{"id":2082,"date":"2012-03-01T13:00:29","date_gmt":"2012-03-01T13:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/?p=2082"},"modified":"2015-05-14T15:15:29","modified_gmt":"2015-05-14T14:15:29","slug":"lenses-in-biology-from-geckos-to-grad-school-essay-from-a-phd-student-cells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/2012\/03\/01\/lenses-in-biology-from-geckos-to-grad-school-essay-from-a-phd-student-cells","title":{"rendered":"Lenses on Biology: From Geckos to Grad School – essay from a PhD student – Cells"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week\u2019s issue of\u00a0Nature<\/em>\u00a0includes a special Outlook supplement,\u00a0Lenses on Biology<\/span><\/a>. The 5 lenses are essays adapted from chapters in a new, interactive undergraduate textbook,\u00a0Principles of Biology<\/span><\/a>, published by\u00a0Nature Education<\/em>. The essays focus on what we know about\u00a0cancer<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0stem cells<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0synthetic biology<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0ocean health<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0climate change.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

To tie in with this special, we asked five biological scientists at different levels of their careers – from high school student to post doc – to tell their personal stories about why they decided to study one of the five featured subjects. Enjoy this closer look at what motivates scientists!\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Our second post is by\u00a0PhD student <\/span>Christie Wilcox<\/strong>, she talks about her career path and fascination\u00a0with the molecular world.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Christie Wilcox is a\u00a0science writer who moonlights as a PhD student in Cell and Molecular\u00a0Biology at\u00a0the University of Hawaii. She graduated from Eckerd College in 2007 with a Bachelor of Science in Marine Science. She studies the evolution of toxic proteins in fish.\u00a0Find more\u00a0about her life and work by\u00a0visiting her blog,<\/em><\/strong><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>Science Sushi\u00a0<\/a>at \u00a0Scientific American,\u00a0or\u00a0her\u00a0website<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019m not one of those people who wanted to be a biologist for as long as I can remember. Don\u2019t get me wrong \u2013 everyone else who knew me as a kid could have seen it coming. There\u2019s a note in my school record from when I was five about how I liked to \u201cfind dead geckos and open their mouths to see their tongues.” I just didn\u2019t realize that I\u00a0could<\/em>\u00a0turn that passion for animals and the outdoors into a career until I went to college. In 2007, when I graduated with my bachelor\u2019s in marine science, I felt like the world had opened itself up to me. I could do anything I wanted.<\/div>\n

That was the problem.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When you consider getting a graduate degree, you feel this pressure to be sure. PhD programs in the sciences are 5+ years of intense, focused work. When I was a junior at Eckerd College, almost all of my marine science classmates already knew what programs they wanted to apply to, who they would pick for an advisor and what kind of science they wanted to do. Not me. I loved all of it, but felt like none of it was really \u2018my field\u2019. I kept starting applications, but I didn\u2019t feel like I was taking the first step towards my future \u2013 I felt like I was filling out paperwork.<\/p>\n

As I started my senior year, I was a mess. I had looked into various programs around the world, but nothing seemed to fit. Ultimately, I realized, I just wasn\u2019t confident enough to commit the next five years of my life to someone. I wasn\u2019t ready. So while my friends applied to grad schools, I applied to jobs. I ended up spending two years as a research assistant studying adenosine A2B receptor signaling cascades.\u00a0I was bored out of my mind. It might seem strange that I am now working towards a degree in Cell and Molecular Biology given that I found work in a molecular lab mind-numbingly tedious, but I can explain.<\/p>\n

Guess what? Like most day-to-day tasks, lab work is boring. It\u2019s no better than pushing paperwork around a cubicle. There is nothing exciting about mixing chemicals or preparing tissues for molecular analysis. I can confidently say that, without a doubt, pipetting is the single most monotonous task on the planet.\u00a0The thing is, none of us choose our jobs based on the grunt work. People don\u2019t become lawyers because they like filing depositions. Doctors don\u2019t choose medicine because they like filling out patient charts. Every job has inane aspects. What you love about what you do is really your job \u2013 the rest of it is just paperwork.<\/p>\n

I got into science for a lot of reasons. I have always loved animals of all shapes and sizes. My childhood desire to gaze upon gecko tongues was just the beginning of a life-long obsession that includes squealing each and every time I hold a baby\u00a0anything<\/em>, an inexplicable urge to swim towards dangerous animals instead of away, and compulsively touching the bells of jellyfish. My passion for wildlife is only trumped by my fascination with puzzles. I am excited by the adventure of science, by the idea of stepping out into the universe and discovering something no one else has ever seen or solving a mystery no one else has. My roommate has aptly named the ridiculous way I jump up and down when an experiment works my \u2018T. rex<\/em>\u00a0dance\u2019, presumably for the manner in which I flail my arms around while keeping my elbows pinned to my sides. Given these passions, it\u2019s no surprise that the field of biology electrifies me.<\/p>\n

I’m especially fascinated by molecular biology. There’s something beautiful about the complexity\u00a0of life at such a small scale. I find it simply amazing that you can take information from DNA and\u00a0use it to learn more about that cell’s environment, activities, or even how the entire organism\u00a0evolved. We do things every day that just fifty years ago, no one would have thought was\u00a0possible and then every day we push forward even more. Stem cells are a great example – in the 1950s, we didn’t even know they existed, yet now their pluripotent potential is on the verge of creating test-tube organs and treating debilitating diseases once thought incurable. Molecular biology is one of the fastest moving fields of science, making it one of the hardest but most rewarding disciplines to study.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The problem with my post-collegiate job wasn\u2019t that I was in the wrong field. I came to realize that I didn\u2019t like what I was doing because I was a technician, not a scientist. As far as science goes, I was just doing paperwork.<\/p>\n

When I applied to graduate schools, I still wasn\u2019t 100% sure. I didn\u2019t have a project or an advisor. I hadn\u2019t carved out my scientific niche. But I was sure that I wanted to, and I was sure that I needed a higher degree to do that. I don\u2019t regret taking those years in between because I learned to trust my passion and let it form the foundation for my career. In the immortal words of Douglas Adams, \u201cI may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week\u2019s issue of\u00a0Nature\u00a0includes a special Outlook supplement,\u00a0Lenses on Biology. The 5 lenses are essays adapted from chapters in a new, interactive undergraduate textbook,\u00a0Principles of Biology, published by\u00a0Nature Education. The essays focus on what we know about\u00a0cancer,\u00a0stem cells,\u00a0synthetic biology,\u00a0ocean health\u00a0and\u00a0climate change.  Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-science-communication-and-outreach"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2082\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}