caedar

Have you guys seen the hubbub over big for-profit publishers? There's been a giant explosion of news articles and blog posts over the past few days, and I was wondering what people on here thought of the phenomenon. Do you think it will die out, or is this a turning point for research archiving?

Has anybody seen this recent editorial in Nature about the clash between the "24/7 researcher" and researchers with a work-life balance? When I read it, I felt sick to my stomach. That feeling didnt' go away until I had written up a counter-article, which can be found here. I'm sorry that it's bad form to pimp my personal writing on here, but I feel that this issue is important enough to spread around as much as possible. What do other people think about how work hours are going and how the grant culture is impacting the working conditions of researchers and graduate students? When is something going to give?

Recently I watched Adam Savage's talk on problem solving, and I tried to adapt it to the issues we face as scientists. I've posted it up on my blog (shameless plug but it's rather long so I'd rather not clutter up another topic with it), and wanted to know if anybody had other thoughts or ideas about the problem solving process as a graduate student. http://jdyearsley.wo...for-scientists/

How are you guys even getting into the site? I'm loading it in 2 browsers and neither one is coming up AGGHHH!!!

Oh no now you've got me doing this even though it must be a joke.

Trying to listen to the most chill music ever, haha. I can't stand these last few minutes. Yay fairy fountain theme from Zelda.

Best first post ever?

Unfortunately all of the courses aimed at scientists/engineers are not offered during the summertime, and my university is fairly isolated so I would not be able to take one at another university.

This is my first year in a Materials Science & Engineering program. Overall I'm having a decent time getting situated in my work, adjusting to graduate life, and tackling different parts of projects that my lab is focused on in an effort to nail down a good thesis topic. However, my first semester and a half has exposed a glaring flaw in my knowledge: the ability to understand and manipulate complicated mathematical equations. (Differential equations, mostly, but also having a few problems understanding some of the formalities of integrals and how they can be manipulated.) I have no problems understanding most of the material in my field, and most of the time reading recent research isn't hazardous. However, there are times where I feel completely dumbfounded with some of the math concepts. To combat this, over the summer I'd like to spend a lot of time working on these skills. What are some excellent sources on engineering-oriented mathematics, whether books or online sources? I was considering getting "Essential Mathematical Methods for the Physical Sciences" when it's published in the US and using some of the lectures on Academic Earth, but I would love to hear what other peoples' opinions are. Fire away!

So I've had an alright time during my first semester so far in an engineering PhD. I've been able to get training on almost all of the pieces of equipment that will be immediately useful to me as I get more into my research, and I've done some cursory literature searches to help with grant proposals to get some more money into our group, put together a demo for our outreach day, and I've helped a partnering research group with some technician-level assistance (furnace annealing samples many times). I've gotten by fine in my classes and expect to end up with A's. Even with all that, though, I feel like there is something expected of me that I can't quite put my fingers on. I wake up in the morning wondering if I should be in the office even though I don't really have any reason to be - as if there's work I could be doing that I just don't know about yet. I wonder what my group members/adviser think of me when I'm not in the office early in the morning and don't come in until after my first class at 11 (or god forbid on days when I don't have classes at all and nothing to do, so I don't come in). I have become extremely self-conscious about whether what I'm doing is enough and whether I'm on the right track. I suppose my question is two-fold: 1. Has anybody else gone through this? How did you deal with it? Would it be wise to simply go into the office at a set time every day (say 9 or 10)? 2. How did your experience as a first-semester/first-year graduate student compare with this? Were you able to get moving on a specific research topic this early? Thanks in advance!

I'm going to be starting PhD at Penn State in the Fall in Materials Science and Engineering. I'm going to be looking for a roommate, and I also have no idea as to what places are good to live in. Any suggestions?

I recently checked my application to my top choice school, and I noticed that I made a grave mistake on my SoP: in my 'canned' part of the SoP (part of my SoP went to all schools, and then at the end I tacked on more specific to what I was interested in at that school), I forgot to change the name of the school from what it had been before, so in one part of the SoP it states the name of a different school, and in the tailored part it has the correct name. I'm currently on the waitlist, and I'm afraid that this may affect their decision. Should I email the admissions adviser and notify them that I am extremely interested in the school regardless of the mistake, and that the error shouldn't be taken as a sign of indifference, or has the damage already been done?