So how do I see dedication? Although some may disagree, I think dedication comes from a willingness to really engage in the science–in a manner that one is willing to keep part of the mind open to thoughts of science even outside the lab.<\/p>\n
I don’t mean that every waking second outside the lab needs to be spent planning experiments and reading papers (although a certain amount does help, especially for those early in their careers)–but it is leaving one’s mind open–“on standby<\/em>” so to speak, that shows me which young scientists are really involved in their work.<\/p>\n Do I have a concrete example? Well these are examples from my own experiences: So during the winter when I looked out the window and saw these icicles, immediate my brain was seeing tubules!<\/p>\n And more recently, as rain pattered down the window on the 7th floor by my office, I was also astonished to see how water drops formed “tubules” and underwent “fission” into vesicles<\/a> before my very eyes!<\/p>\n Do I expect everyone to have such unusual imaginations to be good scientists? No.<\/p>\n But I do think that a 9-5 workday where science and any vestigial thoughts of it are shutdown down after hours—just won’t cut it in the big leagues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the questions that I was asked recently is “What do you look for in a graduate student?” Just as an aside, that vaguely reminds me of a film I saw some time ago where one character asks another … Continue reading
\nI work a lot with membrane tubules and vesicles, that look like this under the confocal microscope:<\/p>\n![\"Slide1\"](\"http:\/\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8165\/7185466944_f6c3f07657_n.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Slide1\"](\"http:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7231\/7185444274_a30507993d_z.jpg\")
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