(1/2) A Day in the Life of an Academic Researcher

[BJ219]

Wow. My 19 year old cousin who barely passed high school makes more money doing oil production than these post-docs.

[KeyOfAm]

Ill be honest C0nc0rdance. I think this video has JUST help me choose my path in life. Thank you so much for this video.

[AnonymousElektron]

New World Order tinkerers.

Your time will come, fools.

[DocStrange0123]

@AnonymousElektron delusional much? NWO blahblah... you conspiracysts are pathetic... of course everything is moved by economic interests and corporations yadda yadda yadda blahblhablha... but it's pathetic, a frog jumps and it's a conspiracy... someone sneeze in Hawai and NWO is behind it... please... you are boring us with you bullshit...

[AnonymousElektron]

@DocStrange0123 excuse me the New World Order is a conspiracy and it is real, I assure youl.

You can sit her,e all you like and disagree but it isn't.

These sickos are trying to build a new world order and want us to get chipped.

[8DX]

Already watched this, but its such a nicely made and well explained view of scientific institutions that I can easily watch it again and again. Lovely.

=8)-DX

[MNSDaz]

fascinating!

[TheThroughaway]

grad students only work 30-50hrs/week?!?! are you crazy? for microbiology graduate students, after the first year which is spent taking full course load as well as rotating in labs, students work full time. a better estimate is working 50-70 hours/week in the lab, which does not including the after hours spent reading current literature or writing. advertising grad school as a part time affair is not appropriate for students considering grad school. it is in no way a part time investment.

[laflugantabastardo]

Very interesting, thanks. I'll be going back to school this year, going to study microbiology. I couldn't be more excited and giddy about learning all this stuff, and it's nice to see in what kind of environment I'll probably be working. :-)

[IDisnotscience]

Dry ice + eppendorf tube = hilarity

[MrVictius]

Hi c0nc0rdance! I have watched both parts of this video and was wondering if you know anything about current research in nanotechnology and biotechnology. I also ask if you have any tips for anyone who might want to work in the biotech or nanotech industry.

[HybridD91]

@MrVictius Biotech? Try Biomedical Engineering. Not a tip, apologize if it doesn't help.

[kleenex3000]

I strongly hope that phenolic extraction of nucleic acids is not in use anymore, anywhere. Solid Phase extraction ROXX!

[tammyscotland]

I'm still a student but this sounds so much like what we do when we're in the lab that it's funny! Also having flashbacks to the day of sulphuric acid spills.

[comp7878]

Graduate student Teaching assistants getting paid over $30k? Try between $3 to 14k, that's what I got! lol

[cheesothegreat]

Haha I'm wearing sandals right now :) 5 star

[1imax111]

mee too:D, with or without socks?

[iDeist]

boring

[C0nc0rdance]

*sniffs* I smell trolls. Smells like ignorance.

[iDeist]

I bet you're very familiar with that smell.

[arkham1999]

And here I thought you spent all of your time trying to destroy christianity and prove your Darwinist religion "evolution". LOL

[nashertheatheist]

You being serious? If not then I apologise as sarcasm doesn't come across very easily through text.

Anyway, Evolution is no religion, any more than Gravity. Point out anything about evolution that makes it religious while gravity remains secular. There is nothing.

[arkham1999]

Yes I was being sarcastic that is what the LOL was for (or trying at least). I find the arguments of fundies so repetitive and pathetic I was just trying my hand at being snarky. I have nothing but the deepest respect for those persons in the fields of scientific research.

[WRAYDAY]

He doesn't have to, evolution is already proven.

[arkham1999]

@WRAYDAY I was joking see the comment two spots below

[WRAYDAY]

whew! thats a relief... its hard to tell on youtube.

[PaineLover]

What a great idea to do these videos. I was fascinated watching both. Just yesterday I had a fundamentalist xtian say that "universities aren't open to the freedom of ideas". I'll send him links to this. Will he even view them? Probably not.

[EvoBiologist]

Sweet! At 3:57 - I know those two people (in the pic on the left)! The guy was a student in one of the Zo labs I taught.

[Turandot29]

I am not a scientist (nor do I portray one on TV .. :p).. but I thank you for taking me thru what it is like to be one.

There is so much trash on YouTube .. and then there are vids by the likes of C0nc0dance.

Thanks for sharing. It's quite an education.

[IronMAidan]

Ha, this is dead on, especially the first few minutes!

[kerryzhang]

Nice vid! My father is a chemist and I've worked in his lab so I know that the stainless white lab coat and the sparkling desks are nothing more than an illusion originating from popular culture.

