Ways of doing science
Aug. 23rd, 2012 01:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rebeccmeisterSometimes I hate the 20-minute periods between talks, and also eating lunch with other people. Listening to talks destroys my internal monologue, and people who try to cram in several years' worth of information into a 10-20-minute timeframe just, arg.
On the one hand, I'm grateful for a chance to interact with other insect nutritionists. People are doing a lot of cool things. On the other hand, it's interesting to note that there are few vegetarians in the bunch, and that the majority are heavily carnivorous. I need to remember to ask, more frequently, why they're studying nutrition in insects. I always felt similarly out of sync at neurobiology gatherings, I think because I often felt like the neurobiologists were so hyper-focused on molecular mechanisms and pathways that they lost sight of the context for what they were doing. In a related manner, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of overlap between a lot of these entomologists and their ecological or evolutionary colleagues. Where I've seen overlap, there's a lot of interesting stuff happening. Otherwise, much of the work seems to involve trying to make the most noise. Makes my head ring too much, especially as I start trying to think about all of the things I need to tackle as I head back to the US at the end of the week.
On the one hand, I'm grateful for a chance to interact with other insect nutritionists. People are doing a lot of cool things. On the other hand, it's interesting to note that there are few vegetarians in the bunch, and that the majority are heavily carnivorous. I need to remember to ask, more frequently, why they're studying nutrition in insects. I always felt similarly out of sync at neurobiology gatherings, I think because I often felt like the neurobiologists were so hyper-focused on molecular mechanisms and pathways that they lost sight of the context for what they were doing. In a related manner, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of overlap between a lot of these entomologists and their ecological or evolutionary colleagues. Where I've seen overlap, there's a lot of interesting stuff happening. Otherwise, much of the work seems to involve trying to make the most noise. Makes my head ring too much, especially as I start trying to think about all of the things I need to tackle as I head back to the US at the end of the week.
