Five Things I’ve Learned in my First Semester of Grad School

 

(Note: some of this I’ve compiled from other blogs, notably southernfriedscience.com.  Great minds think alike.)

1. Have a hobby

This is probably one of the most important things that will help keep you sane during your time in graduate school. It can be cooking, exercising, or creating four horrible, terrible minutes of…something, I don’t know.  Regardless, having something that you can involve yourself in regularly that has nothing to do with research will postpone the inevitable nervous breakdown, at least until you have undergads who you can dehumanize.

2. Make your research a 9-5 job

This wasn’t something that I found out until after a few months, but it helps a lot to treat school like an office job in that you should try and stay on campus or in the lab for about eight hours a day.  This doesn’t have to be a strict schedule, and some days you will have things elsewhere that demand your attention.  But sticking to this idea shows your PI that you are motivated to put in the long hours needed and that you are capable of managing your own time successfully.  

You can eyeball vodka on your own time

3. Read everything you can, and then some

This goes hand in hand with number two, in that if you find yourself sitting at your desk or in the lab with nothing to do, print out an article and read it.  My first semester I must have read over 75 papers, and I cannot stress how much they helped with my research.  Not only do you get a sense of what type of work is being done in your field, it will make you a better writer.  Technical writing is essentially another language, and the best way to learn it is to immerse yourself in it.  Again, this not only makes you a more educated graduate student, but it will demonstrate to your PI your strong work ethic and desire to absorb everything you can.

 4. Find ways to motivate yourself week to week

Just to be clear, you should be absolutely sure that grad school is right for you before you decide to do it.  However, even those of us who love what we do face many obstacles, especially with regard to our research.  Writing proposals, fine-tuning protocols, and dealing with administrative issues can really take their toll on one’s drive. It happens to everyone, and it can be easy to forget why we love science when it seems to be conspiring with the universe to make us fail. I’ve found it helpful for myself to set small, weekly goals (sequence 16 individuals, bang out these two grant applications, etc). This, much like number one, can be different for everyone, but find little things to motivate you through the rough patches.  Happy hour certainly counts, due to its ability to either act as a celebratory catalyst or unite people in suffering.  

5. Get to know your peers and other researchers, and have a life in school

This should be number one in terms of importance, but I put it last because it’s Friday and my mind is gone.  Having some sort of social life while in the lab or on campus makes the other four things so much easier.  If music is your hobby, find other grad students who have similar tastes to jam or talk music with.  It’s a lot easier to put in long hours if the cute marine mammal Ph.D is also working late.  Join a journal club, or if your program doesn’t have one, start one.  It’s a great opportunity to improve your scientific literacy while also meeting people and getting exposed to research outside of your field.  And as I mentioned before, but should stress again, there’s nothing that brings grad students together more than bitching about our rough days.  People say that one of the first things to go once beginning grad school is your social life, and that may be true depending on how you define it.  But I don’t think it has to be an either/or issue, you just have to find ways to make the two overlap.

Pictured: Friends?

One Small Step

     Just this past week the National Science Foundation awarded a contract to Oregon State University to lead the design and construction of three new oceanographic research vessels.  The NSF contract grants OSU a $3 million startup sum, but the project is estimated to cost just under $300 million over ten years.  Provided the university receives the necessary funds, these vessels would act as state-of-the-art research platforms to study issues facing our coastal regions, such as ocean acidification, harmful algal blooms, and our nation’s declining fisheries.  To accomplish this, it is believed that each new vessel will be stationed on the east coast, the Gulf, and the west coast, respectively. 

            While any project that relies on governmental funding has an inherent risk of falling through, this is certainly a promising sign for the future of oceanic research.  Research vessels such as these are necessary to advance the country in scientific literacy and sustainability.  Additionally, this is the first multi-ship contract the NSF has authorized in over 30 years, which seems to suggest the public is becoming increasingly aware of how our oceans’ health is tied to our own. 

            Having said that, we as a country still have a long way to go.  The famous quote is that we have better maps of Mars and our moon than we do of our oceans.  Robert Ballard, on The Colbert Report, stated that NASA’s one-year budget would support NOAA’s exploration program for 1600 years. Our only deep-sea submersible is the Alvin, which is over 40 years old.  In a time where we replace our Iphones annually, there seems to be no reason why we can’t hold our nation’s research technology to the same standards.

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The decent is unbearable without "Where's my Water?"

       This issue of lack-of-funding for ocean exploration and science is nothing new, and there are plenty of great articles and perspectives by people much more educated than myself on this topic.  However, as researchers, we must keep in mind that fighting for scientific funding will more often than not be an uphill battle, and therefore it’s important to appreciate the little victories and practice optimism whenever we can.

Ctenophores Develop Nervous System Independently LIKE A BOSS

From Science:

"Biologists have long assumed that the neuron—with its axon, synapses, long processes called dendrites, and a suite of nerve-specific proteins—is the epitome of a specialized cell and thus likely to have evolved only once in the history of life. But a newly sequenced genome of a comb jelly...threatens to upend this view."

