Career path?

Sandlin, this is a very interesting idea. I would agree that bioethics will be an increasingly urgent need as our ability to manipulate genetic markers or just use them to predict potential outcomes gets more and more powerful. Not to mention the biological impact of climate change, altering brain chemistry with microchips or designer drugs . . or on and on . . .

As to a career path . . . I suspect there will be more opportunities to work on this within academia, or even government, than you might suspect, but you could always Google "Natalie Angier" or "Gina Kolata" for a possible plan B.

Bioethics- because someone should care

Based on some recent intense and precipitous conversations with various members of the department, I have decided to develop and teach a seminar in our department on bioethics. I wanted to share this for several reasons- 1) it is something I am suddenly thinking about a LOT, bigger 2) I chose to do this as a way of nucleating a new career path for myself. My teaching experience in the fall was very valuable, but got me thinking that I might not actually enjoy teaching in a classroom. But I enjoy being around people who learn things. The latest idea I have been toying with is to get involved in science policy making. Keep that in mind as I get back to point 1.

Last week, there was a seminar by an invited ethicist that I really enjoyed. She confirmed for me the idea that if scientists fail to engage the public in dialogue about the impacts of advances in technology, it will inevitably be mis-understood and legislation created to prevent/hinder it. Case in point- stem cells. I have long felt that there is a lot of mis-informed policy regarding science, and that this could largely be overcome if we had a more science literate public, which we can only get if scientists can be willing to talk about science at a level the public would enjoy. (How you get employed to make this happen is something I am still working on) The undergrads I work with felt very strongly after this seminar that the ethical ramifications and justifications of their research is something they should be talking about, and weren't. I figured, this is something I am interested in, would be good for me to get experience with and would be of value to a lot of people- I should lead this seminar.

So I sat down and wrote out a syllabus. This has been passed around to a few various faculty with lots of feedback and support... long story short, I am planning to get on the course schedule for Fall of 2010. In the meantime, I'll have time to gather materials and pilot units with a group of undergraduate fellows, so maybe by the time 2010 rolls around I'll be prepared to lead some contentious debate.

I am starting to get over giddy excitement and feel a bit of anxiety. I didn't really think I would make it this far without someone saying "that is ridiculous, no grad student in our department has ever proposed and taught their own class!" or "preposterous, you have almost no teaching experience!" or even "don't you have research you ought to get back to?" But no one has said that. Everyone has been universally supportive of this idea- faculty have proposed such a class be taught, but no one wanted to step up and do it. I have received lots of materials and ideas, and a lot of suggestions to make the course into something I am way less interested in teaching. In the meantime I am sifting through ideas of topics, formats and content that would be of interest to ~15 biology majors from a not exclusively medical standpoint, and of value to the community at large.

I need your help! If you happen to run across any good articles that you think might be of interest, I am on the look out for case studies to use in class. I am also really interested to know what kinds of things non-biologists would like biologists to start thinking about (personal genomics, a new food pyramid, defining Theory for the public?), since I am in a unique position to jump start the dialogue in the department. THANKS!

Best Monday!

This morning really felt like a big Monday was coming on- didn't want to get out of bed, couldn't find breakfast, and my boss is back in town so I should remember what I've been working on to tell him coherently. Ugh.

I got in and as expected Dr. Boss was right behind me, but instead of wanting to hear about what I've been doing (which I later remembered was a lot of great stuff), he just wanted to talk about castles in Scotland. And then- This is the Highlight- my buddy Alex comes by and says "Do you want a ticket to see the Harry Potter Premiere tonight?" Do I ever!

So yeah, I'll let you guys know how AWESOME the movie was tomorrow, or maybe after I get back from a very civilized 7 pm show.

UPDATE----
AWESOME

News from the Jesta Menace Fan Club

Could there possibly be a better way to spend a Sunday night than watching your sister-in-law school a girl in a roller skating pillow fight? The answer is obviously no, especially not if you are capping off a pretty mellow weekend otherwise. We went to a BBQ, we took a walk in the park, we slept a lot. Catching a roller derby webcast is a great way to wrap it up. Still not sure what illegal engagement actually means, but the Penalty Pillow Fight really got the crowd lit up, especially since Jesta Menace COMPLETELY DOMINATED. Shame that the Holler Rollers lost the bout, but our favorite skater was called out as an up and coming young defender.

Maybe my favorite bit though was when we saw the back of Noel's head leaning on the rail at the end of the game. Looks like a pretty fantastic spectator sport- I'll have to work on getting to a game in person, but the webcast was a good runner-up.

