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hi, it's good to be back after a long break
it's good to see you
you know...
I want to share with you a kind of activism activity that I do inside science
and maybe academia at large.
maybe it's a good opportunity to explore that.
it has to do with thinking about the culture, the academic culture that we have.
and how we can improve it
and how everyone here can improve it, very specifically
and since I'm going to be talking about matters of the heart
welcome...
I'm going to use a few songs to...
because there are different ways of knowing, as you know
I started my lab 10 years ago, at the Weizmann
I walked into the empty white rooms
and I felt the walls, kind of, closing in on me, I was terrified
and I didn't know what to do
I had tremendous expectations from myself
the outside world had expectations on me
but I was never trained about the important things I needed to know,like,
how to choose a scientific problem, how to hire students,
how to mentor,
how to say no to requests
how to manage my time
how to deal with negative feedback
how to tell people in a constructive way what to do
how to balance my life and work
how to make a meaningful life out of being a scientist
so at the lab I studied thousands of hours,
welcome...
you know - have you studied thousands of hours of physics and biology and chemistry?
"yes"
"that's why she's late..."
thank you for coming
but not one hour about truly important subjective and emotional aspects of doing science
welcome...
"why didn't you welcome me?"
welcome...
welcome everyone...
so this is a song you might recognize from your own experience
dear author
we have now heard from three referees
whose comments are attached below
as you will see
they have raised concerns about your interpretation of the facts,
your choice of model system
your basic assumptions
your references
and the style of your prose
oh yah
referee no. 1 says this has been done before and is trivial
referee no. 2 says it's wrong and must never be published
referee no. 3 suggests 14 additional experiments that although tangential to your main point
would be nice to have
oh yah
as a result we regret that we cannot offer publication at this time
please note that we value your work and would like you to submit to us in the future
however, we remain committed to the high standards of the archival journal of upper nasal cavities research
so we've studied thousands of hours of physics, biology, chemistry
not one hour about the emotional and subjective aspects of doing science
why is that?
let's start with that point
so, science, like any other professional group, group of people, has a certain culture
and that culture is based on myths and values
in science we seek knowledge that's objective and rational and certain
but the myth of science is that the human beings doing the process of science
the myth of science: the doing of science is objective and rational
just like what we want the knowledge to be
the human beings doing science are objective and rational
and when we have a phenomena that's labeled objective and rational
automatically the other words are not science
subjective, emotional,
maybe even threatening to science,
so all these issues are under the table
but anyone doing science
realizes
that in fact the process of doing science is objective, rational and subjective and emotional
all of these things together
so the reality is different from the myth
bringing a lot of problems for us, scientists
for example, some central aspects of doing science thate are on this side include
choosing what problem we're going to work on
out of all the objects that you observe
and that's an elimination of your unique resonance with the world
it's reflected in who you are
or maybe listening to external voices telling you what's important to study
how to mentor
how to communicate
because science is basically a story telling exercise
where a group of people are trying to figure out stories about nature
and so we tell each other stories giving feedback,
this is integral to doing science
welcome... come in...
how to deal with emotional issues
everyone can perhaps relate to this particular unavoidable aspect of being a scientist or of being an academic
and other, many other issues
so the first point is that science has a culture
now, there's a tremendous amount of knowledge about
the conditions that enable a person or a group to work creatively
it has been researched in fields like theater, where I come from,
education,
social work,
a lot in psychology, cognitive psychology, work psychology
but that knowledge doesn't go into science
and, if I give a metaphor,
if we bring a microscope into our lab
we read the manual
we make very sure we have the best optical table, the best lenses, filters so it will work optimally
but when we hire a new person into the lab
do we educate ourselves about the conditions
that enable that person to reach their internal motivation
to work... to reach their full potential as scientists
and the answer is right now: no
so it's very patchy
some labs are very nurturing, other labs are quite destructive of talent
there's a reality in science that a lot of the most talented people
leave science in need of a certain kind of healing
which, I think, is something we need to work about as a profession
science has a culture
and before I go into the next subject I'll do this next song
this is to honor a person who has been essential for me as a scientist
called Mike Surrette
when I was a postdoc he was the person who taught me
everything I needed to know about biology
he helped me when experiments didn't work and I wanted to quit science
and played a very important emotional role for me
that I think I just wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him
of course then he left
just like many people in science you meet, they leave