Students reach molecular biology from a variety of sources, but what if we started them off from it instead?
Continue readingTerms of empowerment
science
MedComms is not SciComm
When scientists assess career options outside academia, there’s a prevailing misconception that MedComms is a variant of SciComm.
The trap, after all, is right there in the name. SciComm = science communication, MedComms = medical communications, so MedComms must basically be the same activity but dealing with medicine instead of scientific research, right?
Wrong. Here’s why.
Continue readingDeprogramming academia
Look after one another
Chainsaw massacre
There’s a reason why the chainsaw is such an apt symbol for the current assault on American science: because you can cut a tree down in minutes, but growing it back takes decades.
Continue readingTake back control: an encounter with eLife’s publish, review, curate model
In January 2023, the journal eLife – long at the vanguard of the progressive movement in scientific publishing – took the radical step of adopting a “publish, review. curate” model. Here, with some background framing, is what it feels like to use it.
Continue readingJess is on a Break: Jess has a job!
More than ever, I feel that the story of my generation of scientists is one of a migration out of academia and into different avenues where those scientific skills can be put to fresh use. It’s an adventure, a leap, a journey, and one that Jess tells better than most. This posting not only contains some great reflections on the jobseeking process for academics striking out into the private sector, but also has some super nuggets of practical advice.
The magic of MedComms: an EMBL Careers Webinar
Medical Communications (MedComms) might just be the best industry career option out there for scientists who most enjoy the writing/communicating/organising parts of the job, and on 22nd November 2024 the EMBL Fellows’ Careers Service hosted a webinar about it. The panel members were:
- Lucija Fleisinger, Medical Writer, Oxford PharmaGenesis, UK
- Laura McMahon, Senior Scientific Director and Team Lead, Envision Pharma Group, Scotland
- Brooke Morriswood, Manager, Scientific Services, Ashfield MedComms GmbH, Germany
2024: Total Internal Reflection’s year in review
The lifetime of a field
It’s not just scientists that get old. Scientific fields have their own lifetimes, just like people.
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Total Internal Reflection 