Alex Palazzo is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at The University of Toronto.
Yesterday I and a few local PhDs had a chat with a reporter from [insert name of big newspaper here] and we started talking about the life of a gradstudent and/or postdoc in the biomedical sciences. At the end of the conversation I brought up the academic blog scene and the reporter asked for a list of blogs written by gradstudents and or postdocs. I've started to compile a list of blogs that convey the zeitgeist of life in the lower rungs of the academic ladder, but I am also soliciting your help.
What am I looking for? As an example, I'll point to Ambivalent Academic who posted an excellent set of entries on the joys and pains of academic life.
If you blog yourself or have a favorite gradstudent/postdoc blog - and it really has to be about academic life - let me know.
Education & Careers
Life Science
Comments
http://damngoodtechnician.blogspot.com/
totally off-topic I realize but food for thought about the original purpose..
Posted by: DrugMonkey | February 19, 2009 3:40 PM
I'm a first year grad student in neuroscience and have recently started a blog on the subject (linked above). I try not to bitch too loudly, since I'm writing it under my real name, but I do talk about grad life.
Posted by: Laura | February 19, 2009 5:42 PM
And if I could hitch a ride on your coattails, could you also send them thisaway.
Posted by: Edward | February 19, 2009 5:49 PM
What about blogs by people who are stuggling with spelling?
Posted by: llewelly | February 19, 2009 6:05 PM
llewelly,
Thanks for the vote of confidence.
Posted by: Alex Palazzo | February 19, 2009 6:13 PM
I write for Southern Fried Science, which is maintained by myself (a Marine Biology Masters candidate) and the Southern Fried Scientist (a Marine Biology Ph.D. candidate). We primarily write about marine biology, but life as a grad student comes up.
www.southernfriedscientist.wordpress.com
Posted by: WhySharksMatter | February 19, 2009 10:17 PM
After reading some of these blogs, I'm really glad I finished engineering grad school decades ago. I worked briefly (two quarters) as an RA at UCLA, writing FORTRAN programs, but I have a distinct feeling that either engineering or the early '70s were a lot different than the biomedical sciences or the present. I mean, I spent a lot of time playing bridge and having fun when I was a grad student.
Is it really this bad or are people just venting? If it is this bad, why do they spend their lives doing something that makes them so miserable? I can only hope that there is a burning love for the field that they rarely write about.
Posted by: Mary Shafer | February 19, 2009 11:06 PM
I can relate to what others have mentioned here; I'm a grad student in Molecular Genetics and I have a blog which discusses primary literature on that subject, but scientific life sometimes comes up.
http://amontenegro.blogspot.com
Posted by: Alejandro Montenegro-Montero | February 20, 2009 10:31 AM
I just came across a blog by a grad student researching haematopoietic stem cells:
http://pennylau.wordpress.com/2009/02/21/a-very-brief-introduction-into-my-research/
Stop by and offer her encouragement to blog on science!
Posted by: Dan | February 21, 2009 7:06 AM
Thanks everyone for all the great suggestions here and in the emails I've been receiving. Although I've already sent a compilation of sites to the reporter, keep 'em coming - I'll try to include them all in some future post.
Posted by: Alex Palazzo | February 21, 2009 1:54 PM
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Alessandra
http://www.craigslistpostingonline.info
Posted by: Alessandra | March 3, 2009 4:52 AM
Alessandra sounds nice, I would like to echo her comment (above). I am a grad student and started a blog centered around papers selected for discussion in an RNA Journal Club at MIT. I also plan to post entries dealing with general issues us minions face.
http://garciad.wordpress dot com
Posted by: David | March 21, 2009 1:22 AM
When you post the compiled list, would it be possible to group it by career stage? I'd like to read about other cynical jaded disillusioned bitter miserable postdocs.
Posted by: Melalvai | April 2, 2009 5:04 PM
young female scientist
Posted by: CT | July 14, 2009 1:21 AM