Ask a Scienceblogger, June 9th

Assuming that time and money were not obstacles, what area of scientific research, outside of your own discipline, would you most like to explore? Why?

I guess if I had to go back and do it all again, I would have gone through with being a physicist. When I got to college I knew that I was just destined to be a physicist because that was the subject that I liked the best in high school. Little did I know at the time that college level physics is a hell of a lot more difficult than computing the trajectory of spherical cows.

This question doesn't quite apply to me though because I am still young. Modern science tolerates a great deal of transition between different disciplines later in life, and I plan to indulge as much as I can. I think my background in both the computation aspects of neuroscience and primatology could use some sprucing up.

Even more than that a more interesting question would be, "what do you want to do when you are done doing science?" Considering how long people are living the idea of a secondary career is becoming a clear possibility for most people. My father is a great example of this. He was a ER doc for about 20 years until he decided while I was in college to get a PhD in sociology. He practices medicine part-time, but he also teaches sociology at Colorado University, in addition to advising a not-for-profit student organization started there to fight student overdrinking -- there has been a problem with this in Colorado of late and several deaths. I am quite proud of him for making the transition later in life.

There is no reason why everyone can't do the same thing. In fact, there are several good reasons why people shouldn't do the same thing. Your creative output as a scientist can fall the longer you do it, and I have no interest in becoming a force of reaction in the scientific community -- rejecting all new ideas in favor of my earlier ones. I would like to contribute something, but then I think I want to try something else lest I calcify in my beliefs. As you can tell from some of my nonscience-related links I find Econ and Law very interesting so maybe I will try those.