No talented child ever says, "I want to pipette repetitively when I grow up."

Submitted by Alexis on Sat, 2011-02-26 12:54

Forums

General Discussion / Free-for-All

A light-hearted look at a career in science, from pre-school to postdoc...

http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/ar…

Axel Sat, 2011-02-26 14:32

I agree, it very much should be. The first should be mandatory reading for any potential graduate students.

deacona Fri, 2011-03-04 17:24

I totally agree that many go into a PhD program without having much of at clue what it means, and what it takes, and probably many of the students in PhD programs across the world are not suited for the scientific enterprise... However, whoever wrote that little piece, must have a very shallow and simplistic view of the scientific process.He/she clearly does not have what it takes to be a good scientist!!! It's not about moving small amounts of liquid from one tube to another, but about CONCEIVING the right experiments in order to move little amounts of liquid from one tube to another in a meaningful and revealing way. The sad part is that in many schools there's a sharp divide between who does the "conceiving" (PI) and who does the often blind pipetting (student). But at the same time only "conceiving" and not "doing" (e.g. by relying on robots) is not enough. However, there's must be a balance, especially at the postdoc stage, where automation or additional technical support, such as a technician, would be especially welcome in order to spent more time on the conceptual part of science and advance more quickly...