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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 ก.ค. 2024
- Here are the 3 main reasons why I left research in academia for science communication.
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Before Chill, by Yomoti
00:00 - Intro
01:33 - Super-specialization
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05:03 - We need them now! - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
As a normie, non-scientist (engineer by trade) it was fun learning a bit about marine biology through your Subnautica playthroughs. I understand that using gameplay as a medium for science communication is inherently limiting, but it is fun to watch. I'd like to see more of that if possible.
Hey! I'm very happy you liked my Subnautica playthrough. I plan on playing more games with a scientific component like that, over on my second channel ;)
@@Seamemaria Maybe you could make your own game. Fewer Leviathan encounters, more species, more interactions beyond "f eats g and h" and more need to understand and protect ecosystem stability. Just promise to include a lesbian romance subplot and occasionally let the player character socialise with some attractive people and you'll get thousands of followers.
@@Seamemaria If you are alright with exploring physics, recommending Outer Wilds! Highly recommending going in blind!
I wonder whether a game could be made out of the need to modify your spaceship to transport groups of passengers of various species, with different needs.
@@Sableagle Making a game is not exactly the easiest thing in the world. A relatively small game like Subnautica requires millions of euros to be made and many many years. Development of Subnautica started in 2013 and the game went out of Early access phase in 2018. Even then, they basically finished recovering from the technical debt due to crunch at the end of 2022. So in total they spent 9 years with a company dedicated to basically a single game...
I'm a scientists (astrophysicists, in my 6th year of postdoc) that has tried to do science communication in addition of my research and I eventually came to peace with the idea that I can only do it once in a while and only on topics that I know so well that I can mostly wing it. What you say about doing both being too much work, and communication not being really valued by hiring committees, is so true. In my case I prioritized research because I find quite satisfying to obsess over little problems that no one else seem to be able to solve.
It is very true that we need consistent science communication and that the skills needed are not always similar to those of pure research. We truly need professional science communicators and I would say we need specialized science communicators that have a background in (roughly) the same science they communicate. At least in Spain (where I'm from) I feel that many science communicators have journalistic backgrounds and already need a translation layer between the scientific jargon and what they communicate (which means a lot of science communication is based on press releases). I think it's important to have also science communicators that can go directly to the source, that speak the language of scientists and can act as translators.
One tiny little aspect often overlooked regarding situations like this, is that storywriters, -writers of fictional stories and creators of universes etc., can massively benefit from such science communication, -as can the quality of their work. So that considered, if that's going to be your path you're gonna choose, then i want to already say 'Thank you!', for that. ^^
These videos are really helping to clarify many things I'm pondering myself! Thank you for sharing your thought process and experience!
I agree so much with you, scientists are historically awful at communicating things to the public in a concise way lol. I'm still completing my degree, but I aim to work better on outreach and think it's so important, so I'm really happy for you and think you will do great!
Same here!
After two postdocs and three years of adjunct teaching I left academia and started my life. No regrets.
I find the same issue within my own field of specialization. Like my students are always so pleasantly surprised when you give them the knowledge without the goblygoop. To be fair, its not easy to do but is incredibly rewarding. Although I did find integrating video games in teaching definitely helps. Love your subnautica playthroughs btw, they were fun and informative.
Teaching people interested in learning is for me one of the most rewarding experiences I've had. It's really cool! =)
I'm not a teacher, but I train new hires at my company, and it is rewarding to see them grow and learn; especially when you explain something that they don't understand buy while in the middle of it, you can see their eyes light up and the gears turning in their heads once they understand, and you're like, "Yeah, that's right!!" Very rewarding in and of itself.
This was very interesting. I think you make amazing videos. And you have already done a great job communicating scientific studies with us!
What a well put-together video! I've always had interest in marine biology, and I found your channel through your Subnautica playthrough. I really hope you the best of luck in your endeavors!
There's an enormous need to this. I've just completed a two-week programme at Cambridge University on the immune system and infectious diseases, areas about which I knew nothing, despite working for a big pharma company for 30 years. Good luck with this important initiative.
This was really interesting and you finding your way and realising what you want to do inspires me a lot!
Aw thank you! That really means a lot
Great video and very informative!
