Now on ScienceBlogs: The Galaxy's Biggest Valentine
Jake Young is a MD/PhD student at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NYC getting a PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience. He holds a BS and MS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. If a volcano were to erupt Pompei-style in Central Park, his body would be preserved in a scoliotic posture over his lab desk. Archeaologists would later conclude that he spent most of his day training rats to perform tricks, until he went blind building electrical equipment by hand using a dissecting microscope. But, still, he died happy...because science is cool.
Pure Pedantry is a blog about science -- social sciences and otherwise -- as well as academic and scientific culture. No one can live on science alone, so I also like to dwell on pop culture, periodically explore the humanities, and indulge in other types of geeky goodness.
DISCLAIMERS: 1) Jake Young is not a licensed physician (yet). He is merely a medical student. The information published on this site is not intended for use in medical decision-making. Please seek advice from a licensed, medical professional before making any health decisions. 2) The opinions expressed are my own. They do not represent the views of SEED magazine or the educational establishments I currently attend or attended in the past.
Category: Academia
Inside Higher Ed describes a study of complete rates for PhD students broken down by race/ethnicity, gender, whether the student is international or domestic, and by discipline. Here is the key chart: Cumulative Completion Rates for Students Starting Ph.D. Programs,...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 12:08 PM • 9 Comments •
Category: Academia
There is a great blogginghead.tv conversation up between two of my favorite bloggers, Megan McArdle and Daniel Drezner. They discuss whether academics are bitter. McArdle argues that the labor market makes their lives very unfortunate. Drezner argues that the issue...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 3:53 PM • 3 Comments •
Category: Academia
Yesterday I took a day off (first in a while for me), and I had a chance to see the movie Smart People starring Randy Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Ellen Page. The movie is about a rather odd...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 4:37 PM • 4 Comments •
Category: Academia
Stanley Fish of the NYTimes Think Again blog has some interesting things to say about the appointment of Bruce Benson, oil magnate and Republican activist, to be president of the University of Colorado at Boulder. The appointment raised eyebrows and...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 2:14 PM • 4 Comments •
Category: Academia
I just want to say before I start that I wrote this whole post by myself, and the parts I didn't write are correctly attributed to the proper sources. Jacob Hale Russell, writing in 02138 Magazine (Harvard's alumni magazine), discusses...
Posted by Kara Contreary at 9:53 AM • 3 Comments •
Category: Academia
The Economist has an interesting article about reforming academia in Europe to make it more transparent and competitive. Resistance is to be expected. Money quote: Unleashing universities' "full potential", and "mobilising the brainpower of Europe" are at the heart of...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 8:47 AM • 2 Comments •
Category: Academia
I had the great pleasure of working in labs as an undergrad. Most of my classmates now did as well. Part of the good experience was the ability to really narrow down what type of science I was most interested...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 12:32 PM • 1 Comments •
Category: Funding
I have talked about funding a couple of times (here and here), and I get the impression from the comments about those posts that my views are at the minimum somewhat iconoclastic. Basically, while I would prefer the government to...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 11:18 AM • 3 Comments •
Category: Academia
David Ignatius has a great column about the underestimated power of American education. American-style education is being rapidly exported all over the world, and foreign students are lining up to attend American universities at both a graduate and undergraduate level....
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 11:16 AM • 12 Comments •
Category: Academia
Steven Levitt from the Freakonomics blog has started a discussion about whether the tenure system is worth it. His argument is that the tenure system supports the mediocre and should be scrapped: If there was ever a time when it...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 4:31 PM • 27 Comments •
