On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess

If one thing is for certain it's that the domestic and laboratory goddess loved, loved, loved reading your submissions.  You wacky women are doing some amazingly hot and diverse science and I can't wait to share it all with you.  Now, Dr. Isis loves a hot heel, of that there should be no doubt.   However, Dr. Isis does the majority of her science dressed like this:

Figure 1: Dr. Isis leaves her Naughty Monkeys in her office and prepares to get some data already.

Her research environment requires her to be Naughty Monkey free and Dr. Isis's science is some of the hottest you've seen, in spite of the lack of Naughty Monkeys.  Still,  Dr. Isis realizes that some of you love your science for the same reasons Dr. Isis loves her Naughty Monkeys...

Some of you think your science is the most beautiful thing you've ever seen 

EcoGeoFemme over at The Happy Scientist is doing such hot science that it is darned near orgasmic.  She describes the experience of waking in the middle of the night with a mind full of ideas, writing:

I never though that the science muse would visit me in the night and give me my own STEM version of a wet dream.

How can Dr. Isis's Naughty Monkeys possibly compete with sheet-soaking science inspiration? I adore you, EcoGeoFemme for writing what many of us sometimes think.  Our science is so hot that it is a downright sexual experience.

 Friday Afternoon Writer tells us that, not only does she find her research hot, but others do as well.  It is absolutely, unquestionably hot when others get excited about your research.  FAW writes:

When people ask about my PhD project, they sometimes get a puzzled look in their eyes when they hear where I want to go to. Other people immediately perceive possibilities and applications everywhere. Proof Positive? Marketing students wanna work with me...

Perceval at A German in Scotland is trying to understand how people interact with computers.  If she studied Dr. Isis, I am afraid her conclusion would be "too damned much."  But, Perceval loves her work because it requires her to stay on top of a variety of topics (including, gasp, statistics) and because it gives her the flexibility to work part time.  What Dr. Isis loved most about this post is that Perceval so eloquently describes exactly how the domestic and laboratory goddess feels about her own work when she writes that her science is hot...

Because I love it and there's nothing I'd rather do.

Podblack does her science in some bad ass tango shoes. She tells us about various hot sounding things like Rasch analysis and Guttman patterns.  Next time Dr. Isis is in bed with Mr. Isis she's going to to whisper "Rasch analysis" in his ear, because she's sure there is no way it would not give him a boner.

Snarky McGeekerson is doing virology work, making viruses from genetic material and then infecting things.  I think Dr. Isis once read about this kind of wacky stuff in a Michael Crichton book.  If we all end up dying because of some crazy super bug escaped from a lab, Dr. Isis it totally blaming Snarky.  Still, Snarky goes above and beyond the call of duty, not only telling us how hot her science is, but documenting its hotness with a picture:

Some of you think your science is hot because it is the necessary accessory that pulls everything together.  Without it, the ensemble would be incomplete.

Rebecca over at Adventures in Applied Math tells us that her science is the cornerstone to the work that many of us are trying to do.  She's such a number-crunching, programming machine that she could design us all elaborately beautiful models that would allow us to save the world.  Much like Dr. Isis's teal waist-length blazer without her teal sequined Naughty Monkeys, our science would be lost without mathematicians like Rebecca.  She writes:

My science is hot because it is so all-encompassing. Applied mathematicians such as yours truly get to work with scientists and engineers studying almost anything you could imagine.

Tinkering Theorist is hot not just because she's doing great science, but because she's figure out how to take her infant out into the field with her using some hot theoretical modeling.  Now that is a science goddess!

ScienceGirl over at Curiosity Killed the Cat provides the computational expertise it takes to apply Rebecca's beautiful mathematical models to our experimental data.  Wanna know what cloud computing is?  I bet ScienceGirl knows and will make it sound just heavenly.  What a winning pair these two crazy women are?!?  Plus, ScienceGirl gets extra awesome points in this month's carnival for taunting the domestic and laboratory goddess with this picture:

Figure 3: This picture in ScienceGirl's entry gave Dr. Isis a shoegasm (an orgasm over shoes) almost on par with EcoGeoFemme's science wet dream.

Dr. Isis's feet love her Naughty Monkeys because they are exceptionally comfortable.   Some of you love your science because you are able to do it in a comfortable and supportive environment

 Dr. Isis's total blog bff Candid Engineer in Academia is working the the lab of Extremely Famous Advisor who provides her with endless resources and an unending stream of cash-money with which to pursue the things that inspire her. Dr. Isis has seen debate after debate over the role of the PI and believes that, hands down, the most important thing a PI can do is to provide and intellectual and financial environment to supports the conduct of good science.  Dr. Isis never cared if her mentor touched the lab bench as long as he was there to discuss ideas and dole out the dough when Dr. Isis was ready to roll.  That braggart Candid Engineer writes:

I have developed a novel idea that, although feasible, will cost about $100,000 just to try out. My Mangoes can get really expensive. Despite the very real possibility of a Nature paper from such work, these experiments would normally be unthinkable because of the sheer cost. Yet, all I had to do was send an email to the company that funds my research, Not Just Pits, and tell them that I wanted some really tasty Mangoes. And one week later, I waltzed back to my lab with $100k's worth of Mangoes in my coat pocket.

