simply blood

Being in a relationship with a fellow scientist can be an amazing experience. First and foremost, they understand your passion for research. You can discuss your science thoroughly as they have the knowledge to understand the work, the frustration, and the joy, as well as an interest in science to enjoy the conversation. You can commiserate about the ups and downs of experimental foibles, and jointly celebrate manuscript acceptances and grant successes. But there can also be downsides. At times, your partner could be credited for your work merely based on gender differences. If you choose to have a family you need to find the balance between work and home life perhaps even more than families in which only one partner is the scientist (it can be hard to stop talking science at times!). Furthermore, you may end up competing for the same funding opportunities.  Two scientist households are not uncommon, and have been the subject of a number of news features in Nature over the las...

The New Investigators Committee is excited to announce the second ISEH Journal Club, which will run next week (24 - 28 April). We'll be discussing a recent paper in EMBO entitled Osteopontin attenuates aging‐associated phenotypes of hematopoietic stem cells  with the paper's first author, Novella Guidi.  Starting 24 April, you can ask Novella any questions about the paper through the ISEH Facebook group .  As before, to help introduce this paper and start the discussion, we conducted a Q&A with Novella. This recent publication came from her PhD research with Dr. Hartmut Geiger at the University of Ulm. Novella is currently a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Valter Longo at the University of Southern California. What was the motivation for studying hematopoietic stem cell aging? What motivates me and the laboratory about studying the aging of hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) is that aging at the stem cell level is one underlying cause of aging-as...

Work/family life balance is a “thing” now.  It’s out in the open.  It is the subject of blog posts (like this one), the focus of graduate seminars by invited speakers, a hot topic at mentor/mentee meetings.  It has come out of the closet, so to speak – it is now acceptable and acknowledged that taking time for your family, friends, to take a vacation, or even enjoy hobbies as a scientist, is reasonable. Not only is it reasonable, it’s important.   I argue that this shift in attitude towards a more balanced view on work and family life in science can be attributed to the growing presence of women in science. And it comes from the absolute and definitive need of working women to balance work and family life in order to be successful. (I should note at this early juncture in my post that I acknowledge that not all women choose to have families; but it goes without saying that women necessarily have to make that biological choice, whereas men do not.)   Despi...