About Jenny
By day: cell biologist at UCL. By night: novelist, broadcaster, science writer, sci-lit-art pundit, blogger and Editor of LabLit.com. I blog about my life in science, not the facts and figures.
Category Archives: Careers
In which I question the 24/7 lab mentality
Is there a strong correlation between the number of hours you are physically present in a lab and the pace and success of your project? The furore over Nature’s 24/7 lab feature, published a few weeks ago, is still sending … Continue reading
In which I seek the evidence – and ideas
A post I initially wrote about the consequences of putting arbitrary sell-by dates on post-docs seeking fellowships has been rebutted by my esteemed OT colleague Athene Donald. It’s an interesting post and I encourage people to have a look at … Continue reading
In which my heart goes out to Postdoc B
What a difference a few words make. Compare this: With this: A modest difference, you might think. But your average postdoctoral stint in the life sciences is probably something like 3-4 years. So the difference between 8 and 12+ years … Continue reading
In which I find acceptance
A happy ending – just the way I like them. Can I go collapse now?
Posted in Careers, The profession of science
28 Comments
In which I can put it off no longer
Summer has slipped away from London, as it seems to do every year around this time – the air has an autumnal coolness and raindrops patter against lab windows. We Londoners work around this, as we do around so many … Continue reading
Posted in Careers, The profession of science
20 Comments
In which I surface briefly
Greetings, Earthlings: just emerging from my self-imposed laboratory exile for a quick update. I do still exist, and my radio silence can be explained by the fact that I’m in the home stretch of my resubmission. For those of you … Continue reading
Posted in Careers, Scientific method, The profession of science
21 Comments
In which I scrape by
I’ve been pondering the theoretical maximum number of simultaneous cell biological experiments that one person can do without losing it. I’ve also been testing the theory on a practical basis – on myself. And I can safely report that, by … Continue reading
In which I play to win
If running a scientific project is like cooking, then my usual modus operandi in the lab is to prepare a lavish, many-course meal. The meal, in this analogy, is the overarching goal of what I want to understand, and each … Continue reading
Posted in Careers
10 Comments
In which I set my sights
Even the darkest tunnels tend to have lights at the end of them. In the past fortnight, not only have I submitted my big screen paper – the culmination of four years of work – to a very reputable cell … Continue reading
In which I look ahead
Wishing something will not make it real. But its opposite is a very powerful force: if you decide something is out of your reach, it’s never going to happen. I am not ascribing some New-Age prophecy or supernatural barrier here: … Continue reading
Posted in Careers
21 Comments