What interests me, however, is how one applies for fundings, who decides how to distribute the fundings, what they base these decisions on and some pros and cons with this system.

[Agnosista]

Now I get what researchers in my university are doing. I won't get to do it on computer engineering, but it's nice to know.

[Lavabug]

I'm a chemistry undergraduate, very informative video. I'd like to end up in the field of molecular biology/biochemistry at some point.

[lazyperfectionist1]

If two teams of scientists perform the same experiment and reach the same conclusion, wouldn't that serve to strengthen that conclusion? Wouldn't that be a good thing?

[GigaBoost]

Thank you very much for this video, very informative.

Good change from watching stuff like CSI and such, where all science is just a cool montage.

[tattooskin72]

This was a great idea. There are definitely a lot of misconceptions about what goes into research and what scientist/researchers are really all about.

[moother888]

thanks dude!

[anubis2814]

This has been needed for some time, I'm so glad you have taken the mysticism out of the "great scientists" aka them.

[zapo147]

This is exactly the stuff I love to see. I'm an undergrad chem major and I desperately want to follow this path!

C0nc0rdance, you're my hero.

[Larty42]

I'm a new university student in physics, thinking about becoming a scientist. Not exactly sure what I'm getting myself in to...

I have been thinking about studying biophysics or astronomy, but I haven't decided which one to choose. Suggestions, anyone?

[C0nc0rdance]

It's always a great idea to pick a mentor. Interview people (professor or grad student) from both departments. Get a sense of what is going on in their fields, what kind of obstacles they face, what the funding is like. My guess is that astronomy is the more challenging of fields to find faculty spots in.

If you wanted a career in industry, the highest paid, highest demand degree is chemistry, hands down.

I made a video on "How to Become a Scientist" that might help.

[EasyEs]

@C0nc0rdance I would suggest any young people who want a career science take a look at petroleum geoscience. It requires a great deal of proficiency in physics and chemistry, as well as geology (duh). There is high and growing demand, and the pay is very high. With a Masters it is easy to find a job with a salary of +100$K starting.

A great career that I highly recomend for anyone who loves science.

[buzzausa]

Yeah...that's pretty much my life.. :)

[ProfMike789]

I learned my lesson; DON'T BE A SCIENTIST.

[ScientiaVeritasEtLux]

haha, I laughed at the part where you pointed out that the kid with the shorts must not have been burned by phenol before. That's exactly what happened to my high school biotech teacher when he was young. He wore shorts and got a tiny little drop on his knee, but that was enough to get him to follow the rules from then on.

[C0nc0rdance]

For those who have never been burned with a phenol spill, the phenol numbs the area even as it is chemically burning the skin. It just feels slightly cold, but meanwhile it's destroying tissue. Don't screw around with phenol.

[ScientiaVeritasEtLux]

oh, really? That's cool. I never knew that. Maybe the sight alone of the dying tissue was enough to make my teacher follow the rules, haha. It would freak me out too.

[bobble12221]

Ouch....sounds pretty nasty

[theunraveler]

I think my previous post didnt go through...

Anyway you omit the more sinister side of research, the internal politics. It can truly make or break your career. Check out this blog, a biology PhD graduate from Stanford reduced to being a taxi driver to sustain his family

Google "Dr Cai Mingjie"

[AlanCFA]

People don't wear lab coats all of the time???

You've obviously never seen John Pendleton!

[leungchaan]

Yeah. The guy was born with a lab coat...

[generaleskimo]

No, I always pictured a "lab" as Gordon Freeman running down steel hallways killing things.

[Dacijo]

@generaleskimo as he was saying near the end of the video, its best if the stake out an area of specialty.

[Stromatolite577]

The labs you show are a lot cleaner than mine! Have to show the TAs and GTAs this as an example! Great video!

[ILYIAB]

Thanks for taking the time to make these vids. Great!

[WKaliberr]

yawn, tits of gtfo

[achtungcircus]

Learn to spell

[adamredwine]

As a student with a degree in physics who has almost spent no time at all in a lab, I appreciate learning about what I missed out on.

[Salmo77]

So with 8 publication in three years of PostDoc I am above average?

I like your vids Concordance, but you sometimes sound a bit arrogant. I would suggest you dont give "personal" opinions on what is good or bad in Science. Just stick to the data.

Number of publications is not the most important measure of Scientific merit, and you know it :)

[JBSauce]

Thanks for giving us a window into your world, C0nc0rdance!

[no1saphead]

You forgot the machine that goes BING.

[Youanden]

Very interesting set. Thank you.