Lately, I've been having many conversations with friends about the science field and how difficult it is to get in and stay there. Our lunchtime conversations usually revolve around the fact that many of us live in a constant state of stress and anxiety to get the work done, to get the latest paper published, so we could ultimately get a job, a proper job. It is like a competitive sport, or like being an American Idol hopeful, or a little bit of both. Our professional lives are in constant evaluation, is like having to win match after match, tournament after tournament. But not only that, even after we manage to produce a good quality piece of science, the impact of it will not only depend on how well designed the experiments were or how well we manage to explain the data, but also on the trending opinions of the public. Is like getting a film or a record reviewed. You can produce an amazing piece of art film, but it will flunk at the box office while Transformers X takes the millions. So, we not only have to win the match, we also have to please the crowd!
So, like in the music world we have pop stars, that get their records sold no matter what's in them, in science, publishing research about on a model organism of a trendy topic is far easier than publishing work on a endangered endemic from the mountains of Chiapas (unless that endangered endemic seems like it came from Mars, like
Lacandonia schismatica, but it wasn't easy even then). However, those model organisms rarely represent what is
normal or common in the natural world. For example,
Arabidopsis thaliana is the model organism for plants, flowering plants that is. It was chosen mainly because it is annual, easy to grow in controlled conditions and has a very small genome (for a plant). However, the majority of plants have larger genomes (some of the largest there are), many live for hundreds of years and much more picky of where they grow. The model organism for Bacteria is
Escherichia coli, that usually lives in our gut. And again, it was chosen because it's easy to handle, but many other bacteria, far more interesting bacteria, have been completely forgotten because they live in acid ponds near volcanoes, or float around in the ocean, minding their own business and producing the oxygen we breathe. So,
E. coli is like the Lady Gaga of bacteria, but we nobody would ever think that all the music produced by mankind is represented by the works Lady Gaga. In science it happens that way sometimes.
So, in summary it's about two things: competing all the time against oneself and others, and pleasing the public, and all that without the pay check of Lionel Messi, the private jet of Roger Federer, or the wardrobe of Sarah Jessica Parker. So, why are we still here? Why not look for an office job like everyone else? Well, the romantic answer, which in my case is also 90% true, is because we love what we do. Research is like playing Sherlock Holmes but without the murders (most of the time). Is just fun. Also, the other 10% of why I do this, is because this is what I am good at. I have no other skill. I can't sing, dance or play an instrument. I am lousy at sports, and I sometimes have issues with authority, so no office job for me.
Despite all that, science is not that bad. It gives me the chance of traveling a lot and go to exotic locations where literally nobody else has been, meet interesting people, and of course, gives me the rare satisfaction of seeing my name in print. So there is no other choice but to prepare for the next match, the next tournament, keep training, stay away from injuries and maybe, just maybe, I will win the trophy in the end.
P.S. Maybe we can help fund the private jet, the wardrobe, or at least our next research by making a reality show about PhD students. There will be enough drama, tears and cat fights, that's for sure!
