Everybody knows that the airline industry is an abomination of American enterprise. It is laughable when the airline representatives say that safety is their concern because they treat people like cattle. Evidence of cattle herding by the industry can be seen anytime you look into the coach section of a jumbo jet. The philosophy is [...]
Posts tagged research
In stroke rehabilitation circles the sick joke is, Speaking, Writing or Walking; pick one.
Every family in the USA is one stroke short of bankruptcy.
The tragedy in Haiti is a tragedy, but…
being prepared for a disaster is a full time job
There is Information Behind Every Question
A student came to my office to enquire about becoming a graduate student in my lab. She was extremely bright, energetic and had done some homework about my work as evidenced by the insightful questions she was asking. I put a lot of weight on the questions and dialogue that occurs when I interview, and [...]
Hard and Unpopular Classes.
There are two types (maybe three) of difficult classes: Classes with a lot of material making the class difficulty due to the volume, Classes with difficult concepts and the third is when these two factors are combined. Anatomy is an example of a difficult class because of the sheer volume of material that needs to [...]
The Story of the Datum
There is no better feeling in science than to see weeks of planning a new experiment come together in one day’s work to produce data. To be more correct, one datum. We’ve been working for weeks building a prototype, and developing the experimental conditions in which we could test the prototype. The test conditions were [...]
Catch-22 in Academia
In an effort to facilitate development of technologies the Bayh-Dole act also mandates that preference for licensing and developing opportunities of federally funded discoveries be given to small US owned companies. This stimulation has been a boon to the technology sector.
Students are the Farm Team.
There is an old saying that those who can do; those who can’t teach. While I’m not too sure about that, there is an interesting paradigm in higher education. That is the highest level scientists in the USA tend to be successful scientists and researchers by spending time doing research, writing grants and papers. The [...]
Peaks and Valleys in Academia
Peaks and Valleys. The whole lifestyle of college professors and most academics is a series of peaks and valleys. We are exuberant with successes like funded grants and exciting research data. Conversely we live with constant rejection from failed experiments, rejected papers and grant applications. So the peaks really need to outweigh the depths reached [...]
Many questions: one answer about careers in science.
Can someone please tell me what type of job is there that can never be outsourced, but is present in every country in the world? What is the profession where the whole world is united in one language and one goal? When can you be paid to travel to some of the most beautiful places [...]
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