It is so much worse than that.

I spend my time researching the literature on a topic so that I can spend my time and energy writing a grant. It probably won’t get funded.

If it does, I get to do a bunch of work. It might involve travel, where I will do everything at minimum expense to save enough money for the coming lab work.

I will spend significant time getting the samples analyzed, spending most of the grant money. Then I will come up with a logical way to interpret the data.

I will spend more time sending a document around to coauthors. This may take months, or even years if the coauthors fight.

We eventually submit to a journal. It gets rejected.

We rewrite and submit again. A few months later, congratulations, you get to publish. Money please.

I work for the money to do the work, I work for the writeup, I fight for the acceptance, and I have to pay to publish.

It’s a stupid system.

They could have made it really interesting if Kylo Ren and Rey had joined forces, either for good or bad, and wound up facing off against Poe and Finn. But no.

Hard to say what exactly a PhD teaches. It is a unique type of qualification that varies radically between situations, even in the same department. I can definitely say there is a difference between people with and without a doctorate, but many of the skills gained are soft skills.

“This work was financially supported by the Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Fukuoka University, Japan.”

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0001706X19301202?via=ihub

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0001706X19301202

“The electronic song “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites” reduces host attack and mating success in the dengue vector Aedes aegypti” - original article title.

Highlight: Adults entertained with music copulated far less than their peers

I missed that. Seems like they are already using it to send anybody they don’t like.

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/guantanamo-bay-immigration-detainees-asia-africa-europe/

I just finished marking student reports. There are some sections clearly written without AI, some that clearly are written by AI, and then some sections where the ideas are correct, the grammar is perfect, and it is on topic, but it doesn’t seem like it is written in the student’s voice. Could be AI, could be a friend editing, could be plagiarism, could be written long before or after the surrounding paragraphs. It is not always obvious, and the edge cases are the problem.

Perfect grammar and slightly unusual words in a paragraph. Could be a weird formulation from a student’s mind, could be AI. No way to really know.

I am a useless person with a PhD…

Are they hiring?

You misread the first sentence.

Yeah, my first thought when I saw this was that it was definitely not made by a scientist.

I love Tartu, but last I heard, the pay and funding sucked. How is it now?

China has a very large capita.

It is pretty standard practice. For one, it helps people who read or review your work know who they are dealing with. For another, it helps the general public understand who scientists are. Part of the mission is to make sure that the next generation carries the work on, and by emphasizing the human aspect of the science, young people can actually imagine themselves getting to that point some day.

Italy is a part of Africa. At least, geologically.

Imprint fossils preserve feathers and other soft tissues. No ears.

An existential crisis is an important part of growing up.

Private school, Mississippi.