Lab management feature art, credit: Getty Images (Getty Images) "I have worked at 5 different colleges and universities and none of them made lab coats available to the students." --Mad Chemist Chick The investigations, litigation, petitions, blog posts, and debates about how Sheri Sangji died will likely continue for quite some time. Already, however, official inquiries into the lab fire that mo...
Rutgers University (Ted Kerwin) "I feel I do have an advantage if I can say, 'You're joining a group where we have a process, we have a union, we have built-in metrics. ... I'm offering you a position where you're not just a whim, just answering to me. You're part of the bigger system.' " --Lisa Klein On 20 July, the postdocs at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, received official recog...
Drawing of graduate with dollar sign Graduating during the toughest job market in generations, many in the class of 2009 face bleak career prospects. But one category of alumni, products of the new professional science master's (PSM) programs, appears to be enjoying something close to "full employment," at very attractive salaries. That, at least, is the conclusion emerging from anecdotal reports...
Scientist in lab (PhotoDisc) (PhotoDisc) "The goal is to keep our scientists and engineers. … People can have a whole career here." -- Matthew Howard Meeting today's biggest challenges--climate change and energy independence, for example--will take major scientific breakthroughs. To accomplish them, the nation needs research organizations that are far more mission-focused and collaborative than t...
Lab worker in goggles and respirator (PhotoDisc) (Image: PhotoDisc) "I have come to the disheartening conclusion that most academic laboratories are unsafe venues for work and study." --Neal Langerman The young scientists laboring in the nation's university laboratories make many sacrifices. A needless and agonizing death should never be one of them. But that is the fate that befell Sheharbano Sa...
Bulldozer. Credit: Terinea Photo: Terinea So the key question is whether the stimulus money for science represents a one-time splurge--as big-government critics hope--or a down payment on larger future budgets--as many scientists and policymakers might wish. Of all the problems that could beset a federal bureaucrat, deciding how to shovel billions of unexpected dollars out the door in record time...
Poker Chips. Credit: Russell James Smith "I've got an idea that dovetails with this project. Can we submit a supplement for me for $100,000?"--Kelly Suter What would you do if you won the lottery? Not the little scratch-off games paying a few thousand bucks, but one of the major multistate drawings with the huge, life-changing prizes? That's the decision the nation's science-funding agencies are ...
Barack Obama BarackObama.com "We need a lot more clinical research." --Wendell Primus As the news of Barack Obama's electoral victory flashed around the world, among the millions cheering were many scientists. As part of his winning message of hope and change, the new president-elect touted an ambitious plan for science and technology that promised, among other things, to double research funding ...
Douglas Prasher Douglas Prasher I can't imagine the Nobel Committee ever seriously considering me, because I simply dropped out of science." --Douglas Prasher In the predawn darkness of 16 October 1987, the phone rang in the Altadena, California, bedroom of Donald Cram, owner of a rug-cleaning business. In a fluting voice, an unknown caller congratulated the sleepy Cram on winning the Nobel Prize...
Taken For Granted logo, credit: Kelly Krause Kelly Krause "All they told us is that we have a majority. They did not give us an exact count." -- Matthew "Oki" O'Connor, union spokesperson and Berkeley postdoc PRO/UAW, the union that tried and failed in 2006 to organize the postdocs on the 10 University of California (UC) campuses, has received official notification that it succeeded on its second...
Red hard hat Robert Pogorzelski Supervisors have largely abandoned any pretence of promising a career, except to the handful of star students usually designated early by mega-prestigious awards and publications. Joe the Plumber, John McCain's favorite working man, might not have turned out to be the perfect symbol of Americans' struggle to get ahead in hard times that the Republican presidential ...
Taken for Granted series art Kelly Krause "If you want a job, you've got to go and develop the skills for your next job. The science is important," but "you have to demonstrate to me that you can exist in a wider world." --Laure Haak Hardly anyone knows more about postdocs than Laure Haak. She has been a postdoc --at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). She has written authoritatively ab...
A flurry of activity in early March, intended to ease the problems of young scientists, did little to address America's most fundamental science-workforce issues.
Customs inspection at Dulles Airport. Credit: U.S. Customs and Border Protection "Postdocs hired at U.S. universities have become, for some time now, a new kind of cheap labor … who are most of the time only allowed to do those experiments that please their bosses, and, on the other hand, cannot many times contribute to the creative scientific process." --Otto B. Doing-Better Four and a half year...
