Total Internal Reflection @TIR_scienceblog@qoto.org
Total Internal Reflection (https://totalinternalreflectionblog.com) is a blog about the human side of science, written by Brooke Morriswood.
Postings include commentary, and how-to guides for young scientists to improve their soft skills.
Joined Nov 2022
One week in to #Movember2023 and it's time to celebrate some more great scientists with great #moustaches! Here's Part II of the TIR Movember series. Anybody you'd like to nominate for the 2023 edition?
http://totalinternalreflectionblog.com/2018/11/19/great-scientists-great-moustaches-pt-2-a-movember-posting/
#Movember2023 is under way! For those not in the know, the #Movember foundation raises awareness of #MentalHealth, #ProstateCancer, #TesticularCancer.
To tie in with the event, TIR has an annual posting of "Great scientists, great #moustaches", and 2023 will be no exception!
First though, let's take a look back at previous iterations in the series... Got someone you'd like to nominate? Let me know.😃 👨👇
It's an oldie but a goodie, re-upping it for #Halloween2023 - the #9types of horror lab. Happy Hallowe'en! 🎃 👻
http://totalinternalreflectionblog.com/2022/10/31/the-9-types-of-horror-lab/
New #posting! This one suggests that good #mentoring offers an escape to the #RedQueen problem faced by many (most? all?) contemporary group leaders in #academia. Hope you like it! 👇
https://totalinternalreflectionblog.com/2023/10/29/a-riposte-to-the-red-queens/
"More and more bitter, self-pitying, repetitive" - a regular reader slams TIR's recent content (ouch!). Reminds me of a similar discussion I had nearly a year ago that inspired the following posting (👇)...it's certainly difficult balancing scientific wonder with structural commentary. But point taken; let's see if I can provide a bit more sunshine 🤩
http://totalinternalreflectionblog.com/2022/11/17/a-letter-to-a-friend/
Interested in #mRNA and #trypanosomes? My dear (Tootless) friend Susanne Kramer has a #DFG-funded #PhD position available now in my old home of the University of Würzburg. Full details (including contact email) in the pic below 👇
New posting! This one riffs on a few talking points from my latest (not quite my last!) paper, namely the role of #preprints in accelerating research and providing a "director's cut" of papers, how NOT to do #PeerReview, and the importance of involving #undergraduates in frontline research.
New posting! After #LeavingAcademia at the end of April, my "jobseeker" status lasted exactly 2 weeks in the end. As of Friday I have now started a new career direction in #MedComms - some thoughts on that in the posting 👇
http://totalinternalreflectionblog.com/2023/09/03/a-new-direction-the-switch-to-medcomms/
New posting! It was an honour and an absolute pleasure talking with Bruno Lemaitre about the impact of #narcissism on #science.
Bruno discovered the role of the #Toll pathway in the #Drosophila immune response to fungal infections, but the #Nobel prize went to his postdoc boss, Jules Hoffmann.
Besides the interview, there's also a link for the FREE download of his book on the topic. 👇
I would really like to do a 2nd iteration (& regular series) of this posting concept👇.
I'm looking for #BIPOC/#BAME scientists to share their stories not of what they do, but of what inspired them to follow a career in #STEM. Maybe a teacher? A friend of the family? A TV programme?
Message me/reply if interested. #MySciMoment
New posting! This one is a #HowTo guide on how NOT to start a research group in #academia - in other words, all the things that I wish I'd done differently or that I wish I'd been more aware of when I started back in 2015. I hope that helps anyone else out there taking their first steps in this direction! (And any comments/additions very welcome). 👇
New posting! This addresses the recent controversy at the 2023 Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting, where one of the speakers used his time to complain that he felt discriminated against as a white man.
To my mind, that isn't what's surprising and shocking about the episode.
The surprising thing is that on this occasion, a courageous young female scientist actually called him out on it.
The shocking thing is that despite such sexist, chauvinistic comments still being commonplace, such interventions basically never happen. And they should. #womeninstem
New posting! This one is about the number of unpaid hours in #academia, an insight that's come from the realisation of how much time I'm still committing despite now (currently) being unemployed. To what extent is academic research sustained by the massive expenditure of unpaid labour? How much unpaid overtime do you think you're clocking? Let's lift the lid...
https://totalinternalreflectionblog.com/2023/06/29/pro-bono-a-riff-on-unpaid-labour-in-academia/
New posting! This one considers the outsize influence that 1st #authorships have an career progression in #academia, and argues that this is a system that needs to change (especially seeing as the prestige publication model is unlikely to be overturned any time soon).
https://totalinternalreflectionblog.com/2023/06/18/changing-the-currency/
New posting! This one's about optics, but nothing to do with microscopy - instead it's asking whether we should perhaps view #scientists and not knowledge as the real (primary) product of #academic #research...and whether this provides a better rationalisation of the level of societal investment. Are research papers actually a by-product?
https://totalinternalreflectionblog.com/2023/05/30/whats-the-by-product/
New posting! And another one dealing with me #LeavingAcademia as part of the #GreatResignation. This one has a slightly broader focus - why it's sometimes right to walk away, and that staying isn't always the best course of action. I've a feeling that #careers in #academia will struggle to stand up to scrutiny in this post-pandemic work environment. See what you think (as ever, comments always welcome!)
https://totalinternalreflectionblog.com/2023/05/14/walk-away/
New posting! This is the latest in the series of postings examining my departure from #academia, and the way that taking part in the #GreatResignation has shaken me out of a torpor that took hold several years ago. #LeavingAcademia
https://totalinternalreflectionblog.com/2023/04/30/goodbye-to-all-that/
New posting! This one is about how the #COVID19 #pandemic made me - like many caught up in the #GreatResignation - reconsider my career in #academia and target a better work/life balance, especially from a #parenting perspective. Hope you like it!
New posting! Another more personal one, this time focusing on why although I'm #LeavingAcademia I have no regrets for staying as long as I did. And why perhaps all #academics should regularly ask themselves why they're staying, to be sure they're making positive #career choices.
https://totalinternalreflectionblog.com/2023/04/16/no-regrets-a-salute-to-all-my-students/
New posting! And a very personal one.
In January I handed in my resignation, and will be leaving the Department of Cell & Developmental Biology, the University of Würzburg, and the Physics of Parasitism network at the end of April.
I am #LeavingAcademia.
More discussion of this decision, the reasons for it, and what it means for TIR, in the posting below.
https://totalinternalreflectionblog.com/2023/03/19/changing-lanes/
Total Internal Reflection (https://totalinternalreflectionblog.com) is a blog about the human side of science, written by Brooke Morriswood.
Postings include commentary, and how-to guides for young scientists to improve their soft skills.
Joined Nov 2022
