This week's Ask a Scienceblogger question is:
"Assuming that time and money were not obstacles, what area of scientific research, outside of your own discipline, would you most like to explore? Why?"
Musings below the fold...
First, I'll note that this question was actually somewhat difficult for me. I really, really like my job. It's a combination of all the things I "wanted to be when I grew up." Part medicine, part author, part teacher, part disease researcher (OK, so it's not investigating Ebola in the DRC, but it's still interesting). But, if I had unlimited time and money and had to go down a different road, I could see a few possibilities.
First, anthropology. I know that's a giant field and I don't know what in anthropology exactly, but the idea of investigating ancient cultures (or heck, even current cultures) is appealing.
Second, ecology. I occasionally write about bacterial ecology and how little we know about it, and the interaction of all sorts of different ecosystems--both macro and micro--is an area that's a bit outside of my own little research corner, but one that has huge implications for all of us (such as, y'know, how bad are we destroying all the diversity on the planet?)
Third, I could go a completely different way and pick history of medicine. One of the most fascinating courses I took as an undergraduate was on medical anthropology, which introduced me to a variety of ways of looking at healing and medicine. I followed that with a more comprehensive history of medicine course, looking at the evolution of medicine from ancient times to the modern day. And of course, I wouldn't have to go toooo far from my current love: I could investigate past disease outbreaks and the effects they had on society, or something along those lines (although Buridan's area of interest also sounds fascinating).
