If you want to be inspired, read our new post from Dr. Jim Crowe, Professor of Pediatrics and Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology and the Director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center. He describes his journey between medicine and basic science and the truly transformative impact of research.
Continue reading “Why study that, Jim Crowe?”
Month: November 2017
Keeping up with the Literature
“Young scientists sometimes tend to neglect the literature. They look at a number of related papers when they start working on their project, but then they fail to keep looking for more papers as their research—and the work of other researchers—progresses.” “Remember that we walk on the shoulders of giants.” “At the early stages of your research career, it’s especially important that you take the time each day to get up to speed with the literature. I would recommend trying the different tools available and experimenting with your reading routine until you find what works for you.”
I pulled this intro from this recent article published by Science. Check out tips and tools from scientists by reading the article!
Knowing nothing: keeping an open mind
During your undergraduate experience, you probably had a fairly good idea of what you “needed to know” for your coursework. In contrast, you’ve probably heard that the biggest lesson of graduate school is that you know nothing. That is not entirely true, but you certainly realize in grad school just how big the world of science is and that your goal is not to learn everything but to become increasingly specialized in your knowledge and to think through information. How do you adapt to these newer, bigger goals?
Continue reading “Knowing nothing: keeping an open mind”
Deep Work
I love podcasts. I was recently catching up on my NPR Hidden Brain episodes and ran across one that is particularly relevant for for young scientists from this past summer. You should listen to it (its ~35 min long) and then check out my commentary below.
Continue reading “Deep Work”