Hi Ocean-Mom! It's been a while! I did my bachelor's thesis course with you in Rovinj in 2018. After that I started the ecology master's program but left in 2020 to start a degree in environmental pedagogics - for exactly all the reasons you mentioned in this video. When it came to deciding what master thesis I wanted to do at Uni Wien, I saw that I could only do what the departments specialized in and none of it interested me enough to devote a year or more of (unpaid fulltime) work just for a MSc when I already knew I didn't want to stay in research academia and go on to PhD etc. I like doing research, but the system around it wasn't quite my style. I also wanted to contribute something to society more directly, and saw that the knowledge doesn't reach society outside of the bubble all that well. I realized that I want to communicate with people, that it's fun to pass on knowledge. It is direly needed. I don't know yet where my path will take me, but it is encouraging to see you following your passion. :)
Concordo com tudo que você falou sobre precisarmos - para ontem - de mais comunicadores da ciência, a cada ano se prova mais e mais necessário. E estou feliz que você vá tomar este caminho, porque é uma ótima comunicadora e educadora (todos os seus vídeos falando sobre um tópico específico são sempre muito esclarecedores). Continuarei acompanhando sua jornada, torcendo para que chegue cada vez mais longe e possa influenciar outros cientistas a fazerem o mesmo. ;)
Interesting video, Maria. Enjoyed your talk.
Thank you! =)
Interesting turn of events. Really looking forward to see what future content this revelation will result in!
There is a huge barrier in the communication between science community and everyone else in our society.
Recently in working in the river restoration area, that is a interdisciplinary area that needs the knowledge of chemists(that is why I was there), fauna and flora biologists, physicists, geologists, and so on, we had to identify the biggest challenges for the area and the poor interface between science community and the different parts of society was a defined as a giant issue in a report.
Most people don't read scientific papers or go to seminars and so on, so when talking to different levels like farmers, producers, legislators, most of them failed to effectively understand why a good ecological state of a river is so important, but as we started to deconstruct the science talking and explain the different levels if can endanger our safety several could understand more in detail.
But there is too much to do yet, as many science circles insist in making the communication using ambiguous words or talings about things without explaining the reasoning behind it, and that is why the appearance of communicators in science is needed, someone to break the communicaiton wall. In TH-cam, channels like yours and others have been conveying science data to everyone interested in a less complicated way.
Glad u found a career path you love and yes I feel like we do need more scientists who will spill the beans on info found or known by the on a scientific level i like reading and watching scientific finds but there not out there as much as historical finds from historians I think
Being a biology and anatomy tutor for nursing students was my dream job. There should be more tutors, along with instructors.
I totally understand what you mean, I kust started my PhD so I will have to think about the same thing in a few years^^
I didn't sign up for a masters in my country because there is a lot of elitism in academia in mexico. You have to research things that you don't want to because doctors are the ones that you work under and they decide if you can or can't help them with their research. It is not that free. I had a bad experience with my bachelor thesis, but i still graduated with honors. Hopefully one day i can see a program that calls for me.
old-school science fiction novelists were great science communicators
Love how the tiny little mistakes Maria makes in English are similar to mine because of our (same) mother language.
thank you for this video Maria! I think it will be very helpful for many young career scientists like me. I have a question for you... would you still do a PhD if you could go back? or would you chose another path? I'm not saying you regret your choice but just wondering if, with your experience, now you might have changed your mind. Thank you! Greetings from Barcelona ^^
What I would wanna Do after my masters degree, is work in an institute that combines research with policy- and social work. Luckily in germany we have a couple of them (Öko-Institut, Ifeu, Umweltbundesamt...). These institutes Do research in specific areas with other institutes, but also analyse New (Inter)national laws and what they can and cannot achieve concerning the Environment, they come up with ideas that may be incorporated in future laws, but also try to connect with mayors and sozial Organisation to help them better adapt to climate change and such.
This kinda concepts really resonated with me. :)
Was just thinking about you this morning
9:22 Honestly, that was my main problem why I decided not to work in science at university. In science and education NOTHING changes (I don't mean the knowledge stuff). And all that competing Is something that angers me as well, since this may be, at least partially, a reason why. People don't really have time to change the ways academia works, to develop the effective ways of communication because they waste a lot of it for competing with others. I love communicating, I love teaching, so It's kinda natural for me NOT to work as "typical" scientist, but realize myself as a journalist, guide, museum employee, or even as a teacher (I'm historian), because despite all of my problems with how education works, It's still a chance to work and communicate with people, young people especially, who will be responsible for the future world.
This was very informative! I learned that scientists run around with magnifying glasses and are mostly.....happy?
