The road to a science Ph.D.
Jonathan has done a bang-up writing about the road to a science Ph.D. Last week saw his first installment, and yesterday brings his follow-up. From week 1:
The next few years are not always plain sailing. Friends who graduated with you move on to high paying jobs whilst you remain in relative penury. Experiments don’t always work out. There are assessments and committees to deal with. If you’re unlucky enough to have classes, there will be homework! Although you’re researching a particular niche of your own, you are also being formed in the same crucible as the scientists who precede you. They all had a tough time of it, and they’ll be damned if they’ll let some young upstarts off the hook easily.
It might be that you have a committee with five or more examiners. Perhaps it’s only two. You may get grilled in public, or in private. Some places expect you to bring baked goods or food, or (and I prefer this one) you go out to the pub with them afterwards. What they all have in common is that the thesis you wrote, your dissertation, is going to be gone over with a fine-toothed comb, and every little weakness, typo, mistake or, error will be brought up. Remember that great discussion I wrote? It never even came up in mine. Everything I was proud of writing got ignored, but I did get to spend an hour going over each figure to be told they didn’t like the way I represented the statistics. Again. Odds are, your examiners went through the meat grinder in their day, and if they had it tough, by Jove you will too!
Hrm. Sounds like… fraternal pledging.
Buy your own DNA kit
You can now buy your own home DNA testing kits online from Amazon and Target. The kit doesn’t offer much, but it is cute. One option allows you to store it, and another, more expensive option allows you to see how you stack up to various races. (Whatever that means.) It’s cute, but not very impressive since one could just as easily preserve a few strands of hair in an envelope.
Eventually, such kits could lead to more extensive DNA testing: to see what genetic predispositions one might have. Cancer, Crohn’s, heart disease, etc. I can see mail away DNA testing being big business in ten years. I would suspect that insurance companies might offer discounted rates to those customers that consent to a DNA test before they enroll. Such testing could never be mandatory (per federal law), but I’m certain that some incentives could be offered to aid them in getting a better health picture before of a potential client before a contract is made.
Right now, though, the sort of “DNA testing” offered is largely useless information: it’s too general for it to have any real use.
The science of Stealth
LJ has written an article exploring the science and feasibility of the technology from the movie Stealth. Stealth, for those of you that don’t know, is about “EDI (”Eddie”) a prototype Uninhabited Combat Aerial Vehicle, or UCAV, being piloted by the US Navy.” She breaks it down:
In fact, the real-life Navy has been looking into the construction and deployment of UAVs for both combat and surveillance since the 1960s. 11 different models have been developed over the course of various programs, and 3 have entered actual production. And in the decade between 1985 and 1994, UAVs logged over 10,000 operational flight hours.
In particular, the Pioneer UAV highlights the effectiveness of such vehicles, with its great contributions to the success of Operation Desert Storm. Six of these planes flew in over 300 combat missions, their AI systems aiding in target selection, detection of enemy gunfire, and damage assessment. There was even one incident where Iraqi soldiers surrendered to a lone UAV; they knew that despite the lack of weaponry on the plane itself, they were surely being targeted by far-off battleships that had just been tipped off to their location.
LJ’s got the skinny on scramjets, space travel, and the technology that we’ve got today, and how long it might be before we see a real-world EDI. Funny, though, there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of actual stealth in Stealth. Go figure.