Topsy-turvy summer [ants, science]
Jul. 28th, 2009 02:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rebeccmeisterThe latest: We did not get the Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant that we applied for at the end of last November for my research. We do have some good ideas for how to tighten things up in response to the reviewers' comments (apparently none of which were outright negative, but apparently just not positive enough), and will resubmit this fall. It took them a bit longer than anticipated to get feedback to us, but in some ways, I'm just relieved to know so I can carry on with the available resources.
There's a part of me that is attracted to the idea of dirt-cheap research. The problem is, nowadays most high-profile research institutions pass judgment based on one's fund-raising capabilities (for some of that funding is returned to the institution's research machine as "indirect cost recovery"). Good/interesting science and oodles of money don't go hand-in-hand, though.
I spend so much time thinking about this whole scientific enterprise, relative to my personal experiences. I had to get out of Psychological research because I felt like a lot of it went in circles and just wasn't that interesting from an exploratory perspective. I am sure there are many Psychologists who do work that is an exception to this perception, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. I think it's really hard to predict which of the ideas/insights created by this generation of scientists will be latched onto by future generations of scientists.
Well, back to the science.
There's a part of me that is attracted to the idea of dirt-cheap research. The problem is, nowadays most high-profile research institutions pass judgment based on one's fund-raising capabilities (for some of that funding is returned to the institution's research machine as "indirect cost recovery"). Good/interesting science and oodles of money don't go hand-in-hand, though.
I spend so much time thinking about this whole scientific enterprise, relative to my personal experiences. I had to get out of Psychological research because I felt like a lot of it went in circles and just wasn't that interesting from an exploratory perspective. I am sure there are many Psychologists who do work that is an exception to this perception, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. I think it's really hard to predict which of the ideas/insights created by this generation of scientists will be latched onto by future generations of scientists.
Well, back to the science.