Seriously though, the way you (and many others) describe academia makes me feel like dropping out of high-school was definitely the right decision ;-p
hahaha yes that is what scientists do xD I do think research is super interesting, and I really enjoyed working in academia. I just think there are some parts that are still lacking in terms of communication. I love working with scientists who are passionate about what they do. It's very fun and motivating.
@@Seamemaria Oh yeah, research is super cool, and scientists are awesome (a bunch of big quirky nerds for the most part 😛)
It's the structures surrounding it at a certain level that are archaic, unneccesarily hierachical and esoteric. Which makes it so that a lot of cool science just lingers within academia, instead of being more available and open to scrutiny as well as iteration by collective efforts.
...or so I've heard 🙂
That's why I got into philosophy! To study everything, everywhere, all at once 🤣
haha! It's pretty cool =D
It's true. Often when you study philosophy, you understand all different kind of sciences much better.
😂 Philosophy of science might be different but philosophy in general is a bunch of mental masturbation, lol, I'm sorry, there's just so much hot air
😂 Philosophy of science might be different but philosophy in general is a bunch of mental masturbation, lol, I'm sorry, there's just so much hot air
I was hoping to get an answer if it is a good idea to do marine biology as a carrier. My memory is not so good, so i am scared to go into marine biology I feel like I would mess things up
Is anyone here a Marine Biologist!?
No I’m an architect
Good call, good luck...
I've only got one more year of marine biology and honestly the topic of academia and professional scientific writing scares me a lot😅
Am an applied mathematician and work part time as a professor. Regarding specialization, this is mostly not true in my field. There are new fields, such as zero knowledge proofs, which didn’t exist a few years ago. This allows mathematicians to publish in a field with relatively few papers and relatively background knowledge needed to learn the new field. Regarding post docs, there’s a lot of data on how many are needed in order to find a permanent academic position. The last time I looked, it was one postdoc. That is, if you don’t find a job after it, you likely never will. Finally, the demand from Silicon Valley and large banks others is so great for applied mathematicians, academia has become seen as what you do only if you love research or teaching. Also, most academic jobs are where most don’t want to live, either rural areas or in southern states.
So glad you are doing this; great decision. We so badly need people like you who can bring crucial science to the non-scientists. A quick flick around You Tube proves how vital your work is.
Every success to you.
Just curious where you grew up, trying to figure out your accent.
Sounds like they need to hire ghost writers for their papers. They need to do what R&D does. You NEVER let engineers talk to the public. There are technical writers for that.
Keep slaying
hello, can you add different languages as subtitles? because my english is bad but i love your videos and i want to understand. (please add german or turkish xd) i love you
Seu inglês é muito bom. Quando estava fazendo meu doutoramento, o grupo de alunos da licenciatura tinha um projeto de divulgação científica, que entrevistavam cientistas. Meu campo era física matemática e nenhum físico matemático na universidade queria conceder entrevista, logo foram para os alunos de doutoramento e somente sobrou eu no fim, preparei as coisas da pesquisa para adaptar para um público mais leigo, coloquei algumas coisas de história, diagramas ... eles gravaram e no fim achei algo mais fácil do que a pesquisa que realizava e nesse momento não entendia o porque ninguém quis participar. Outra coisa a maioria dos cientistas, não sabem dar aulas, são péssimos oradores, como eles vão fazer divulgação científica dessa forma ? Eu já não ia bem na pesquisa e me saia melhor dando aulas particulares e assim como você tinha interesse em várias coisas e me especializar demais, fazia eu ter menos tempo para estudar. Ao sair do meio acadêmico, passei a aprender mais, meu perfil é mais generalista. Para mim é mais fácil pegar um artigo e explicar o que fizeram, do que ter resolvido um problema novo, ensinar alguém que tenha dificuldades também acho mais fácil, após ter abandonado meu doutorado por motivos de saúde, fiz a licenciatura. Sobre a insegurança, são inseguranças diferentes de um freelancer para um acadêmico, acredito que a pressão no meio acadêmico é muito grande, se você empenha o mesmo esforço como freelancer ganha mais dinheiro, tendo menos pressão.
I liked you Subnautica in real live series will you be making more ?
What company you working for?
If I won the lottery, I'd buy you a personal sub so you could travel the world and show us "Subnautica in real life." That was such an entertaining and educational playthrough.
