Thank You Science
How I Survived and Enjoyed my Career in science
It's True, science is Fun
"Incredibly relevant guidance for scientists of all levels."
- Elliot, Amazon Review
How Science Works: An introduction
A single observation can be science
Don't expect to be liked if you threaten a science holy cow
communication problems exist across the p-Chem divide
It doesn't need a double blind clinical trial to be Science, as demonstrated by John Snow, Science with a capital 'S" is the real stuff. I use science with a lower case 's' for the edifice, the societies, the politics, all that tedious stuff you have to do, so you do it.
communication problems exist across the p-Chem divide
Don't expect to be liked if you threaten a science holy cow
communication problems exist across the p-Chem divide
The PChem Divide, a term I made up to describe the barrier to communication between descriptive biologists and more mathematical types. I lived in the former for years, but in my 50s I crossed the divide, into applied mathematics, thank goodness.
Don't expect to be liked if you threaten a science holy cow
Don't expect to be liked if you threaten a science holy cow
Don't expect to be liked if you threaten a science holy cow
If your work conflicts with the status quo, or you cross powerful people's ego's, expect trouble. You will have to fight back because they'll do anything to preserve their power or position. Just think of Copernicus or Ignaz Semmelweis (washing his hands, above).
The importance of words
The importance of words
Don't expect to be liked if you threaten a science holy cow
Science is very much about words, their meaning, and of course, skilled story-telling. The best story-teller wins in the short-term. Truth, with data, wins in the long-term. I loved listening to John Ciardi on the origin of selected words. He went way back!
Reaching people
The importance of words
Everything is ephemeral
Use whatever works to get your story across, and your ideas into print. Once in print, they'll have a life of their own you can no longer control. I used Tarot cards one time, to develop a research team. You should have seen their expressions - "Morgan is crazy!"
Everything is ephemeral
The importance of words
Everything is ephemeral
Everything you do will fade into the past, but an image will remain. Best example of which I know is the individuals who developed the equation for an ellipse. This led to better understanding how the planets of our solar system move around the sun.
"chance favors the prepared mind"
The discovery of penicillin
Most scientists know the story of Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin:
"Returning from holiday on September 3, 1928, Fleming began to sort through petri dishes containing colonies of Staphylococcus, bacteria that cause boils, sore throats and abscesses. He noticed something unusual on one dish. It was dotted with colonies, save for one area where a blob of mold was growing. The zone immediately around the mold—later identified as a rare strain of Penicillium notatum—was clear, as if the mold had secreted something that inhibited bacterial growth."
He had a prepared mind, the product of examining hundreds, if not thousands of bacterial plates.
I had the same experience as Alexander Fleming, in 1973. Less important, but the same.
After 18 months of sorting through hundreds of blood agar plates, looking for a bacterial source of thiaminase type-1, a possible cause of a neurological disease of sheep, Polioencephalomalacia, I went on vacation. I left some plates in the incubator. On my return I went to chuck them out. All dried out, and there, much to my surprise, was a new growth I hadn't seen before Sticky colonies of Bacillus thiaminolyticus.
I'd relived Alexander Fleming's experience. Less important, maybe, but I'd done it.
I'd isolated Bacillus thiaminolyticus from sheep rumen contents. A first that might just explain the cause of this disease.
That was exciting.
This is what you don't see, excitement
When you read a stuffy (journals make them stuffy) scientific article, you never see the delight of discovery. Long debates about science down the pub, or over dinners. How about my having to fly to Mexico City from North Carolina for lunch with a "crook," or looking down the barrel of a rifle in China?