 Acmegirl at Thesis with Children is doing research that characterizes paradigms that have been in place for decades but have never been experimentally documented.  And, she recognizes that the resources of the lab and the ability to collaborate with others is crucial to her success as she writes:

Not a lot of labs are really set up to do the kind of work that is the bread and butter of the lab in which I am doing my thesis research. We have no shortage of potential collaborators - labs that have been studying a system for a long time who want to add a new approach, but aren't in a position to do what we do for themselves. Our approach is 'hot'.

JaneB over at Now What Was I Doing? may not see her science as "hot" in the traditional sense of the word, but she loves it none the less.  She's got a lovely lab group, a reasonable teaching load, and she's testing assumptions that have been accepted since the 1950s.  Assumptions which have never been validating.  JaneB and Dr. Isis may not agree on the formal definition of "hot," but Dr. Isis believes that questioning that which is accepted in the absence of experimental evidence is hot, no matter how you define it.

Brigindo at Dirt and Rocks is doing behavioral studies with human research participants.  But, what Dr. Isis thought was beautiful about this post was that, not only is Brigindo doing science that she finds exciting in a supportive environment, but she is working to make the experimental environment comfortable for her volunteers by providing things like fresh baked goods and Spa Day.  Dr. Isis believes that research conducted in a way that respects the dignity of a human volunteer can never be anything less than white hot (and, as Brigindo points out, "yummy").

And then there's the haterz...

Some of you are just not impressed by Dr. Isis's Naughty Monkeys.  And, amazingly, some of you seem to think that they are uncomfortable or ergonomically incorrect or that they are simply inappropriate for your brand of science.  To that, Dr. Isis just says: 

Figure 5: Thbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb! 

But, in spite of your hating tendencies, your science is still smoking hot. 

Academic Crossroads writes that her science is smoking hot specifically because she doesn't have to dress up in order to do it.  She offers these as an alternative to Dr. Isis's amazingly beautiful Naughty Monkeys: 

Figure 6: Academic Crossroads does her science in Keens.

Dr. Isis will refrain from comment.

Liberal Arts Lady is another hot woman in science who turns her nose up at Dr. Isis's Naughty Monkeys in favor of comfortable flats.  She rocks her flats while doing research at a small liberal arts college (SLAC), writing:

Half a year ago I was accepting this job, worried that I was saying goodbye to travel, important research questions, and funding. Instead I find that I have too many opportunities, minimal stress regarding publication or grant-writing, multiple funding opportunities within SLAC, and free unlimited access to high-end equipment. I'm looking forward to taking over my subfield with an army of interested, well-funded undergraduates. And I'll be wearing hiking boots.

Here's to you, LAL (even if I could never wear hiking boots) 

 Dinochick is a smoking hot paleontologist who does her work in shorts, tank tops, and sandals.  Seems to me, considering the relative lack of clothing Dinochick describes, that the science she is doing is quite literally hot.  But probably Dr. Isis's favorite reason for Dinochick's science's hotness is:

I got away without having to take Organic Chemistry in college!

That was Dr. Isis's nemesis!  Perhaps I ended up in the wrong field...

And then there's ScienceWoman.  ScienceWoman does unquestionably hot science in shoes like these:

Figure 7: ScienceWoman's ScienceShoes (and ScienceDog).

Dr. Isis was completely onboard with ScienceWoman's ScienceHotness until she threw down the damned gauntlet by claiming that these shoes are hotter than Dr. Isis's Naughty Monkeys.  Those are fighting words, ScienceWoman.  I hope you're prepared to scrap. 

Finally,  Silver Fox over at Looking for Detachment claims that her science is hot both figuratively and literally.  Silver Fox gets to climb around on rocks in field boots and sandals, in lieu of Naughty Monkeys which, although beautiful, might not be the best rock climbing shoes.  And, she's studying volcanoes.  Can you get hotter than volcanoes?!?  I applaud Silver Fox for both her figurative and literal interpretation of my theme.

This month's Scientiae was an absolute blast to write.  I had a ball reading about the different and diverse things people are studying. Still, I believe one thing to be certain -- even though you each study remarkably different things, you're all pretty passionate about what you're doing. 

Being passionate about science is always hotter than Dr. Isis's Naughty Monkeys.

Figure 8: A love of science is hotter than Dr. Isis's Naughty Monkeys.