What is your dream of being a scientist? - (Sep/12/2006 )
I just want to see that day when while the surgeons are busy putting the liver into the recepient patient, the donor pig is taken to the kitcen for post-op cooking.
. . .and the Surgeons get a good supper too.
1. to earn a PhD degree
2. to publish in Nature or Science
3. to have my own Lab
4. to win the Nobel prize and Japan Prize
I dream of making money in science 
Crazy fool!
Dream on dream on!
When I was naive, bright eyed high schooler volunteering in a lab, my dream was:
1. Get PhD as soon as possible and start my own lab;
2. Get a townhome in Milan, Italy (My boss in high school had one, so I figured many PIs had one too );
3. Find cure for cancer;
4. Write lots of papers in prestigous journals like Science, Nature and Cell;
5. Win Nobel Prize;
6. Work till I was little old lady.
A lot has changed since then and now my dream is:
1. Getting that big RO1 or major grant and securing financial and job security;
2. Do good science and publish in good journals;
3. Lab getting respect/good reputation in field but not crazy famous;
4. Getting to a point that good people will want to work with lab and my husband and I don't have to do all the work generating data and writing.
I don't have that PhD but work with my husband who is the PI.
A little bit is bitterness/jealousy but I think a lot of what it takes to get published in Nature (and the various NatureX journals) and Science is who you know and an incredibly sexy topic. It's interesting with the more aggressive writing style of the articles in those journals, the author can make more sexy, speculative hypotheses which would get shot down by reviewers in a regular journal.
The same week we submitted a paper to one of these high profile journals, we thought would be very interesting (had public health interest along with biological interest) and got rejected, this paper was published:
A paper about the SHAPE of a pebble WTF? You got to be kidding me! I lost a lot of regard for these journals since then. I rather have 10 solid papers in a good journal than a Science paper.
Some PIs who want a lot of Science and Nature papers do this: they get a bunch of talented postdocs and squeeze everything they can out of them for 3-4 years and get 1 high profile journal article. It totally stinks for those postdocs because they worked their butts off for 3-4 years and if they're lucky, have a paper when they're looking for a real job. Some search committees might let the low number of paper slide for a candidate, but it becomes a problem for the newly hired faculty when they want to publish. They don't have a whole lot of experience writing papers. Writing like you're a Nobel Laureate when you're just establishing your lab is going to get you a whole lot of heartache and rejection.
U kick a disease out, a more chronic 1 takes its place multiplying the suffering.
So, i m not interested in pursuing something as ambiguous.
Therefore I will use science for gr8 personal gains.
And, I dont think i will get a Nobel 4 that..
Hi Scolix,
You can use your analytical skill from science and use them in stock market. Then you can make lots of money and work in science as hobby.
I am going to do it after I have finished my PhD.
But saying that would be the same as an engineer saying his ambition would be to walk across the bridge of the Starship Enterprise while in Wrap. Something possible but perhaps in a few centuries, if not millennia.
So failing that I would gladly settle on a non-sentient, multi-cellular AL. About the size of a cat… A Flit would be nice
But failing that again I would settle on a singe AL bacterium….
Now failing that again.. I guess mastery over the biosynthetic pathways of a microbe would be good enough consolation. It is more realistic and very humble lifetime goal. BUt at least the ground work would have been set, for somebody else to come and make the future a more colourful and interesting place. Not an eutopia just a more colourful place.
The PhD is just a means to this end.
literature, pop culture and philosophy all in one.. nicely done.
Short-term goals in Science:
Pass my second year histology class without killing myself and everyone around me
Stop bursting into tears when I don't immediately understand a concept (thats why I only study in private hahahaha such a brat obviously)
Minimise the amount of chemisty and chemistry-related topics I have to go near.
Now that I have got in actually finish a Medical Degree and not be lazy and drop out
TRY and do an honours project in biomedical science before starting medicine if Im not tooooo lazy.
Long-term Goals
Medical Career..not sure what yet. Not GP though.