Being A Scientist Is Like…

It can be tough explaining to a young person what being a scientist is like. Here are some creative ways to go about it.

AsianScientist (Mar. 16, 2018) – Whenever I return home during the lunar new year season, I am always confronted with the most interesting conversations by relatives whom I have not met for quite some time. The usual thing with senior family members occurred where I had to explain why I’ve been gone for so long and when I’m planning to return (preferably to have some offspring).

This year, however, I noticed a new line of questioning emerge. I’ve been away for so long that people who I think of as babies are growing up and trying to decide what they’re going to do with themselves. In fact, I’m finding myself in a position of having to advise young people whether they should follow in my footsteps and become a scientist!

But how best to explain things? I didn’t think I should show them the PhD comic that likens grad school to kindergarten, painfully accurate as it might be (perhaps they shouldn’t know that side of the story yet). So, thinking on my feet, I came up with these analogies to describe what it’s like to be a scientist.


Being a scientist is like being a restaurant chef

Before you start your work, you’re supposed to be wearing white clothing and have various pieces of protective gear around. The rooms you work in are supposed to be meticulously clean, but closer inspection may reveal a number of code violations and health hazards. Junior members of the team are often given the most menial tasks. Senior members of the team may yell at juniors if the tasks aren’t done to their satisfaction.


Being a scientist is like being a performer

It is perfectly normal for you to get up in front of people to perform a script that you’ve committed to memory. In fact, you regularly spend time singing and dancing in front of critics (professors, students and random people at conferences) who are judging you on your performance and will report back to others if they found themselves (un)inspired.

When performing some sort of lab procedure or analysis for someone else, it may often go to script, but other times, you’ve just got to improvise. After years of lecture theatres or seminar rooms with bad facilities or malfunctioning microphones, you will also become really good at projecting your voice.


Being a scientist is like being a secretary or personal assistant

You know the schedules of almost everyone in your lab or office and can parrot them back at the drop of a hat when someone wants to know how to contact your colleagues. Planning is a skill that comes with the job since you spend a fair amount of time looking up the most direct, yet cost effective travel plans to attend a conference on the other side of the planet. You also have to make appointments for talks to attend and people to meet.

At meetings, you’ll end up taking copious notes with (probably self-derived) shorthand or by typing faster than the wind. Because money is always tight, you’re probably also really good at keeping an eye on the financials.



Being a scientist is like being a hermit

It is not unusual to spend a lot of time actively isolating yourself from other people, possibly in a room that is small, warm and dark. Personal hygiene will suffer in this period of your life, and when you re-emerge blinking from your lab-cave, probably in the search for food, you may find the general populace looking at you with a scared expression on their faces.


Being a scientist is like being a writer

A lot of time is spent in front of computers, punching out words to meet deadlines and editorial changes demanded by people who don’t understand how you’ve given blood, sweat, tears and coffee to your art! Nonetheless, there’s nothing like seeing your name under the title and smelling the ink of your own publications (even if it’s just the ink from your office printer). You can legitimately say that a text you wrote can be found in libraries for anyone to read, and that tens of thousands of your words have been published.


Being a scientist is like being a politician or diplomat

They don’t tell you this about science, but due to all the time spent juggling the egos of different professors, you will either learn pretty quickly how to delicately dance in order to keep everyone happy, or find yourself being frozen out. There will be times where you may face the wrath of people who remembered that time you insulted their work (an accident, I SWEAR!), but you can probably get them sweet again by making deals like donating samples or helping with token analyses in exchange for authorships.


Being a scientist is like being a magician

With some specific hand gestures, the aid of some special equipment, and a few choice words, you can make something happen that others won’t be able to believe! And then, you’ll have to spend some time giving up your secrets explaining how you managed to do it.


This article is from a monthly column called The Sometimes Serious Scientist. Click here to see the other articles in this series.

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Copyright: Asian Scientist Magazine; Photo: Shutterstock.
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff

Alice Ly is a postdoctoral researcher in Germany. She completed her PhD at the University of Melbourne, and has a BSc in Pathology (First Class Hons) and BA (Art History). She enjoys microscopy, cakes, photos of puppies, and removing warm items from the incubator.

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