Manuscript Writing

At my last committee meeting, at the beginning of the month, I presented my figures for my proposed manuscript to my committee and received the thumbs up to go ahead and start writing it (while finishing up a few loose ends and getting one additional experiment to hopefully work).  While seated around the table, my boss declared that he would like the draft of it by January 1st – exactly one month later.  The committee sat around joking that on the 31st, I’d be buying a plane ticket to California to get those extra three hours of writing in… and then hopping another plane to Hawaii to buy myself a few more hours… but oh, be careful and don’t cross the international date line!

I know that the comments were all in jest, a result of previous graduate students who were unable to meet deadlines and used all sorts of excuses.  But when I returned to the lab later and mentioned the deadline to other labmates, they all furrowed their brows and made comments about how a manuscript in a month is no easy feat.

Yesterday, two weeks before the imposed January 1st deadline, I emailed my boss my manuscript so he could take it on his trip to Europe (what better to do with 14 hours on a plane than edit it?!).  It took me a week to find the time between experiments to write a two page outline, and then four days to go from my outline to the finished draft, and one more day to get my figures polished.  I suspect the reason the writing went so quickly for me is because I have been working on this project for so long – I already knew everything there was to know about it, inside and out, so I did not have to waste time reading through lots of papers.  I also just gave my yearly data presentation to my department, half of which was on this project, and if I can stand up and speak about the project for 40 minutes, then I’d expect I could sit down and write about it as well.  However, I still can’t drop the nagging feeling that I’ve done something drastically wrong, since I finished writing the draft so quickly and with such ease.

Now the worst part: the wait.  Boss returns from Europe the end of next week.  Will my draft be returned with some minor edits, or a giant “MANUSCRIPT WRITING: UR DOIN’ IT WRONG!” scrawled across the top? 

Non-Academic Careers

I’m helping a post-doc in our lab take over the career development seminars for my program.  Our program really offers no support to students looking at options outside academia, and many of the investigators actively discourage trainees from pursuing other opportunities.   We are trying to help fill this gap by bringing in speakers from a variety of non-academic scientific careers to share a bit about what it is they do, how they got there, and give everyone some other career opportunities for down the road.
I’ve spent the past year or so conducting informational interviews with everyone and anyone who will sit down and talk to me about what they do, but unfortunately, I’m averaging only about a 10% success rate in regards to emails sent to actual phone conversations had.  I recently sent out another wave of emails to those in the area who were willing to talk to me about possibly coming in for a general career chat with others in my department, but I’m looking for more people and more careers to explore.
So, this is where you come in.  Throw those ideas at me – no matter how off the beaten path.  Once you have that Ph.D. in biomedical sciences, what can you do with it?  Super duper extra bonus points (and cookies sent in the mail) if you have an actual contact in the greater Washington area who might be willing to come talk to a bunch of senior graduate students and post-docs!

Roasted Beets with Sautéed Beet Greens

I avoided beets for a very long time, because I dislike both pickled beets and borscht.  Much like brussels sprouts, beets once again prove my theory that there is a delicious way to consume any vegetable – you just have to know how to prepare it to your liking.  My favorite use for beets?  Roast the beets until the sugars start to caramelize, and serve over sautéed garlicky beet greens.  Delicious!

Roasted Beets with Sautéed Beet Greens
a Sugar Scientist original kitchen protocol

Ingredients:

• one bunch beets, well cleaned
• one medium onion, diced
• 4-6 cloves of garlic, diced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Scrub beets to remove all dirt, and rinse beet greens well.  Chop off greens where leaves end and remove remaining ‘stems’ from the beet root.
3. Quarter each beet and toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Roast beets in a baking dish covered with aluminum foil for 30 minutes, then remove foil and continue to cook uncovered at 400F for another 20 minutes until beets can be easily pierced with a knife.
4. Remove from oven and allow beets to cool.  Drain remaining beet-infused olive oil from baking pan and pour into a skillet over medium-low heat.  Add onion and garlic and cook until onion is translucent.  Tear the beet greens into 2 to 3 inch pieces and add to the skillet.  Sautee until greens are wilted.
5. If desired, peel beets once they have cooled enough to handle.  The beet skin should easily rub right off, but the skin is perfectly edible and adds a nice texture.
6. Serve roasted beets over beet greens, topped with salt and pepper to taste.
   

Bad Decisions (with a view)

I am at that awkward age in life where I am too old to stay up drinking Friday night and not pay the consequences when I have to be in lab early Saturday morning, but still too young and immature to turn down the invitation to spend the night playing flip cup on a friend’s roof.

Rehearse after me:

“Thank you for the invitation, but I have to be in lab by 7am Saturday, so I must decline.”
“Thank you for the invitation, but I have to be in lab by 7am Saturday, so I must decline.”
“Thank you for the invitation, but I have to be in lab by 7am Saturday, so I must decline.”
“Thank you for the invitation, but I have to be in lab by 7am Saturday, so I must decline.”

But really, who could pass up good beer, great friends, and a perfectly chilly fall night with this lovely view of the city I am fortunate to call home?

The Plague

I've been rather sick the past 12 days with the "lab plague", which started as a cold, added on pinkeye picked up from a labmate (quick! decontaminate the microscope eyepiece!), and has settled in my lungs as a nice case of pneumonia.  I've been on antibiotics (both eyedrops and oral) for several days now, so fortunately the pinkeye is clearing up, and with the help of an inhaler, I can almost breathe without feeling like I am being stabbed in the chest (of course, courtesy of the antibiotics, I now feel like I'm being stabbed in the stomach... six of one, half dozen of the other).

I've been in and out of the lab, trying to balance healing with productivity, in hopes that resting up will kick this plague once and for all so I can head up to Boston later this week for some time in the city and spending Yom Kippur with family and friends.  Husband is in the middle of his fellowship interviews, and since there seems to be a good chance he will wind up in Boston, I am tagging along to confirm that I'd be willing to head to Boston for the next stage of my life if when I graduate.

My statcounter tells me that there are a number of individuals in the greater Boston area who read my blog, so send me your recommendations!  I've been to Boston several times before, but Husband has only been for medical school and residency (and now fellowship) interviews, so what should we do?  Send me your favorite things to do and restaurant recommendations, por favor!  Any particularly great neighborhoods to check out should I be moving in that general direction (looking for a nice balance of somewhere in walking distance to things we need, bars, restaurants, etc., but not filled with noisy undergrads)?  We'll be staying a few blocks away from Mass General, so extra bonus points for things within walking distance that I can do on my own during Husband's interviews... provided I am not still stuck in bed feeling like death.