What should an intern do?

We've got lots of interns this summer. We're required to give them each a meaningful project to which they can make a significant contribution. It can be a piece of something larger, but it has to make sense as a project. At the end of the summer, the students have to give a presentation about their work which creates some accountability for project selection on our part.


We really like to create mutual benefit with these internships. The students aren't free, so we want to get some actual necessary labor out of them. On the other hand, we want to turn them on to our branch of science. Most undergrads aren't exposed to the work we do, even in the broadest sense, so we feel it's really important to show them some cool stuff to make their experience good.

But. Research isn't fun most all of the time. There are many, many boring/tedious/difficult/lame things that need to be done and we need the interns to do some of them. I sometimes feel bad when we assign really boring tasks to interns, but Awesome Technician always reminds me that we all have to do crappy stuff sometimes (see sidebar counter).

It gets tricky to design a good experience for undergraduate research participants. We want to get a bunch of work done while exposing people to the things we find so exciting and at the same time, not create unrealistic expectations for their futures should they decide to pursue research careers. I have seen several bloggers (but now I can't remember which ones) write about how they had a cool undergrad research experience but were then somewhat disillusioned by the bullshit when they got to grad school. I can see how it happens, since it's pretty easy to shelter an intern from the bullshit for 10 weeks and an internship can have a huge impact on a student's career choices.

So: handling interns is tricky. Our ethical consideration is usually we can't have them just wash dishes. But maybe there is also an ethical issue with making an internship too good for the intern. Wouldn't want to give anyone false hope, now would we?

Saturday in the lab

I went to work today and got a ton of stuff done. Before gas got so expensive, when I went to the lab on weekends, I used to vacillate between thinking "it's Saturday, I can take lots of breaks" and "I'm spending my Saturday here, I better have something to show for it when I leave". Now when I drive the 35 miles each way to go the lab on weekends, I think, "I better get a shit ton of work done since I'm spending so much money to get here."

Almost no one else in my lab works on weekends. It's nice to be alone there on occasion. I can listen to whatever music I want without offending anyone. Plus I can sing along! And dance a little! I can use all the space and equipment I want without getting in anyone else's way. I can fart. And bonus: I can get away with not wearing my safety glasses when I'm doing stuff that's really, really low risk (but dont' tell anyone).

The only bad thing today was that I got this really weird pain in my foot, like a cramp or pulled muscle or something. It feels like there's a nail being driven into the arch just next to the heel. By the end of the day I couldn't put weight on my heel -- I had to walk on my tip-toes on that foot. I put one of those rice filled heat packs on it when I got home but it still hurts. I'm hoping that a good night's sleep will take care of it.

RBO frustration

Today was a moderately crappy day. Here's why:

• My friends asked me to pick up their mail while they're on vacation. They left on Tuesday and will return on Saturday, so they said it was only necessary for me to go on Thursday. I fought annoying traffic only to find a note saying their mailbox was full and no more would be delivered. How is it full after only two days? What kind of mail do these people get?
• I was clumsy in the lab today. No major incidents, but a bunch of little oopses that I had to recover from and makes notes of.
• My tv wasn't working when I got home! O nos! Sound but no picture except for a blinky line of green light. I checked all the cables and stuff, which didn't help. So I slapped it and the picture returned for a second. After a bunch of tries, ending with me slapping it really hard, the picture came back. I guess we should start saving for a new one.
• It's humid as all get out here and the lab was swampy. yuck.
• Carpool Buddy was supposed to drive two weeks in a row to make up for lots of extra driving I've been doing. He ended up driving me one day this week.
• RA still has not done this 2-4 hour task that she needs to do before I can finish up the project I'm working on. I've been waiting since April. I desperately want to finish the lab parts of the project before I go on vacation in a week, partly so I can feel good about going away, but MOSTLY because I want the data in time to incorporate it into my August conference talk. RA knows this. Yet she keeps blowing me off, promising to do it every day and then not doing it. If she hasn't done it by 1pm tomorrow, I'm going to present some less desirable ultimatums alternatives, like me doing it myself or getting new material to do it later. Both involve more work for me, but if it doesn't get done tomorrow, the timing won't work out for me to finish next week. To be clear, this is something RA is piggybacking off my project to get something she wants for herself (that I might be a coauthor on if it pans out), not something I wanted her to do for me. Also, she has not read the manuscript I gave her in March, April, and May (increasingly polished drafts).

On the bright side, I exercised yesterday and today. This is good because I'm trying to lose some inches and because it means I'm not lounging like a baby seal all alone in my hot and stuffy apartment. Also, I already have my lunch packed, go cup washed, and coffee maker programmed for tomorrow. And as frustrated as I am with RA right now, I'm extremely fond of her and overall am very happy in her lab.

