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[oldhen]

This post comes to you from Cold Spring Harbour - where I've been hob-nobbing for the past few days with fellow fly neurobiologists.At five days the meeting's just a little too long too, there's only so long that you can keep up a 7:30am - 2:00am schedule.. I'm too tired to bother making this sound coherent, so pardon the jumbled thoughts

Comments

[rileen]

This place is like a temple to Jim Watson (of the double helix fame), come bow o lowly mortal to Lord God of the Helix.. The bookstore even comes complete with Jim Watson bobble-head dolls ( I kid you not).. The dolls have a big head - go figure..

*boggled, followed by laughter*

Yes, networking is sadly a little too big a factor these day, and the clique-ish-ness is amazing, sometimes reducing to 'you publish my article, i'll publish yours' !

Have a nice weekend :-)

[oldhen]

*boggled, followed by laughter*

:-) Those dolls were too funny - something right out of a Monty Python skit.. You can also buy an autographed, framed Watson photograph for $2000!

clique-ish-ness is amazing, sometimes reducing to 'you publish my article, i'll publish yours' !

This was the only real annoying part - guess it's going to take some getting used to..

[beerbal]

Hmm. I think you're right about the networking part. Even in research, topics and methods tend to be in fashion or out, and it gets quite difficult if one is not an insider.

Do you work with fruitflies?

[oldhen]

gets quite difficult if one is not an insider.

Exactly, there's all this schmoozing that needs to be done, guess it's all part of learning to play the game..

Do you work with fruitflies?

Yup, fruitflies! Have been trying (for the past 5 yrs or so) to study neurobiology in flies.. They're a great model system, capable of a suprisingly large range of behaviours, and share some >50% of human genes, it's all rather humbling in some ways..

[subtle_blues]

The science is truly just a part of being a scientist these days..
that's so true.. realised I really can't be a good scientist if I choose (for sheer love of it)to worship my own work and not care what the world has to say abt it!
*sigh*

any holiday coinciding with the weekend is not worth celebrating.. :o)

[oldhen]

choose (for sheer love of it)to worship my own work and not care what the world has to say abt it

Sad, but true for the vast majority of us, anyways.. :-)

holiday coinciding with the weekend is not worth celebrating..

It's a very american thing to tag the holiday on a monday to get a three day weekend, I miss the mid-week holidays.. How goes life post-Rita?

[subtle_blues]

How goes life post-Rita?
we are having a test hurricane right now.. :( and I think I kinda goofed up my first test..
*sigh*

[oldhen]

I think I kinda goofed up my first test..

No-one really cares for grades in your PhD.. A former grad student in the lab put it best I think when someone asked him about academic life in grad school - "B, B, B, B, B - PhD" :-)

[metafizzics]

7:30am - 2:00am schedule

Crap! Don't tell me you have meetings till then? Or is it beer parties?

Oooh, CSH- I'm jealous!

And I agree- I don't get the whole networking bit either... aren't scientists supposed to be recluses? There's no getting away from the boo-licking and the butt-smelling, I guess.

[oldhen]

Don't tell me you have meetings till then?

No, no the talks end around 11pm typically, and there's isn't a lot to do in COld Spring Harbour apart from going to the bar, so everyone descends on the bar every night for a few hrs or so.. CSH is alright, not all it's cranked up tpo be - but, maybe that's just the cynicism of the old grad student :-)

aren't scientists supposed to be recluses?

I think they were in the old days, science these days is so high=strung and competitive.. far too much boot-licking and back-slapping..