The Egyptian goddess Isis was celebrated as the ideal wife and mother. The blogger known as Dr. Isis has some fancy-sounding degrees and is a physiologist at a major research university working on some terribly impressive stuff. She blogs about balancing her research career with the demands of raising small children, how to succeed as a woman in academia, and anything else she finds interesting. Also, she blogs about shoes. In fact, she blogs a lot about shoes.
"Set Oculus" is obviously a pseudonym. My real name is mysteriously hard to pronounce. I live in the rust belt of the US but am fortunate to have an income that allows me to pursue my interests in science and culture without starving. I'm very geeky. I like Star Trek but I don't get "slash" fiction; the thought of Star Trek characters "doing it", well, it's like your parents doing it. Ew.
I care. I really do. That's why I'm a voracious consumer of news, books, journals, and blogs. My writing reflects whatever my ADHD allows me to focus on at that particular moment so if you're looking for some sort of "theme", forget about it. I welcome your emails, comments, etc., but because I care, I may be quite critical. (That was a gentle warning.)
Blogroll
My blogroll has gotten too big for the regular sidebar! So, check out all of the delightful blogs that Dr. Isis reads regularly by clicking here. If you'd like to be added to the blogroll, shoot an email to isisthescientist at gmail dot com.
I had an interesting comment appear in something I wrote earlier. This particular comment suggests that the blog traffic of yours truly has gone down, I am less popular, and my commenters and I are fatigued with this blog. "Meh," I say unto him. Dr. Isis is not fatigued. The reality is that the blogosphere is changing and I have been working on a few new projects. I will be able to tell you about them on Monday when things are ready to launch. In the meantime, this particular commenter can rest assured that yours truly is not "fatigued." Yours truly is working on what happens next. I think you're really going to like what happens next.
Figure 1: To be honest, the only thing I am fatigued with are the people who seem to "know" what is happening to my blog, the traffic of Scienceblogs, and the "Oh Noes Stability of the Science Interwebz." I say "get a fucking grip" unto thee. It is terribly difficult to be both incredibly hot and incredibly fatigued by all of the gazing at my navel that is going on right now.
But this particular comment did get me thinking about the subject of fatigue in science. I know that many of you will forgive my stream of consciousness ramblings here. I look at echocardiograms several times a week. Each time I see one I think to myself that it is the most amazing thing I have ever seen.
Video 1: A pediatric echocardiogram. The four chamber view of the heart absolutely makes me melt.
But my life in science is not all echocardiograms and rainbows. Right now, to be honest, my life is bureaucracy and shenanigans. I have progress reports to complete. My human research coordinator, who has been here for a couple years, is leaving in a couple of weeks to continue her education and we are interviewing new candidates. I hate interviewing people. I cannot tell you how much I hate interviewing people. I interviewed and hired people when I was an industrial scientist. I hated it then. I hate it now. They're nervous. I'm bored. The same questions over and over and over. Then there is all the training after you've hired someone. I just need to find someone who can read my mind. Is that so much to ask?
Video 2: Thank goodness for Angry Birds
This would be bad enough, except that we are also having to change labs in the next few weeks. The building that we currently occupy is being remodeled and we have to move into new space in a different building far away. This new space, as it is now, kind of sucks my ass. A lot. And, the process of moving is more layers of shenanigans than one should ever have to deal with. Part of me dreads going in tomorrow to know that this has to be dealt with. Again. Interviews. Movers. Interviews.
Movers. The safety department who must be called to move the chemicals. Can't I just put the chemicals in the trunk of my car and get it over with?
It is times like this, when the ability to do science becomes complicated by day to day monotony, that I begin to feel fatigued with science. I realized this afternoon, while listening to someone talk about our work with interpretations that were several years old and not supported by our most current data, that we are not discussing our data enough. While I continue to generate data and findings that are novel to others, many of these ideas feel old and rusty to me. Because the only discussions we have revolve around hiring and moving, there are not new scientific discussions to advance our hypotheses, challenge our current thinking, or drive us in innovative directions. In many ways, the ideas have stagnated. It can be hard to overcome the boredom of the stagnation of ideas.
I realize that many are very analytical about their science. For me, the joy in science comes from realizing that you are looking at data that no one else has seen. I remember standing at the bench with a new student several months ago looking at a piece of data. I leaned over and whispered to him, "I want you to remember this instance, looking at these data. Right now, you and I are the only people in the world who know this thing." The smile on his face while he pondered that little secret that we shared was amazing. Absolutely, truly one of the reasons I do science.
