time warp
WTF? It's March 6th, 2011?! I feel like Rip Van Winkle. Last I remember it was 2003, and I was an undergrad at Brockport. Where has the time gone?
Oh wait, I've just been absorbed in reading through my old blogs that I found on myspace. Excuse me for my temporary nostalgia-induced insanity.
I found this (below the cut) entry particularly interesting. It was written over 3 years ago when I was just a newbie at the beginning of the long arduous road to my PhD. I'm not sure how different this rant would be if I were to write it today. I'll have to sleep on that idea.
Jan 31, 2008
I started updating my heroes section, and then it turned into a mini-rant for some reason. So I decided it was probably more appropriate fodder for a blog.
Heroes-
people who do science for science's sake (SFSS). People have asked me many times why I want to be in science. Honestly, it's for the money. That stipend keeps me living the high life...hahahahaha*uncontrollable laughter* collecting myself...ok, I'm done.
But honestly, people are surprised when I say I just like science.
Why do I have to cure every ailment known to man? Maybe I just do research because I'm really fucking curious. I mean, if I help people along the way that's great. But honestly, no matter how you try to spin it, basic research does not have the same goals as clinical research. And believe me...you have got to spin it around and around in today's scientific community. Do you think the NIH is willing to just hand out money to people who are curious? No, and it's been even worse in recent years with this shitty president who doesn't give a shit about science unless it's NASA and launching rockets. But I digress.
My lab studies the insulin signaling pathway in flies. Many things are conserved between flies and humans. This is only a starting point though. Then they probably try in mouse, then look at human cell culture. But probably less than 10% of what we discover will actually filter through to humans. There are of course exceptions. Noteably, the big science breakthrough of the year in which two independent groups learned how to transform human fibroblast cells into stem cells.
Maybe I am in some way doing a service to humanity. Obviously we can't do to humans what we do on a regular basis to our flies. For example, today I anesthetized flies, chopped their heads off, and dissected out their guts. Then I looked at the expression of armadillo, prospero, and delta proteins. Maybe, in a far off galaxy, the things that I discover about intestinal stem cells will be of importance. I also anesthetized females and put them in a vial, then I threw in a male to set up a cross. (Can you imagine being a male fly? One minute everything's cool, then the next you wake up in a dazed stupor surrounded by virgin females. woah nelly).
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, you can't do certain things to humans. Like, it's probably not ethical to put 200 of them in a cage, and count them every couple of days to see how many are still alive, but with flies we do this all the time for aging experiments. We don't feel guilty, we can sleep at night, and PETA leaves us alone.
Ok, seriously, where was I? yeah, I might, possibly, somewhat in someway be helping research down the line by doing quick and dirty experiments that might have the capability of translating to humans.
But if I really wanted to do science to help people, I would probably get very depressed. I myself am not going to come up with a cure for cancer. So I guess I am quite fortunate that I enjoy science for science's sake. It seems the popularity and glamour of this position has been gone for a long time now. Watson and Crick elucidating the structure of DNA...that is classssic SFSS. In fact it was one of the biggest discoveries in science, and it didn't have anything to do (directly) with disease, development, etc. It was just pure and simple...."we didn't know and we wanted to know, so we figured it out." ahhhh...it seems beautifully pure to me.
So perhaps all my thoughts on this topic make me selfish, but isn't the goal of life to find something you love doing. I may not be helping anyone, but I'm certainly not hurting anyone am I? I know many people think basic research is pointless, but arguably I think anything could be considered pointless by at least one person and their opinion....For instance, what about grown men who get paid to play sports in front of a crowd of people? These people are making millions of dollars! Not that I don't enjoy sports, I do....but, if they didn't exist the world would go on. And the fact that this industry does exist is fine too. You can choose to ignore it.
In fact, maybe you could also choose to ignore the existance of this entry. I think I am having a bout of insomnia. And this stream of consciousness is a result of sleep deprivation. But if you don't choose to ignore it, feel free to respond (if you actually follow my thought process and make it through this entire novel) and let me know if I am a) crazy b) selfish c) normal in thinking this way d) a&b e) all of the above or f) shut the heck up .........where was I?
