It's up to us to develop the sensitivity to pick up on it. Pedantry can be the enemy of insight. This gives students the idea that there is a book somewhere with all the right answers to all of the interesting questions, and that teachers know those answers. And if one could get hold of the book, one would have everything settled.
A good spot for pondering. The castle has whistling floorboards, to warn you if an assassin is sneaking up on you. This blog has been neglected recently as I have been busy travelling, with conferences and meetings with a little holiday in between in JapanKorea and Germany.
I am now back in Birmingham where we have a veritable army of summer students. They are all enthusiastic, and seem to be doing well at both their projects and joining in lunchtime conversations. One asked whether it was a good idea to do a PhD?
Travelling to interesting places in one of the perks of being an academic, but does it compensate all the hard work? Here are my thoughts on doing a PhD now mine is safely done but still fresh in my memory.
The third degree A PhD is not a simple continuation of your studies. One of the things that surprised me was how different research is from study although they may share many of the same skills.
At school and undergraduate you learn: In research, you have to solve problems, to figure out how to do things that have never been done before which may require picking up new knowledge and skills.
This can be extremely exciting: Research projects at an undergraduate level are different from those at postgraduate. When asked about doing a PhD, the current PhDs showed varying levels of enthusiasm. Maggie, who is always keen on encouraging people to learn about science, has put together a list of 5 reasons why you should do a PhD.
I think these neatly sum up some of main motivations for doing a PhD. Freedom and flexibility Academia enjoys a lot of freedom. Working from home gives you the flexibility to work in your pyjamas, but it can also makes it easy to work evenings and weekends—perhaps the weekends are the best time to come in to the lab because there are fewer people trying to use the most shiny equipment.
As well of freedom in when you schedule work, there is also freedom in what you do. Procrastination can have some useful side-effects.
The title Being a doctor is pretty cool. Not as cool as being the Doctor, but still, it can command some respect. It does indicate that you are an expert in one particular area; however, this might be an obscure and unhelpful one. In the end, it is having completed the difficult research and produced a quality thesis that is worth the respect, and not the extra letters with your name.
If you are not interested in the the former, the latter will not give you the motivation to put in the time and effort to complete it. You are intelligent whether or not you decide to go to graduate school, and one should never assume that someone is less smart because they lack a PhD—first, because you do not know what opportunities they may or may not have had in life, and second, intelligence is about more than academic achievements.
In real life, people will soon figure out how smart you are by interacting with you if they are only interested in titles, find someone else. As much as intelligence, a doctorate requires determination. Undergraduate is like a sprint, you can work really hard for a short stretch around exams and then collapse.
A doctorate is more like a marathon, its not enough to be fast, you need to be able to keep going, to pace yourself and to pick yourself up if you trip. Finding out that you can do it may be a huge confidence boost!
I guess you just need to be happy with who you are. Making people you love proud is wonderful, but so is spending time with them. A PhD can consume huge amounts of time, energy and attention especially while writing up. It should be something that you want to do, not something other people want you to do.
Broadening your horizons Academia does give you the chance to visit new places and work with people all over the world. I really enjoyed my summer travels and Maggie is currently observing at a telescope in Chile.
My first two conferences were in Glasgow and Cardiff. Both are lovely cities to visit, but neither was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If you are really keen on travel, then there are other careers that give you better excuses to travel.
Or you could take a better paid job and just pay for yourself to go on holiday. It is being built underground, in an old mine in the Hida Mountains.BibMe Free Bibliography & Citation Maker - MLA, APA, Chicago, Harvard.
Refuting Evolution [Jonathan Sarfati] on initiativeblog.com *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. A creationist response to the National Academy of Science's Teaching About Evolution and the Nature of Science. The latter. Note that La Nina cooling in the tropics has finally penetrated the troposphere, with a deg.
C departure from average. The last time the tropics were cooler than this was June, ( deg. C).
Out of the month satellite record, the deg. C one-month drop in January tropical. Neil deGrasse Tyson (/ d ə ˈ ɡ r æ s /; born October 5, ) is an American astrophysicist, author, and science initiativeblog.com , he has been the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York City.
The center is part of the American Museum of Natural History, where Tyson founded the Department of Astrophysics in and has. Note that La Nina cooling in the tropics has finally penetrated the troposphere, with a deg. C departure from average.
The last time the tropics were cooler than this was June, ( deg.
C). Out of the month satellite record, the deg. C one-month drop in January tropical. BibMe Free Bibliography & Citation Maker - MLA, APA, Chicago, Harvard.