Thoughts on chemistry, general science, and whatever else is banging around in my mind.
Thoughts on chemistry, general science, and whatever else is banging around in my mind.
My undergrad has a lot of histograms to compare, and the MATLAB defaults can get in the way. You can set the number of bins, but if your data sets span slightly different ranges, you'll quickly find that your bins have different widths or different maxima and minima. They're okay defaults for making a single histogram, but if you want to compare multiple figures, as we do, it gets frustrating fast.
Read MoreI wrote this almost three years ago, but it's back in my mind as I start looking for post-grad school jobs.
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I emailed my committee this afternoon to invite them to a talk I will soon give. One of the professors said he'd be glad to attend, and he will happen to be in the country on that day because one of his students is defending. I say “happen to be” because he is currently on sabbatical.
His email got me thinking: not about his reply, but about sabbaticals. With years still left before my own defense, sabbaticals are still a distant future to me, but all the same, they're on my mind. In particular, I wonder what the spouse is supposed to do.
Read MoreToday I had (most of) my pre-defense data meeting.1 My committee has declared me ready to write my thesis, and on track for graduation by or before August of next year. I'd like to be done by May, but that means t's crossed, i's dotted and revisions revised by April, and I still have another project to complete by then. Summer will get here soon enough.
I am glad to have an end in sight. I don't want to be a grad student forever, and some days it feels like it's already been forever since I started.
1: One committee member had to reschedule, so I get to give the same talk all over again tomorrow. I don't mind it a bit, though, because I always enjoy our meetings; I learn something new from him every time.
Looking back at my November writing experiment, I'd call it generally a success. I didn't make it all the way through the month; Thanksgiving visits with family disrupted my schedule. I missed about a week of writing total. But I wrote nearly every day before Thanksgiving, and I am still writing more frequently than before, so I am satisfied.
My plan for now is to do at least one post per week, hopefully with a bit more polish. Not too much polish, since that sends me down Perfectionist Lane sometimes, but more than I've been able to manage for the near-daily writing this last month.
We tend to think of ourselves as individual organisms. Even though we're made up of thousands upon thousands of cells working together to send and interpret sensations, break down and rearrange nutrients, transport wastes, provide structure and mobility, and keep our selves humming along in homeostasis, we think of ourselves as single creatures.
We are not actually alone. Our bodies are home to many other organisms. Other living things go through entire life cycles on and inside us all the time. It's kind of incredible, when you stop to think about it.
Read MoreGoldiBlox are filling up my Facebook feed and my Twitter stream this week, despite the fact that I don't know any girls (or parents of girls) in the right age range for the toy. My thoughts on GoldiBlox haven't changed much since the Kickstarter campaign. The short version is this: an engineering toy marketed to girls is a great idea, but why must it be pink?
Read MoreI have an undergraduate working with me on some simulations, and I've been teaching him Matlab for the last year. This week I showed him a useful trick for changing the look of some line plots. He has a whole bunch of these to do, and instead of replotting the data or using the Plot Tools GUI to edit each figure, I taught him how you can get at the various properties of the plot. Once he figured out which properties he wanted to change, and which way, he could save the commands as a script, and run it on any open image to get a consistent look.
Read MoreI remember very clearly the first time I felt like I really was a chemist. Not just a chemistry major, but someone who thinks and acts like a chemist.
I was baking cookies.
Read MoreYesterday a dear grad school friend asked me for some feedback on some writing. I marked typos and left comments, asked questions and all of the usual editing stuff. And I wrote her a note about her composition, trying to find the right words to say that the writing was fine but the message was weak: she was using the wrong voice.
Read MoreI just switched up my blogging workflow to use a new app that will allow me to post directly from my iPad, which is where I do most of my blog-writing. Unfortunately, the app's system for scheduling a post for the future is the opposite of the website's system, and that wasn't at all clear. So the post that should have gone up this morning will show up tomorrow instead. No big deal, but not what I planned.
On a totally unrelated note, I like the word "hiccough." I think it's interesting English.
I saw this in my Facebook feed, and instead of finding it cute, I found it a frustrating and disheartening display of innumeracy. The comments were full of "Oh wow! It worked for me," and "That's crazy!"
No, it's not crazy, it's not magic, it's math. Of course it worked for you because it's just an algebra trick, and not a particularly exciting one. Much more interesting than the trick is how it works and what its limitations are.
Read MoreMy stated goal at the beginning of November was to "write something worth posting every day." My unstated goal was to put up a post every weekday. Since Nov. 1st I've written every day and posted every weekday except yesterday. That sounds like a decent start to me.
Most of what I've written lately has been related to job applications and research, but I've carved out 30-60 minutes each day, sometimes more, just to write for the sake of thinking "out loud." I don't think I've been at it long enough for the habit to stick on its own, but my writing time (usually in the evenings) is something I look forward to.
When November is over, I want to keep up the frequent writing, though I think I'll slow down the posting. I've been posting near-daily as a way to keep my promise to myself, but some things need more revision before they go up, and revision also takes time. My goal for December is to post about once a week. If I'm still setting aside writing time every day, that should work fairly well, I think.
Every now and again on the Internet (or at least the slice of the Internet I keep up with), the identity question comes up: What name do you use online? Just a few days ago, I saw it pop up again. In my experience, the person bringing up the topic usually falls on the side of "I use my real name, and so should you." Also, for what it's worth, that person tends to be male.
I think blanket anonymity is problematic.…
Read MoreMy first semester of grad school, I had two advisors, but I needed a mentor. And I didn't know how to find one.
Read MoreChad Orzel of the Uncertain Principles blog announced late last year that he is working on a book about thinking like a scientist.
Read MoreAn open letter to the science faculty of major research universities.
Read MoreJust what is Twitter for, anyway?
Read MoreI am a big fan of Alton Brown. He's funny and smart, and he doesn't (usually) do things just because "it's always been done that way." There's one thing he doesn't get right, though, and it bothers me every time the show comes on reruns.
Read MoreA letter to an old "friend"
Read MoreThoughts on chemistry, general and everyday science, and whatever else is banging around in my mind
