Geekster News

All we are is dust in the wind

2006-06-22T20:42:00.000-07:00

This week I made mouse pup faces turn blue with my TOPGAL mice. We're looking for wnt signaling in the brain and heart. There is in the brain but not in the heart. I think that means my competitors are wrong! Ha ha.

Dark Times for the Rebel Alliance

2006-06-21T08:02:00.000-07:00

So I got my NIH eRA commons login and immediately went to check my grant score. 240. That's not very good. My friend Rich was triaged (twice). So as he put it this is dark times for the rebel alliance. Really for me getting a score is a complement. I haven't published a lot and I think the committee discussed my grant because they think I can do well. What I need to do is push myself so that I can get a couple of papers out. Then maybe the score will go down. Must keep my eye on the prize.

Brain Drain

2006-05-31T07:39:00.000-07:00

My institution (unnamed to protect myself) is one of those places that prominent faculty do not stay. I think that part of the reason is that Chicago is just not considered a garden spot for science. I heard this morning that another very prominent faculty member is leaving. It’s funny because I was just telling my tech that our boss would have not qualms about considering a new position, even though he just came here. The pattern is that our institution is a rest stop on the highway to scientific nirvana. Perhaps because we pay a lot to get established people to work here and then those people find jobs at “better” places. This recurring pattern reflects the nomadic spirit of many scientists and how the aspirations of lesser-known places to better themselves often cannot overcome the entrenched reputations of their institution(s).

What's new?

2006-05-25T20:45:00.000-07:00

My grant is now completely done. We sent supplemental data last Friday and we are now trying to finish up work for a paper. As usual it has been hard. The last experiment is taking longer than expected. I had a meeting with my boss and she says that she is still supports me completely. The moral support helps. Finally, I have been doing a lot of work in the lab and that has been moving the experiments along.

Finito

2006-02-04T10:27:00.000-08:00

The monster is done and FEDEXED to NIH. I am in a recovery phase right now. Who knows if it is any good. All I know is that while billions go to Iraq and Afganistan, less money goes to NIH and many talented scientists will lose their jobs because they will not be able to fund their research. This is the true effect of terrorism. If someone is truly cynical they could come up with a plan where one terrorist act could change america for a long, long time. The problem is the way we react to things. Therefore, it was really bad timing when GWB became president. Now with a predictable reaction we react with fear, spend all of our money on meaningless wars and cut meaningful budgets like NIH. But to you all I say this, I will continue to work on my projects whether or not common sense has left us. Or whether I fund this grant.

Bob

Confident but not writing well

2006-01-24T23:06:00.000-08:00

Less than one week to go and It's hard to keep up the pace with the writing. I wish I were more organized in that my ideas are very stream-of-consciousness. Hopefully I can get everything down and then go over it to improve the writing and organization. Science is a tough profession because there really is no rest (for the wicked).

Bob

One week to go.

2006-01-21T10:48:00.000-08:00

Let me tell you, the NHLBI has never seen a grant like mine before. That's not true, they've probably seen hundreds. Spirits are still high here, but with only one week to go the pressure is mounting quickly.

Bob

Grant Writing Now

2006-01-14T08:32:00.000-08:00

Dear all science geek afficianados,

It is time to pay the piper. I am grant writing and have chosen this busy time to continue posting to Tales from the lab. Grant writing boils down to this: it is an craft, not a method; it is based on what you have done, not what you will do; and it is almost entirely subjective. Peer review is a human process. What we science geeks learn is that even though we have tried for our entire lives to ignore our social skills, they come in play when we try to get money. I'll explain more later.

Grant writing is painful. One of the reasons is that you are trying to explain this complicated thing that you understand really, really well to somebody who doesn't know anything about it at all. But, you say, that other person is a super intelligent scientist like you. Perhaps, but that person is busy and not too forgiving when you write boring crap for them to read. Anyway the KISS rule applies, but that isn't simple when you are trying describe PTEN regulation in the cytoplasm.

Peace and tranquility,

The science geek.