It is quite easy in this business to get disillusioned when you look around and see that, for example, the NIH only funds about 10% of RO1 grants and there is no career structure to speak of for postdocs. You begin to wonder if you are any good at all, especially when you reach a certain age and find that you are really enjoying the bench work but seem to have no luck at finding a real job.
I had been mulling this over for a bit when I went along to a seminar. An overseas visitor, which is nice because we don't get out much. And I'm sitting there, trying to pay attention (because the room's warm and the guy has a suit and in personal talk seems very clued in and with it and happening, but actually is boring as all hell when he talks to a crowd), and I find myself thinking,
"Where's the hypothesis?".
Then he moves on to the next part of the talk, and I find myself thinking,
"Nuts to the hypothesis, where's the bloody biology?"
and before I know it, it is question time.
So I'm a little stunned at this point, wondering what was the point of all this somewhat derivative and rather aimless research that was funded by the NIH. Then there are some pretty sensible questions. Which he could not answer. And I realize I have a number of questions of my own, rather devastating questions (like, "What the hell were you doing for five years?"), but I bite my tongue because he is a personal friend of someone in the department, and I do not want to sour the atmosphere.
Then I have the Revelation.
I realize that I am at least as smart as this guy (except in one area), I can recognize and deal with a hypothesis, and I sure as damn' can give a better seminar. A group of five or six people, five years' NIH money, and a pile of useless, derivative claptrap. What's that all about? All right, he can write grants better than me, but by his own admission he can't get them renewed.
It's about patronage. It does not matter how good you are; if you do not have powerful friends in the right places, you may as well not bother.
Frustrated? Just a tad.
Comments
I have a lablit post and blog post coming about around this theme actually...but in a nutshell, I fully agree, and at the end of the day that's why I'm getting out of academic science. It really is bullshit. And that sucks because I am a good scientist, but I refuse to play these stupid games.
Posted by: tideliar | August 10, 2006 04:14 AM
Hey Lab Rat,
I like your blog, quite often I found your thoughts and writings that are quite parallel to what I thought about PostDocs and Academy.
Best,
muni
Posted by: Muni | September 10, 2006 02:33 PM