Plan B through M

  I am pretty sure that everyone has a plan B. A ‘plan B’ that involves, in my mind, an occupation different from your chosen career path…a hobby turned into a profession, taking a favorite activity and turning it into a business, writing that book you’ve had in your head for forever. This is different than a back-up plan, which is what you’ll do, for reals, if you lost your current job.

Can I have it all?

  In my first post, I wrote that I was a young scientist that wanted to have it all. On Wednesday, Professor Anne-Marie Slaughter wrote an amazing article for the Atlantic titled “Why women still can’t have it all”. Should I take that as my final answer?

Inner monologues

  I planned on posting every Friday. Just five posts later I’m already off schedule!

  In the past few weeks I’ve seen this article in the Guardian a few places. I recommend it because it’s a quick read with lots of interesting talking and thinking points. The gist is that most women do not want a career in academia after completing their Ph.D., based on a study of chemistry Ph.D. students in the UK.

Becoming a pseudo-alpha scientist

  In my last post I talked about a study that found that wearing a white doctor’s coat improved participants’ perception and attention skills. It’s an example of something outside of us influencing our abilities and perceptions. We take our cues from so many things – facial expressions, clothing, and body language. I recently came across a really intriguing video from one of the authors of the study “Power posing: brief nonverbal displays affect neuroendocrine levels and risk tolerance” (Carney et al., 2010).