Ah damn. That would be awesome! I do plan on trying to play some more playthroughs like that over on my second channel in the future :)
Until probably around the late 19th Century, having a PhD meant being a polymath. PhDs were expected to be able to once a year take questions on anything - the sciences, the arts, philosophy, literature, theology - and be able to talk intelligently and with at least some expertise about the topic.
The reason we are where we are now is because the meaning of the Bachelor's degree was devalued after companies started using the BA as a proxy for intelligence after the U.S. Supreme Court held that using intelligence tests for hiring and promotion decisions was racist due to "disparate impact," even if there was no discriminatory intent in Griggs v Duke Power, 401 U.S> 424 (1971). The high school diploma used to be enough to get good employment, but it got devalued as more and more companies started requiring a Bachelor's as a job requirement. Thereafter, because the Bachelor's didn't mean anything, the Master's became the new Bachelor's - a degree one pursued if one wanted to engage in a topic academically, and the PhD became the new Master's - an indication that one has mastered a particular topic. Anybody who wants an academic position now needs a PhD, so more people are getting them, and consequently, dissertations, along with published research (because of the pressure to publish) are now about increasingly specialized, obscure, or irrelevant topics. It's a shame.
Also, remember that when it comes to science, it is a method, not an authority. Science cannot prove anything; it can only falsify hypotheses. Scientific laws are not truth - they are models that currently best explain natural phenomena.
I tend to think one of the most important roles in academia is the scientist doing metaanalysis, because not only is there lack of communication outside of the bubble, but also within the bubble, it's sometimes like a body with no brain, this hand does this over in this building, this foot does this over here.
Interesting claims. I'ld be interested in seeing more videos on your specialized subject. I agree we need more Science communicators. We also need more scientists and laypersons alike to be attentive to humans' role in degrading the environment and the harm disproportionally caused by the wealthy. Sponsoring a trip to Indonesia caters to these people and likely contributes to the farm-caused marine life. I suggest you choose an option that alligns with your obligations as a marine scientist to safeguard marine life.
Controversial question. What is the political/social climate in academia? Based on what some media and political pundits says, it's quite something. How is the climate in Marine Biology?
hm? Regarding what precisely? I have to say that in the research groups I've worked in, politics is not something we ever talked much about, unless it's related to marine conservation of course. It's always been quite alright, as long as your science is solid and you are respectful, I'm not sure what is wrong. But I can imagine that it depends on the working groups. There are thousands of marine science working groups around the world.
@@Seamemaria Just wanted to know, since since science-skepticism has become more prevalent in the las couple of years,
3 hours of rambling down to 12.5mins, that's exactly what being a good science communicator is all about xD
Look forward to seeing where your path leads, i hope to a promised land of recognition & stable income
And I thought you were going to say "because there are no jobs in research!" 😂😂
I didn't know about the decision not to do a post-doc... All this time I thought playing Subnautica was a by-product of unemployment and nothing else. *duh* (smacks self)
I know you made the right choice, you're so good at this!
So put simply, the science community is DNA and Maria is RNA? neat
Haha I love that analogy!
I read books with scientific content just for interest, and I see what you mean. When the 19th century ... let me call the omnisavants ... began to disappear in favour of todays specialized researcher, they left kind of a vacuum space between ordinary people like me and the hardcore science world. I think, science communicators maybe fill this gap and can start to be somewhat of a new generation of widespread scholars. A rebirth of the opalescent figures of scientist a century ago.
Reason 1: you thought being a marine biologist meant playing with dolphins at the zoo all day and that it required no knowledge of which jellyfish will kill you.
There are very few polymaths anymore...
Atleast in western countries you have real science nd inovation
You DO have the options of independent research in your discipline, for contractors, from any governmental level to NPOs, NGOs, and even corporate entities.
A few biologists manage to pursue initially self-funded research. as microbiology lab can be quite small endeavors. Bacteria and a few other organisms degrade hydrocarbons, and experimental development of more efficient such detritus feeders does not at all necessarily depend upon large labs.
I realize that females of the species in question - us - ARE more anxious about maintenance of social-status, read $$$, than are the male independents i know.
What you might consider navigating is that deep phenotypic female human conservatism on social status.
Going against culturally learned and worse, very likely evolutionarily pressures occurring in your XX neural architecture, to become ( or rather, reinterpret one's arousal. PoV of one trained in Ev, bio, neuropsych) truly independent, is surely a greater difficulty than a male can know.