Sleeping off the Sunburn

Yesterday a bunch of us played hookey from work and went out tubing, again.  We did this last year and had a pretty great time.  The theory is that you rent a few tubes and float slowly down one of the rivers, usually keeping a cooler of beer in one of your tubes.  

We decided to try something a little different, we brought a keg.  Not a full one, mind, a pony keg, only 5 gallons, and there were 14 of us on the river.  Jess and I brought some food, too.  I was proud of myself for bringing some individually-wrapped little snack cake things.  They float!  :)

We went down once and it only took us about 2.5 hours, and since we weren't quite done for the day, we went back and did it again.  It was alternately relaxing and exciting, as there are a couple of places where the river gets funneled down a pretty exciting chute at relatively high speeds.  One of our cargo-tubes ended up flipping, and we discovered that our cooler floats.  Neat.  :)

I managed to keep myself unburnt by reapplying 30 to 50 spf sunscreen on myself with almost ocd-like intensity.  I escaped unscathed, but Jess got some pretty bad sun-scorches on her knees and shins.  She's napping next to me now, and is already healing up, but the drive home was no fun at all.  We do have some good aloe beach-burn stuff, though, and we layered that on for some pretty impressive relief.  We also put on some white wine vinegar, which is supposed to help out.  Anyone else ever heard of that?

Later today, we may go try and buy a car.  Wish us luck!

Oh, and THANKS to everyone who has offered feedback on my book.  I know everyone's being extra nice, but it does feel good to know that people like it.  It also feels good to have that second draft finally done.  

With love,

-N

Personality testing

Our next women's discussion group is going to talk about how to find a career that suits your personality. In preparation for this, some of us have been taking online Meyers-Briggs and other tests to see if there are any early clues. I was initially disheartened to see THREE SEPARATE SITES recommend that for someone of my particular bent, a career as a University Professor might be apt. Unbelievable! My first impulse was to can the whole idea, except that the descriptions actually fit quite well. You have no desire to lead or follow, you like theoretical ideas and to leave the details to other, you appear absent-minded to others, cannot tolerate monotony... I suppose this explains something about the professors here, as well.

For reference, I am INTP (and introverted nerd-type person like Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, or Thomas Jefferson- they call it The Architect). They say that this is quite rare, but one of our post-docs is too. It has been interesting to see how my coworkers scored. My most disenfranchised colleague scored so sensitive and empathetic she was recommended a career in art. Matt is described as the Craftsman (like Bruce Lee), he has a penchant for the technical and for adventure. So far no huge insights on what we do with this information, but I did have a crazy idea this afternoon that I am marinating just because the internet told me I like change and novelty.

Ceramics AND San Fransisco

We spent the weekend in the San Fransisco bay area visiting Matt's folks. THIS WAS AWESOME! We spent a day wine tasting in the Napa Valley- including Champagne tasting at the Mumm winery, because we are glamorous people. Then we spent two days on the world renouned M/V Delphini, the Seguin's charming yacht. We left from home port heading towards San Fransisco, where we pulled up to the pier to jump out and grab a few extra things for our sea side picninc and we headed to the Belvadere for the night- the pictures of sprawling cliffside mansions are from here. In the morning we headed out the gate- the Golden Gate that is. On the way out we saw harbor seals and jillions of dolphins! We took in the open seas before heading in to Sausalito, too charming for words! At the end of the night we bunked the boat at in Benecia and took in three different cities worth of fireworks. Beautiful.

It was really fun to hang around with Matt's Dad and step-Mom. We haven't spent much time with them, and it is very revealing to see someone I thought I knew so well with his family. I knew that Matt would love to see the boat guts and hear about all the work done to keep up the boat, but it was fun to see him jump out onto the peir to tie knots, and hear stories from when he was a kid. It was a great trip, lovely company, incredible hospitality and a well needed break for both of us. I've posted an album of photos, even once I trimmed down to shots where the people look good, the scenery is fantastic and the composition isn't appalling (yes, a work in progress) there are a LOT of pictures, of things like the OUTSIDE of the Golden gate bridge and views of the city from various vantages.

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in other news-My Summer ceramics class is over. I was prolific! and made several things I am pretty pleased with. I tried some new things- hand building, and building hands. I also made several vases that may be more functional previous iterations, and I like the colors quite a lot. Again, if anything so much as strikes your fancy, let me know because, as is apparent from the photos, we now have ceramics on every surface in our home. And apparently Matt wanted space for some of his stuff too... Check it out