So, I have been trying to break out of my science fatigue by seeking out faculty here at MRU with complimentary interests. I've formed some interesting new collaborations and our discussions have generated some fascinating preliminary data. I think these collaborations are going to be valuable in the long run. But, I still have to break the initial source of my science fatigue. Hopefully getting through this hiring process and getting moved into our new lab space will take care of that. Then I can go back to focusing on the fun parts of science.
Then again, I often wonder if I will remember these times of fatigue when I am an old, grey-haired faculty member at my retirement dinner. I have been watching videos of interviews with the legends in physiology and I rarely hear them mention the time they felt uninspired because they had to focus on some lab management shenanigans. No, instead I hear people like respiratory physiology legend John West talk about being around for the creation of radioactive oxygen-15. When faced with this potential new tool, John West asked himself what he should do with it. In total PhysioProffian form, he realized, what else could he do with it but inhale it? Retrospectively, this seems to overshadow the moments of boredom.
Video 3: If you are familiar with John West's Respiratory Physiology textbook, which is pretty common reading in medical school, this video is worth a watch. It's worth a watch even if you have never heard of John West.
I suppose it is possible that I am completely overthinking all of this and that I will look back and laugh at my foolishness in a couple of months. I am really looking forward to that time.
It's Friday morning and I don't feel much like tackling a new project. So, in the spirit of amusing myself, I meandered over to Prof-Like Substance's joint. Seems like he is openly applying to join the Nature Network. If you're interested in such blog network navel gazing, head on over and give his application a gander.
Edit: So, apparently it is only Thursday. Silly me. This is like the week that will not end.
A friend of mine sent me the following video today. It is footage of renowned physiologist John Severinghaus talking about the White Mountain Research Station. As a bit of background, John Severinghaus is a big deal in physiology. If you have ever been in the hospital and had to have the O2 and CO2 in your blood measured to determine if your heart and lungs were working properly, you can thank John Severinghaus for the ability to have that test done. Dr. Severinghaus built the first blood gas machine and is credited for the first functioning CO2 and O2 electrodes. If you want an interesting read, click here for an article about the creation of the first blood gas machine and a couple great pictures.
Dr. Severinghaus is also the first to use mass spectrometry in the operating room to measure anesthesia gases.
But, back to the video at hand. A friend sent me this video in which Dr. Severinghaus talks about his work studying altitude on White Mountain.
If for no other reason, it is a fascinating oral and visual history of physiology. My favorite parts of the video are seeing people drawing spinal fluid from each other at the top of a mountain and blood from each other with no gloves on. Indeed, this is the way much of our knowledge about how we respond to altitude has been obtained. Groups of scientists who were interested in climbing would pack their gear, go to altitude, and study each other. I wonder if these types of studies would be approved today.
Ok, I don't really wonder because I am afraid I already know the answer.
It is becoming increasing difficult to have invasive studies approved by an institutional review board. It is damned near impossible to convince them to allow you to study each other. And while I understand the arguments about not allowing postdocs and graduate students to experiment on each other (not that I necessarily agree with them), there are some who believe that the regulation of research is excessive and is driving qualified and enthusiastic investigators away from science. I think he may be right. I know that in the next several studies I am planning I am considering making less than optimal measurements not because I know they will be safer, but because I know the IRB won't give me a hassle about them. And, these are measurements that have been made previously routinely in the literature. I wonder if in the long run this new practice enhances the safety of human subjects or simply enhances the volume of suboptimal data in the literature. Is it better to study six people invasively and obtain definitive data or 130 people noninvasively and obtain data whose interpretation is left to question? Unfortunately, today's IRB's tend to require the latter.
Which is a shame because few studies have advances physiology the way that Dr., Severinghaus's studies did.
You might not think that it is possible to pull a neck muscle while looking into a microscope, but I assure you that it is. The left side of my neck will confirm this for you.
Anyone else have any hilarious science-related mishaps? Other than Candid Engineer who has a post up that is still cracking me up...
Yes, little darlings. That is the title of this edition of Ask Dr. Isis. I can't come up with anything more hilarious than this situation already is. So, let's just get to the letter...
A graduate student reader asks me:
Hey Isis,
So I have a bit of a potential ethics conundrum, and you're always a font of wisdom for all things graduate education-y. Basically, one of my committee members who's junior faculty down at our lab is moving up to big university (several hours away) but still has teaching responsibilities down here next semester. So he's planning to commute down here during the week and wants to rent a room from me.