Yet, one can cite many rara avis female scientists, intellectuals, and in fact, ANY human endeavor, who have ventured outside chart confines, and thus changed, the course of humanity itself.
has anybody ever told you look like the actor Asa Butterfield? for a moment i thought you were related!
Good luck with your personal yellow brick road. 🐟🐠🎣
Some will only leave academia feet first and dead.
Why all nerdy girls are so beautiful?
The more you know? The beautiful you are?
...Why us (men) do not evolve in the same way?!? 😢
The super-specialization in science is very bad, and I blame the way science is funded. And, of course, you point at the ridiculousness of how we currently handle science funding. And I also think the science bubble you talk about is very bad, and it dovetails with the other two issues. The reason its bad is that it's insular. That makes it hard to jostle out of bad tracks, and all the other issues you mention that make that even harder.
You're right to talk about information flowing out. But it's also important for information to flow in. I think one of the problems about information flowing out is that some of the people in the bubble kind of don't want the information to flow out, because that opens them up to information flowing in, and there's a very distressing elitism within all parts of academia.
How can this problem be solved? Or is it be solved at all?
@@thorebergmann1986 - I'm not sure. I've been thinking a lot about this over the past few years.
Part of this is that I think peer review has to change radically. I actually think the old system of editors produced better results.
Another part is to really try to get away from scientists as a modern priesthood. A part of that might be avoiding the use of the word 'amateur' or 'citizen' with regards to scientists. Anybody engaging in science is a scientist. Mathematicians seem to have figured this part out.
I don't know though. These are just a hodge podge of ideas.
@@Omnifarious0 I think one can support both points of view.
Either science has nothing to do with priesthood and scientists shouldn't behave as such.
Or we take it seriously as a religion and build schools of science in each little town. But then of course, the financing must be completely reorganized and actual scientific rituals would need to be newly implemented and recognized as such.
Have you heard? Apparently we're in the age of Aquarius, sounds like your time to shine! Academia shmackademia, in the end, all knowledge is derived from the world. This new age is all about MEMETICS, even the scientists are starting to figure it out (the mind works using condensed narratives, or in other word, memes!). Master the memes, and the world will be your oyster, science communicator :).
Haha If only the complexity of the world could be explained through memes. Maybe I can make memes about the fact that it's difficult to make memes about complex topics? I don't really see how I could add comedic value to that though xD Something to consider...
Can you really make money by being a science communicator? I love doing research though and published many research papers in top ranked journals.
This doesn't at all explain why you would leave academia. You do your post doc and then presumably you move on to a tenure track position where you have permanent job security at a decent salary rate for the rest of your academic life. Why would you give that up? For a completely insecure position as a science communicator? I don't get that at all. You haven't really addressed that question.
It's really difficult to get a permanent position, it's 1000 dogs to one bone. Especially if you don't want to move. If you are willing to move around the world following the positions, it's easier. But even then... I know people in their 50s who have been living out of three-year grants their entire lives still in the hopes that one day they will manage to get a permanent position. So job security is definitely not a given in academia, and is in fact pretty hard to get. In any case, that was not the reason why I chose to change paths anyway, so I didn't elaborate on that aspect.
@@Seamemaria of course. I get that. It would be interesting to talk about academia has changed and how faculty are being exploited while administrators make tons of money and make colleges and universities top heavy. As for moving, my parents were living in Switzerland when they got a telegram offering my father a position in the Math Department at the University of Alberta in Canada. Needless to say they got on the first available boat to Canada and the rest is history. Moving is not that big a deal.
10:50 _''By no means I am like the _*_illuminated_*_ one''_
*illuminate* - transitive verb
1
a(1)
: to supply or brighten with light
(2)
: to make luminous or shining
b
: to enlighten spiritually or intellectually
c
: to subject to radiation
d
archaic : to set alight
2
a
: to make clear : elucidate
b
: to bring to the fore : highlight
a crisis can illuminate how interdependent we all are
Source: Merriam-Webster dictionary
Seriously terrible gratuitous sound-effects such as the one around 7:52. This just startled me, and I jumped, with my heart rate up. Can't take you seriously if you're putting in crap like that.
I think maybe you were too cute for Academia.
Np problem: Maybe you will be super wife and you will give birth to children. :-)
You like the cooking and other housework??
Lol None of that is in any of my plans. My partner does most of the cooking, and thank the gods, half of the housework as well, since I hate it
You’re eyes are too pretty to be reading academic papers late into the night
And another reason is as there are more and more universities, we have to teach many rubbish students nowadays.