     This is what I’m talking about! I was exposed to ctenophores as an undergrad, but honestly before then I had no idea they existed.  Unfortunately it’s been my experience that the general public is still unaware of these nematocyst-less bad boys, instead focusing on their more painful relatives, cnidarians.  Well not any more.  Comb Jellys are coming out in full force, and it's about damn time.  Look at Pleurobrachia bachei playing it cool all these millions of years, munching on copepods and occasionally giving us a trance-lightshow in the water column.  Who would’ve guessed it was holding back this absolute game changer of a genome. If life was a game of poker, we just got shown up by Matt “comb-jelly” Damon flopping a nut straight while we were busy splashing the pot and eating oreos.  

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Look at it, just thinking about it Vegas and the fuckin' Mirage

      But seriously, a truly interesting notion that, should it prove to be accurate, represents an enormous implication for the development of life both on this planet and potentially elsewhere.  The nervous system is considered such a specialized and complex structure that many believe its evolution could only have occurred once.  Well, much like the development of segmentation, this crucial event in the history of life may have happened multiple times.  If indeed this is the case, it suggests that similar significant events may not be as rare as we originally thought. 

Which means Jeff Goldblum was right.  Fuck

References:

Dordel, J., Fisse, F., Purschke, G. and Struck, T. H. (2010). "Phylogenetic position of Sipuncula derived from multi-gene and phylogenomic data and its implication for the evolution of segmentation." Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research, 48: 197–207. 

Moroz, LL. (2009). "On the independent origin of complex brains and neurons" Brain Behav Evol: 74 (3): 177-190.

marineBIOLOGY

I feel bad for the word “biology.”  The only time it gets noticed is for a brief year in high school, which as we all know is not the ideal time to have the spotlight turned on.  Poor, pimple-faced, awkward biology attempting to compete with the “cooler” activities, like football, dance, and Facebook.  Biology doesn’t stand a chance, so instead it’s relegated to our dusty bookshelves, all the while knowing that if we really got to know it, we just might like it. 

            So biology begins to add some labels to itself, hoping that flashy words such as “evolutionary,” “marine,” and “tropical” will help attract more of a following.  And it works, to the point where many people are more interested in its label then the field it is meant to qualify, biology itself.  I’m certainly guilty of this, introducing myself as a marine biology student before any sort of clarification about how I’m more interested in population genetics and invertebrates than what riding a dolphin would feel like.

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You two make me sick

            Overlooking the scientific aspect of marine biology can be dangerous, and is certainly detrimental to its future.  It’s why many people believe that our work consists of tagging sharks and swimming with whales, and it’s why they get frustrated when they’re first exposed to the field and realize that’s not the case.  Truthfully, most of us spend 95% of our time in front of a computer, monotonously analyzing samples, reading papers, and submitting proposals so that, five years down the road, we can have the opportunity to monotonously analyze new samples, and hopefully have someone read our papers.

            This disconnect is frustrating, because although the ocean is the greatest source of potential biological discoveries, medical breakthroughs, and answers to our energy crisis, it would be irrelevant if not for the scientific process.  As marine biologists, we take this phenomenal scientific method, the same one used by chemists and physicists, Hollywood movie producers and international marketing teams, and apply it to our respective fields.  And this is what’s responsible for some of the really cool stuff out there.  Without it, we’d have no knowledge of the immortal immortal jellyfish or the oil-eating bacteria, let alone the discovery of ecosystems that think using the sun for energy is too mainstream, and are perfectly productive in total darkness.  The truth is, once you spend enough time around science, you realize it’s the title “biologist” that should turn heads and not just the qualifying “marine biologist.”  All science is fascinating and relevant, whether it’s done in your backyard or 36,000 feet below the ocean.

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"In conclusion, when exposed to an unified vocal stimulus, Red Rover did indeed come over"

           
      I’ve wanted to start a marine-themed blog for a while, but until now haven’t been able to give it a purpose.  While touching on a variety of topics, I’d like to provide insight into issues currently facing marine biology, conservation, and policy without watering down the science behind them.  This is where the cool shit is, and hopefully I can sell you on it.

References:

1.     Hazen, T. C., Dubinsky, E. A., DeSantis, T. Z., Andersen, G. L., Piceno, Y. M., Singh, N., ... & Mason, O. U. (2010). Deep-sea oil plume enriches indigenous oil-degrading bacteria. Science 330 (6001): 204-208.

2.     Piraino, S., Boero, F., Aeschbach, B., & Schmid, V. (1996). Reversing the life cycle: medusae transforming into polyps and cell transdifferentiation in Turritopsis nutricula (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa). Biological Bulletin 190 (3): 302-312.

3.     Lonsdale, P. (1977). "Clustering of suspension-feeding macrobenthos near abyssal hydrothermal vents at oceanic spreading centers". Deep Sea Research 24 (9): 857- 858