This is my first-ever post, on my second-ever blog!
Yes, last week I received an invitation out of the blue to start blogging on the Nature Network. And how could I refuse? It’s every scientist’s dream to get “published” in “Nature”, right?
Because I do still consider myself to be a scientist, despite leaving research in 2005.
After completing my postdoctoral research, I moved to a biotech industry desk job for two and a half years. Although I wasn’t really using my scientific training, I found that I still thought and felt like a scientist.
Scared of losing some of the skills I’d acquired during my training, I started to read various science blogs, and realized that there was an alternative outlet for my frustrated inner scientist. So I started my own blog to encourage myself to get back into reading and writing about current research.
This turned out to be an excellent idea that indirectly helped me to get a new job. I’m now back in an academic setting, using much more of my scientific training, and I find that the focus of my original blog has shifted. Reading scientific papers during the day has equated into less writing about science on evenings and weekends. VWXYNot? is now much more likely to contain posts about silly monkey business, sport, music, or whatever else enters my leisure time consciousness!
But the opportunity to blog here, for an audience primarily made up of scientists, is a great incentive for me to start writing about the latest peer-reviewed research again. So that’s what you’ll find here. If you want to read about why I’m scared I’m going to fall off my bike on Friday, you should try the other place.
