Recently Dr. Isis was invited to author a section of a major textbook. It was an offer I couldn't refuse and, I have to confess, my section is turning out "sexy as h3ll."
Tonight I am sitting in my office working on a subsection and can't help but giggle to myself. You see, I've thought back to my undergraduate and graduate education -- days of reading textbooks that have become cornerstones of physiology, and imagining the grey-haired, white male authors in houndstooth jackets with elbow patches, writing chapters in the somber and serious environment befitting a serious educational endeavor.
Figure 1: I imagined these chapters written at a desk with one of these lamps.
But the reality as I write this section is that it is being authored by a Naughty Monkey-sporting woman, sitting at a desk surrounded by pictures her baby colored, drinking pinot noir, and listening to this:
Video 1: I just need to be sure "disco stick" doesn't end up in the text lest it then end up on some poor med student's flash card.
And now I wonder how students will picture me as an author as they read my section...
But the reality as I write this section is that it is being authored by a Naughty Monkey-sporting woman, sitting at a desk surrounded by pictures her baby colored, drinking pinot noir, and listening to this:
Video 1: I just need to be sure "disco stick" doesn't end up in the text lest it then end up on some poor med student's flash card.
And now I wonder how students will picture me as an author as they read my section...
Education & Careers
Comments
Awesome.
Posted by: Juniper Shoemaker | April 29, 2009 9:36 PM
Oh most beloved and unseen yet unimaginably hot Dr. Isis,
I will try not to think of the following video when I imagine you. Because that would just take all the nitrous oxide out of my pencil, if you know what I mean. And I think you do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EBNChW7G0M
Posted by: Harold | April 29, 2009 9:58 PM
the name says it all
Posted by: O.M.G. | April 29, 2009 9:59 PM
Dr. Isis sure uses a lot of copyrighted images without attribution on her blog. Is this standard practice in physiology? Has she secured permission to use those images? Are photographers not worthy of being given credit for their work? Theft is definitely not hot.
Posted by: jojo jujube | April 29, 2009 10:01 PM
I dig those lamps.
Posted by: sandy | April 29, 2009 10:15 PM
Dr. Isis obtains images in two ways -- first, via a search using the Creative Commons search tools for freely usable or manipulatable images. In that case, the original source is linked to in the "Figure" indicator. Second, Dr. Isis pays for a certain number of stock photos per month through the iStock website. The picture of the guy with no trousers in the last post was purchased and paid for by Isis the Scientist for the sole purpose of being hilarious.
Because, you're right, theft is definitely not hot.
Posted by: Isis the Scientist | April 29, 2009 10:17 PM
I like to believe "Bruce Alberts" is the non de plume of Lady Gaga.
Posted by: becca | April 29, 2009 11:28 PM
i never imagined someone like me coauthoring a textbook chapter, either. i find it kinda funny now, how utterly wrong my perception was. but i like the reality much better.
Posted by: leigh | April 30, 2009 12:28 AM
You rock my world, Isis. Maybe could you offer to redesign the cover of said textbook? Mayhaps...with rhinestones and glitter? Er-not that I am, in any way, inferring that a book written by a woman needs to be feminine or girly. But if she wants to be girly she can...but that doesn't mean she's not smart...it doesn't mean she IS smart. Aw, hell-just have fun, eh?
Posted by: ElectroFizzz | April 30, 2009 7:55 AM
Isis,
Actually, I think you SHOULD work disco stick into the book as a test o fhow good your editors are.
Posted by: Philip H. | April 30, 2009 8:31 AM
I am currently updating my courses for next fall, and I am now trying to figure out how to get "disco-stick" into the acid-base pathophysiology lectures. If nothing else, it will be a good answer choice for the test.
Posted by: Pascale | April 30, 2009 10:33 AM
run away. textbook chapters are a time-sucking quagmire. Once, I finished the chapter promptly to find that the 20+ other authors were all slow, some by over a year. Then I had to rework my chapter because it was no longer up-to-date. Don't look on this as an opportunity, and don't think of the editor as your friend.
Posted by: David | May 1, 2009 8:30 AM