14 scientific reasons to disconnect at the weekend
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Monthly Archives: December 2016
You’re a designer — act like one
To communicate effectively, scientists have to start thinking like designers: know your audience, follow the rules of human perception, and tell your story in many layers.
Naturejobs journalism competition winner Lev Tankelevitch
This past August, I visited the Naturejobs career expo in London. As I chatted with exhibitors, I was ready to decline the typical set of leaflets they give away at these things. To my surprise, I was given a USB stick loaded with all of the information that I’d otherwise be carrying home in a canvas bag. This small but much appreciated gesture highlighted for me the significance of effective communication.
Ten top science career tips for 2017
Top tens are very much a theme of the last issue of Nature for 2016. They include images of the year, 10 people who made a mark in science this year, and a review of the year in science. Naturejobs also gets into the “listicle” spirit by trawling through a year of articles to bring you our ten top career tips (and a few more thrown in for good measure) for the coming year.
1. Want to learn how to design an experiment or analyse data? Training is there if you look.
Scientific irreproducibility — the inability to repeat others’ experiments and reach the same conclusion — is a growing concern.
Much blame is placed on weak experimental and analytical practices that cause researchers to inadvertently favour exciting hypotheses.
Monya Baker reports.
In a separate post for Naturejobs, Monya runs through some of the statistical tools she discovered as part of her research. Continue reading
What motivated you to move into industry?
Speakers from industry speak about their motivations for moving outside of academia at the Naturejobs Career Expo, London, 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeKRcy6FHZw
Away from home: Making graphene flakes in a kitchen blender
We’re bringing you the best stories in lab mobility from Nature India
The ‘Away from home‘ blogging series features Indian postdocs working in foreign labs recounting their experience of working there, the triumphs and challenges, the cultural differences and what they miss about India. They also offer useful tips for their Indian postdocs headed abroad. You can join in the online conversation using the #postdochat hashtag.
Today’s blog is in the ‘breaking news’ category where Varrla Eswaraiah, a postdoctoral researcher at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland shares the excitement over his lab’s recent paper published in Nature Materials. Eswar, an alumnus of IIT Madras, tells us all about making graphene flakes in a kitchen blender and the possibility of replicating it on a mega scale. He tells us about his humble beginnings from a small village in Andhra Pradesh and how he struggled against odds to pursue his passion for science.
Varrla Eswaraiah at the Trinity College Dublin.
How important is self confidence in taking the next step in academia?
Academic speakers at the Naturejobs Career Expo, London, 2016, discuss their own self confidence and how it’s helped them in their careers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wkdLfQ_M9U
Cell Atlas launch puts spatial proteomics online
As scientific career goals go, being digitized into a 3D game avatar probably rarely cracks researchers’ top 10. But for Emma Lundberg, it’s an achievement unlocked, says Jeffrey Perkel in his first workplace technology blog post for Naturejobs.
Tracking down the holy grail of academia
Connections and research proposal that complements a department are essential in obtaining a tenure-track faculty position, Louisa Cockbill learns from Kate Smith.
Having been awarded a faculty position at the University of Colorado, newly minted assistant professor Kate Smith is preparing to move from to the US from the UK. Here, she describes her experience of tenure interviews, how to maintain a passion for research and, crucially, how to find the elusive off-switch from science.
Having done a PhD, I know the pressures of academic research and how crucial it is for early career researchers to gain advice and encouragement from the success stories of others, like Kate. I caught up with her to see what advice she would give to others curious about the tenure track.
Away from home: Industry or academia?
We’re bringing you the best stories in lab mobility from Nature India
The ‘Away from home‘ blogging series features Indian postdocs working in foreign labs recounting their experience of working there, the triumphs and challenges, the cultural differences and what they miss about India. They also offer useful tips for their Indian postdocs headed abroad. You can join in the online conversation using the #postdochat hashtag.
In our first entry from Italy, Arun Kumar, an alumnus of Bareilly College and a postdoc at Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics, Siena tells us the good and bad of being a researcher in an industrial set-up. He also gives some very practical tips for researchers looking at postdoc positions in Italy.
Arun Kumar at the Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics in Siena, Italy.
I need space to breathe, to create
Creativity – probably the best PI skill in the world, says John Tregoning
What is the most important skill to become a PI? An eye for numbers, an ability to perform repetitive tasks accurately, optimism in the face of relentless failure, the ability to play nicely with others, sheer bloody mindedness, self-belief? All of these skills will strap you into the driving seat but once there, you’ll need to press the pedals yourselves. The most vital skill is creativity; the ability to see new connections — linking old data in new ways and using what we do know to interpret what we don’t.