An interview was recently published in Lab Times with Peter Lawrence, who discusses what is wrong with science research - a subject that I've been talking about a fair bit at work, where the majority of other writers have done the PhD/postdoc thing then had nowhere else to go. Its quite an amusing article if you've been in the science game, with observations such as that papers in Nature, the most esteemed journal which everyone wants to get into, are so dense as to be actually unreadable. And that scientists have become little more than paper-spewing machines, where the publication becomes the end in itself rather than any idea of a pursuit of knowledge.
The basic challenge is this - get at least one first author paper out in the 2 (3 if you're lucky) years of your postdoc or thats it, you're out of science. And if you do get it, you get another 2 years (well, more like 18 months if you're going to start work on the next grant). And so on. The ultimate aim is to get your own lab group to manage, at which point you will never see the lab again and instead become buried under paperwork, meetings and bureacracy.
No wonder I, and the majority of people I did my PhD and postdoc with, have come out of science.
The other side of the problem as far as I can see it, is that there are far too many people now in science, in particular biology (especially molecular biology - my ex-field). More PhD's than there are interesting things to study, or at least when they have graduated.
Of course, I was a bit foolish in concentrating almost solely on my studies, and later my research, without really thinking where I was going, what the job scene was likely to be, and whether I was picking up enough competitive skills. Fortunately I wrote a couple of reviews during my postdoc, which must have at least helped my current job as a medical writer; my ability to do PCR and subcloning blindfolded and plate out thousands of yeast transformations couldn't even get me a maternity-leave technician job in a hospital genetics department, never mind another research post.
I don't blame anyone though, I was too focused on small things without seeing a bigger picture. Actually, I would criticise the sciences for that - I might have had much more interesting ideas for my PhD if I'd had more contact with the physics/technology/mathematics department for instance and we'd come up with a design for an artifical pancreas. It would be nice to have a bit more confidence to go an make contacts like that, but unfortunately most researchers are so absorbed into their own fields that such cross-discipline collaboration (or even awareness, at all, at what is going on - the splintering of science into ever-more ridiculously obscure fields - compare to the polymaths of old who knew a bit about everything).
Monday 9 May 2011
Monday 2 May 2011
First month as a medical writer
It's been a ridiculously long time since I wrote anything here. My new job is going ok so far. I seem to be fitting in well with the other people, which I suppose is the most important thing. There are quite a few fairly new people, mostly from backgrounds such as my own: did a science degree, PhD, postdoc then decided to go into medical writing.
For the first couple of weeks I was mostly doing admin stuff, like updating databases with information on conferences and journals, as organising events is one of the jobs that the company I work for does. Hopefully I'll get to go to some conferences soon, it's always nice, and something I never got to do during my postdoc at Manchester (well, apart from the Yeast conference, which was in Manchester).
I've now been given my first couple of writing jobs, working on producing a from a clinical for a new Type 2 diabetes drug. Firstly I sat in a teleconference meeting with a couple of members of the editorial team, and listened to our clients (a representative from the drug company and some of the doctors who had worked on the trial as they discussed what the overall aims and direction of the paper should be, what kind of stuff to put in the figures and so on. Then I was sent off to produce an outline which has turned out to be quite detailed. A lot of the time was spent organising the data from the trial into something presentable, and finding references for the introduction. They had some quite good results, so it will be interesting to see how far this new drug goes.
Not much else to say on the job really. Apart from that, I've been getting in some yoga every morning, only doing an hour or so now as I have to leave for the train at about 7.30. The weather has been so nice lately that getting up about 5.30-5.45 hasn't been a problem. I'm not sticking so much to the traditional ashtanga series now, which can take up to 2 hours to complete, I've been mixing the positions around a bit to try and get some practice with the full range of stretches etc. I think you can skip quite a few of the similar moves e.g. the forward bends in the primary series and spend more time on the harder ones.
I went to a barbeque the weekend before last and played some guitar music with some other people there, it was great fun and something I hadn't done for ages. There was four people on guitars at one point, mostly playing blues and Elvis tunes as they make a straightforward common ground. I could do with learning some more tunes though as my girlfriend has been complaining that I've been playing the same things all the time! So any suggestions would be appreciated.
For the first couple of weeks I was mostly doing admin stuff, like updating databases with information on conferences and journals, as organising events is one of the jobs that the company I work for does. Hopefully I'll get to go to some conferences soon, it's always nice, and something I never got to do during my postdoc at Manchester (well, apart from the Yeast conference, which was in Manchester).
I've now been given my first couple of writing jobs, working on producing a from a clinical for a new Type 2 diabetes drug. Firstly I sat in a teleconference meeting with a couple of members of the editorial team, and listened to our clients (a representative from the drug company and some of the doctors who had worked on the trial as they discussed what the overall aims and direction of the paper should be, what kind of stuff to put in the figures and so on. Then I was sent off to produce an outline which has turned out to be quite detailed. A lot of the time was spent organising the data from the trial into something presentable, and finding references for the introduction. They had some quite good results, so it will be interesting to see how far this new drug goes.
Not much else to say on the job really. Apart from that, I've been getting in some yoga every morning, only doing an hour or so now as I have to leave for the train at about 7.30. The weather has been so nice lately that getting up about 5.30-5.45 hasn't been a problem. I'm not sticking so much to the traditional ashtanga series now, which can take up to 2 hours to complete, I've been mixing the positions around a bit to try and get some practice with the full range of stretches etc. I think you can skip quite a few of the similar moves e.g. the forward bends in the primary series and spend more time on the harder ones.
I went to a barbeque the weekend before last and played some guitar music with some other people there, it was great fun and something I hadn't done for ages. There was four people on guitars at one point, mostly playing blues and Elvis tunes as they make a straightforward common ground. I could do with learning some more tunes though as my girlfriend has been complaining that I've been playing the same things all the time! So any suggestions would be appreciated.
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