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
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.
Highlighting another posting from one of the best new blogs I've come across. Jess' descriptions of #LeavingAcademia are heartfelt and will resonate strongly with those in a similar situation.
https://totalinternalreflectionblog.com/2023/09/05/jess-is-on-a-break-the-first-30-days/
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! This is the latest instalment in the #MySciMoment series, in which #BIPOC/#BAME scientists talk not about their research, but about what inspired them to pursue a #career in #STEM.
Here, Ko-Fan Chen 陳克帆 (@kofanchen) discusses the accidental path that led from art to design to #Drosophila. Can you spot the pattern in the example he includes? (I couldn't).
If you'd like to contribute to this series, send me a message😃
I should also thank @steveroyle for drawing my attention to Bruno's book in the first instance - much appreciated!
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
Advice needed! With regard to submission of revised,#peerreview #preprints (via @ReviewCommons), does anyone have experience of directly contacting journal editors with the bundle? (i.e. manuscript+figures+R2R+cover letter)
I ask because I'm unwilling to go through the tedious manual data entry (author names, work phone, fax [!!] number) that the
ReviewCommons transfer function appears to necessitate at journal websites.
I'm looking for a fast yes/no answer, and would rather do the tedious stuff later on. Fair enough, or am I being entitled? 🤨
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/
New posting! This is another #HowTo one, focused on writing the #Results sections of scientific #manuscripts (earlier postings in this series have focused on writing scientific reports as a whole, and more granular considerations of the writing of Figure legends and Materials & Methods sections).
As always, this represents "a" way and not "the" way, but I hope it's helpful. Comments/thoughts/feedback very welcome. 👍
New posting! This asks whether #science #careers in #academia have evolved from a hobby, to a #vocation, to a profession...and maybe now into a job (and how that's probably a good thing).
Funnily, when I first conceived of this posting (quite a way back) I thought it would be a negative one about how people don't care enough any more, but that has almost completely turned around - I now think it's a good thing if people are stepping back. A good #work/life_balance isn't something to whine about - we should be insisting on it.
Anyhows, read the posting and see what you think... ;-)
https://totalinternalreflectionblog.com/2023/02/12/science-vocation-to-professionto-job/
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