Living on a sparsely populated island, faculty and graduate students down here tend to interact a lot more socially than at other bigger schools. With that in mind, do you think there's any major ethical issues involved with a graduate student being a committee member's landlord/housemate? My prelims are done and I'm years away from defense.
~The Student Landord
Oh, Student Landlord. Oh, oh, oh Student Landlord. You might be thinking that this is a good idea until you first get up in the middle of the night and find your committee member...
Figure 1: Your committee member making a little midnight snack.
Are there any ethical issues with having a committee member as a housemate?
I think it creates a gigantic conflict of interest. As your committee member he has power of you. What if he doesn't pay his rent? Would you be willing to evict him? Are you willing to approach him if he ends up being messy? Or has really loud sex? And, as your committee member, will he evaluate you fairly if he knows that you have the ability to put him out on his ass. I think if i were on a panel that was charged with evaluating a candidate, and I knew that one of the members was living with the person being evaluated, I would feel very uncomfortable about the situation.
But, what if he still did evaluate you fairly? That could create its own set of problems. When I was in graduate school and choosing my committee, I picked one member that I thought was a really cool guy. I had some classes with him, we acted very friendly toward each other and talked quite a bit, and I thought that he really liked me personally. When I had my preliminary exams he was harder on me than any of my other committee members and I remember a part of me feeling hurt by the way he treated me. I thought he really liked me. Why had he treated me that way if he liked me? Later I got a fucking grip and realized that by holding my beautifully shod feet to the fire, he had done me a great service. But, for a small moment in time I felt betrayed. How will you react if your housemate takes you to task during the rest of your education?
Just don't do it.
Even if it is a small island, there are probably plenty of places this guy can live, other than with his graduate student. If you are going to do it, get him off your committee.
Earlier today I was reading Drugmonkey's Twitter list and found a link to a website from the US Veteran's Administration listing the different emblems that servicemen and women can choose for their headstones. According to their website:
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) furnishes upon request, at no charge to the applicant, a Government headstone or marker for the unmarked grave of any deceased eligible Veteran in any cemetery around the world, regardless of their date of death.
I glanced at the different emblems and was initially impressed by the diversity of emblems offered.
Figure 1: A sample of the belief emblems offered by the VA. Click on the image to embiggen. A legend is available on the VA website.
Now, don't get me wrong. I think it is very appropriate that someone should be able to indicate their atheism on their government-provided headstone. I am more than happy for my tax dollars to be used for that purpose. There are a lot of atheists on this network who consider themselves scientists or science informed. Even though I think that many of them are not as skeptical as they would like to believe they are, after all we all have our biases, they largely do a good job evaluating science.
But, there are also a number of atheists who are not science informed, or even science accepting. Some of them are mothers of Little Isis's friends. I recently took Little Isis to one of his friend's birthday parties. The mothers sat and chatted and, at one point in the conversation, some of the mothers began discussing where they attend church. One of the mothers indicated that she was an atheist. Yet later, when we discussed vaccination. I learned that the atheist mother was an anti-vaxxer.
An immediate member of my family considers himself an atheist. Yet, he is just as wrapped up in detox and nutrition quackery, drinking alkaline water and taking nonsense nutritional supplements, as many of my friends who believe in a deity.
To universally conflate science and atheism is just plain nonsense. I wonder how many of the servicemen and women who might choose the atheist emblem are scientists? What about the array of scientists who work for the armed forces? And the ones who believe in a deity? How do they express their belief in the importance of science? Personally I think like this:
Figure 3: Christian science?I wonder if the atheists would have objected to this if their emblem had been the atheist A, but Christians had adapted this symbol?
But, that's just as ridiculous as the atheist science emblem. So, maybe we should just keep faith and science separate.
Earlier this afternoon Jason Goldman at The Thoughtful Animal pointed me to this post over at Wired. Apparently, BP has been caught perpetrating some blatently bad photoshoppery and Wired has called on the internet community to take it to the next level.
Now, we all know that Dr. Isis is the Scienceblogs Queen of Photoshop. So, how could I not contribute an entry? For all BP's FAILs, check the wired site. First, here is the original I used as my template:
Figure 1: The original is on the left and the Photoshopped version is on the right. Click to embiggen.
Now, here is Dr. Isis's entry:
Figure 2: Because this is what most people are doing at work, I figure.
Now, head on over to Wired and add your own hilarious contribution.
Figure 3: Christian science? I wonder if the atheists would have objected to this if their emblem had been 