Oh yes, I'm going to bed.
/meandering babble
Oh wait, I've just been absorbed in reading through my old blogs that I found on myspace. Excuse me for my temporary nostalgia-induced insanity.
I found this (below the cut) entry particularly interesting. It was written over 3 years ago when I was just a newbie at the beginning of the long arduous road to my PhD. I'm not sure how different this rant would be if I were to write it today. I'll have to sleep on that idea.
Jan 31, 2008
I started updating my heroes section, and then it turned into a mini-rant for some reason. So I decided it was probably more appropriate fodder for a blog.
Heroes-
people who do science for science's sake (SFSS). People have asked me many times why I want to be in science. Honestly, it's for the money. That stipend keeps me living the high life...hahahahaha*uncontrollable laughter* collecting myself...ok, I'm done.
But honestly, people are surprised when I say I just like science.
Why do I have to cure every ailment known to man? Maybe I just do research because I'm really fucking curious. I mean, if I help people along the way that's great. But honestly, no matter how you try to spin it, basic research does not have the same goals as clinical research. And believe me...you have got to spin it around and around in today's scientific community. Do you think the NIH is willing to just hand out money to people who are curious? No, and it's been even worse in recent years with this shitty president who doesn't give a shit about science unless it's NASA and launching rockets. But I digress.
My lab studies the insulin signaling pathway in flies. Many things are conserved between flies and humans. This is only a starting point though. Then they probably try in mouse, then look at human cell culture. But probably less than 10% of what we discover will actually filter through to humans. There are of course exceptions. Noteably, the big science breakthrough of the year in which two independent groups learned how to transform human fibroblast cells into stem cells.
Maybe I am in some way doing a service to humanity. Obviously we can't do to humans what we do on a regular basis to our flies. For example, today I anesthetized flies, chopped their heads off, and dissected out their guts. Then I looked at the expression of armadillo, prospero, and delta proteins. Maybe, in a far off galaxy, the things that I discover about intestinal stem cells will be of importance. I also anesthetized females and put them in a vial, then I threw in a male to set up a cross. (Can you imagine being a male fly? One minute everything's cool, then the next you wake up in a dazed stupor surrounded by virgin females. woah nelly).
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, you can't do certain things to humans. Like, it's probably not ethical to put 200 of them in a cage, and count them every couple of days to see how many are still alive, but with flies we do this all the time for aging experiments. We don't feel guilty, we can sleep at night, and PETA leaves us alone.
Ok, seriously, where was I? yeah, I might, possibly, somewhat in someway be helping research down the line by doing quick and dirty experiments that might have the capability of translating to humans.
But if I really wanted to do science to help people, I would probably get very depressed. I myself am not going to come up with a cure for cancer. So I guess I am quite fortunate that I enjoy science for science's sake. It seems the popularity and glamour of this position has been gone for a long time now. Watson and Crick elucidating the structure of DNA...that is classssic SFSS. In fact it was one of the biggest discoveries in science, and it didn't have anything to do (directly) with disease, development, etc. It was just pure and simple...."we didn't know and we wanted to know, so we figured it out." ahhhh...it seems beautifully pure to me.
So perhaps all my thoughts on this topic make me selfish, but isn't the goal of life to find something you love doing. I may not be helping anyone, but I'm certainly not hurting anyone am I? I know many people think basic research is pointless, but arguably I think anything could be considered pointless by at least one person and their opinion....For instance, what about grown men who get paid to play sports in front of a crowd of people? These people are making millions of dollars! Not that I don't enjoy sports, I do....but, if they didn't exist the world would go on. And the fact that this industry does exist is fine too. You can choose to ignore it.
In fact, maybe you could also choose to ignore the existance of this entry. I think I am having a bout of insomnia. And this stream of consciousness is a result of sleep deprivation. But if you don't choose to ignore it, feel free to respond (if you actually follow my thought process and make it through this entire novel) and let me know if I am a) crazy b) selfish c) normal in thinking this way d) a&b e) all of the above or f) shut the heck up .........where was I?
Oh yes, I'm going to bed.
/meandering babble