UPDATE: RA did it! Early this afternoon, I went into her office and told her I was moving on at the end of the day no matter what and that if she didnt' have time to do the Thing with the Thing, we'd find a way to work it out later. I told her why -- that if I got moving again tomorrow I'd be able to finish most of it before I go away and I would be cleared out of the space to Awesome Technician and an intern could work there while I'm gone, but if I don't get started tomorrow morning, the timing will be all screwed up and I won't be able to do much at all next week. So she did it. It took her longer than I thought it would so I had to stay really late to do my part afterward. But she did it!

Am I too old for Cosmo?

I almost never buy women’s magazines because they usually leave me feeling ugly and poor. However, I like to read them when I’m traveling, particularly when I'm going by plane. It’s so distracting in airports that the short, easy to comprehend articles are nice. But the last time I flew, I had a little realization.

The airport bookshop had a paltry selection of magazines. I wanted a Marie Claire, but they didn’t have that. I could have picked Cosmo or Glamour, but those are mostly about clothes I can’t afford (and wouldn’t wear anyway) and how to bag a man and then sneak out of his apartment in the morning. Just not me. I thought about People, but I dislike the culture of celebrity worship and I don’t want to endorse tabloids paying paparazzi to chase down celebrities even when they’re dressed up sorta classy like People. So what did I end up with? Redbook. What am I, 45? At least it wasn’t Ladies Home Journal. Or worse, Reader’s Digest.

Women’s magazines seem to be marketed to an older audience than they are actually written for. Like, 17-year-old girls don’t read Seventeen, 13-year-olds do. It’s the 17-year-olds who are reading Cosmo (let’s not even think about the twisted impression of adult life they get from that). Those in their mid-twenties are passing Cosmo for Marie Claire or Jane. Apparently by the time you’re 29, you’ve graduated to Redbook.

Redbook still has some articles about sex, but the descriptions are vague (touch him someplace unexpected to spice things up). In contrast, Comso and Glamour are all about sex and it’s explicit (wow him in bed! Stick a carrot in his butt!). I guess Ladies Home Journal probably alludes to the fact that married people are intimate, but doesn’t provide tips.

I apologize to any readers I might have who love Redbook and Ladies Home Journal and don’t think you have to be 45 to enjoy them. It was just a shock that I’d rather read magazines marketed to my mom than to me. I’m getting more like her every day.

All alone

Ecogeoman left for Far Off Land this morning. He'll be gone for three weeks, then back for one week, then off to British Columbia for another two weeks (where he'll be in the forest alone. can he not get eaten by a grizzly bear?). He'll be participating in his high school best friend's wedding, renewing his visa, visiting family, and working.

I just hate it when he's gone. I miss him a lot, plus I'm such a homebody. Without someone around, it's possible for me to stay inside all by myself and do nothing for way too long.

Expect lots of blogging, I guess.

Great job!

One of my favorite things about working with Awesome Technician is that we give each other non-ironic praise or sympathy, depending on the situation. For example, if the finicky instrument breaks down and she spends a few days fixing it, I tell her what a great job she did. She’s expected to do the work and do it right, so she didn’t go above and beyond her duty, but it was good work nonetheless. I also thank her whenever she does something for me. Usually, the things she does are her job, but I could certainly do them myself and I know that in some labs, I would not have the luxury of a technician performing instrument maintenance, for example. By the same token, if things aren't going well, I give her sincere sympathy. She does the same for me.

I heard this story on NPR’s Morning Edition, which talks about how young people expect to be valued as special snowflakes, their morale slumping if their bosses don’t praise their performance on everyday tasks. When they grew up, everyone – not just the winner -- got a ribbon just for trying. I’m not sure I really feel that way myself. I’m a little older than the people in the story and my childhood soccer team certainly didn’t get a trophy just for playing. But it’s nice to work in a positive environment, especially in an industry with so much very-delayed gratification.

Read that paper and then you can have your dinner

I think reading papers goes into the important-but-not-urgent category. Reading lots of papers gets you really immersed in the literature and that, I believe, a good scientist makes. Reading before it's urgent (like for a proposal deadline) means that you ruminate on the ideas and assimilate them into your own work over time.

But it's just so difficult to read papers regularly and well.

To combat this problem and help relieve some guilt, EGM and I decided we're going to read together every night. He's about to go on a whole bunch of travel, so we'll probably start when the fall semester begins. We don't have details worked out -- I think we'll read for an hour an night or something -- but we'll keep each other accountable. Science can't happen on an island. Unless it's funded by the Dharma Initiative.

I used to worry that I might make a poor PI because I get so bogged down with reading and writing. I love lab work. I really enjoy thinking about and discussing science, and I often find it delightful to listen to research summarized in a talk. But reading papers is a chore. I sometimes fret that I'm doomed to be a Ph.D. Technician. However, in another example of how much this blogging community rocks, reading other blogs written by people who seem to be awesome scientists has made me realize that many people have a hard time reading as much as they should. And many people procrastinate, feel inadequate about, or actually dislike writing. So maybe I'm not doomed to failure after all. Thanks, guys.