Dose Makes the Poison

It’s amazing how much of wet lab research is mundane routine. In general, research is incredibly tedious and slow.  And very often, you don’t find something groundbreaking and revolutionary.  I wish more people understood this.  My father, for instance, repeatedly asks if I “discovered anything yet.”

I forgive him quickly because he doesn’t really get it, and that’s ok. But, you would think that 3+ years later, he would understand when I explain it to him for the 50 millionth time why it doesn’t work like that. It would be nice, however, for others to understand the nature of lab-based research and what goes in to a single experiment.  Or, the fact that hundreds of experiments need to be conducted in order to ‘safely’ (read: with as little uncertainty as possible) make a conclusion about anything. 

Sadly, even in Toxicology, simply saying something is ‘bad for you,’ or causes problems for human health, is not satisfactory for government-implemented policy.  A lot of data is needed in order to combat the use of whatever it is that’s causing the problems (i.e. industrial use of certain chemicals, certain pesticides, etc etc).  This usually results in going down rabbit holes to prove inane points of HOW exactly this thing is bad for you, or needing to continuously do more and more experiments to find the smallest amount acceptable to not cause adverse effects (“Acceptable Daily Intake” of certain food additives, supplements, or even pesticide residues on foods, for example).

I think some of the most important things I’ve learned in this program are about the politics surrounding the policy and decision-making towards anything public- or environmental-health related.  It’s quite amazing how little priority either of those two things get in this (and most) country(ies). I love learning, but many times,the more I know, the angrier/sadder/more frustrated I become. I find myself envying the oblivious and ignorant on many occasions, which is an interesting conclusion to come to in areas of ‘higher education.’

I realized this morning that I will not be any good at this blog thing unless I have a focus.  At the risk of it turning into one giant rant, I decided this is going to be my outlet for all things grad school and lab fun related. 

Really, I was thinking about all the times I’ve put some random grad-school-related phrases into Google in a bout of frustration (i.e. “Grad school makes me feel stupid”) with the hope that some links pointing to sage wisdom and helpful advice would pop up.  Believe it or not, there are several things that do show up, and some are even helpful.  Many times, they are simply blogs and ramblings of former graduate students, many from within the sciences.  It really helps me to see other people thinking and feeling the same things I am while trudging through this strange world in which its very easy to feel stuck.

And maybe, this site will come up on a Bing search by a desperate grad student, and their day might be that much brighter.

One part boredom and two parts inspiration from two of my favorite writers, Gordon and Michelle, have caused me to start a blog.

I’ve been craving something more creative to do with my time, so we’ll see what comes of this.

tumblrbot asked: WHERE WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO VISIT ON YOUR PLANET?

Sicily and Australia