaction ever.Knowing this colleague and many of his students, I was skeptical. Here is what happened:He was talking...
One is Enough
Not long ago, a reader requested discussion of the topic of having "only" one child. Apparently, this a a topic of raging discussion in the reader's research group. I was curious about this, and in particular, wondered what is so controversial about...
Wordless Wednesday: Scientific Americam Special Cities Issues
Go out and get the September 2011 issue of Scientific American. This special issue is all about Cities! Yes, the urban environment! It's one big grand issue and the Scientific American website and Blog Network will off additional remarks,...
We, Robot
Dear Female Science Professor,In your blog, you describe many of your bad experiences during grad school and through the tenure track. I have noticed that while you convey why some of those periods of time were very difficult, you do not write much...
Pity PhD
Today in Scientopia, I present a reader's question about "pity PhDs" and what the likely fate is of such individua...
No Thanks
A problem and a question from a reader:This month we organized an international research conference at our University, with the organization committee consisting of three male professors, a female professor and me. The composition of the committee has...
Minty Fresh Face
As I may have mentioned before, this summer has been extremely busy for me. It is the first summer ever that I have not had time to visit my family and the ancestral home.Those who have read this blog for a while will know that I have mixed feelings...
A Spiral in Leo
A Spiral in Leo (8/10/11)This new picture from ESO’s Very Large Telescope shows NGC 3521, a spiral galaxy located about 35 million light years away in the constellation of Leo (The Lion). Spanning about 50 000 light-years, this spectacular object has...
How Many Times?
How many times can a paper be rejected before you give up submitting it to journals?.. a reader wonders.We need data. How many times have you (re)submitted a (rejected) manuscript before you gave up on publishing the paper, at least in a form that mostly...
Take Out
Summer is not a great time for editors of journals to find reviewers for manuscripts. At least, that is my experience. In the summer, many academic scientists (and others) are extremely busy trying to get as much research done as possible before the...
It Hurts When I Do This
Today in Scientopia, I respond to a reader's distress about re-reading a recently submitted grant propos...
Discarded
From an essay in the The Chronicle of Higher Education, titled Academic English Is Not a Club I Want to Join.I can't use women as role models because they are not like me. We think differently. What motivated me to go to graduate school was different...
Formation of earliest black holes
Dawn of the black holes(Science News) The seeds of the universe’s first black holes could have formed in gas halos much smaller than previously calculated, Canadian and American astronomers report online April 21 at arXiv.org. Simulated seeds about 100...
Triple active galactic nucleus
Black hole threesome revealed(Science News) Andy Warhol reportedly said, “One’s company, two’s a crowd and three’s a party.” New data reveal one heck of a black hole party, a U.S. team of researchers reports online April 19 at arXiv.org. Three supermassive...
Subparallel Research
Let's say you heard a rumor that another group of researchers was working on a possibly identical, or at least very similar, project to your own research. You had both been working on this project for about a year, and had nothing published yet, not...
Trending
Have you ever had an idea for a research project that, as far as you knew, no one else was doing, only to find later that other people had the same idea at about the same time? Yes, there are instances of intellectual theft, but sometimes it seems like...
Gifted Students
A reader writes:I have a summer intern (in this case, an undergraduate), who has done a lot of excellent work for me this summer. I am looking for gift suggestions as a way of expressing my thanks for (in this case 'his') hard work that was far above...
Sidekicks and Bond Strength
Today in Scientopia, I discuss (or, more accurately stated: I raise questions) about what contributes to strong bonds between advisors and studen...
Once a Student
At a recent conference, I encountered a senior professor in my field -- someone I had first met many years ago when I was an undergraduate and he was a professor at a university not far from the college I attended. He and my undergrad advisor were sort...
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