This weekly Nautilus column highlights some of the online discussion at Nature Network in the preceding week that is of relevance to scientists as authors and communicators.
The Nature Network week column is archived here.
Doing translational research is interdisciplinary in nature. But, Caryn Shechtman asks, have you ever stopped to think about what interdisciplinarity really is? What exactly does that mean? How is it defined? She provides one definition, and muses on the components of a successful interdisciplinary collaboration. Farooq Kahn also writes about interdisciplinarity and complex systems in the context of Darwin’s revolution, which continues to illuminate science.
There is much celebration on Nature Network this week about the lifting of the ban on stem-cell research in the United States. Robert Pinsonneault joins the chorus of approval, but writes that it “would seem a bit of a stretch that lifting this ban will magically remove the teeth from the moral opposition; those that are very nervous, indeed outraged, about the prospect of increased use of human embryos for any manner of scientific and medical research.” Robert sums up the ethical and social conflicts inherent in this type of research, and why he for one is pleased that work in this discipline will now be moving forward.
Ian Brooks ruminates on career development, linking to several posts by other scientists and scientific users of Nature Network. Ian is a postdoctoral advisor, and write that there are “between 60-90,000 postdoc scientists in the US, and only ~20% will go on to become full time tenure track faculty at major/tier 1 research institutions. About 60% of that 60-90,000 say they want a full tenure/tenure-track position. Spot the disconnect? the biggest reason for this gap is not the quality of scientists nowadays as some assert, it’s just that there aren’t enough jobs: an increasing candidate pool coupled with a lengthening age-of-retirement.” One option, he suggests, is to maximize your chances of success by forming an individual development plan and creating a mentoring group. There is useful, and varied, advice in the online discussion following Ian’s post. On a similar theme, Branwen Hide writes about a recent talk she gave to PhD and early-career researchers about science policy, and asks users for their advice about making the transition from research.
I quite often post on this blog about meetings in Second Life. I’ve attended a couple, and the experience has been mixed. Joanna Scott, Nature Publishing Group’s expert on the subject, draws attention to a post about “why Second Life sucks and rocks for meetings.” Judge for yourself – or rather, wait a bit, because Joanna promises us her own article on the topic soon.
And a Nature Network blog that I’ve just discovered, a hidden gem, is Chronicle: the online portal of the University of Rural England. For a taste, John Gilbey writes this week about a proud future [to be continued].
Further science-related blog reading and online discussion can be enjoyed at:
Nature.com’s science blogs index and tracker
Nature Network’s many blogs and forums