It’s been a looong time since I’ve blogged with you, so welcome back to both of us! Here are some updates on my ongoing research: 1) Ovary updates My “ovary project” as some might affectionately call it, has wrapped up and was submitted for publication. After half a year, a set of 3 reviewers informed me my manuscript needed major revisions before being considered for publication. I am working on many tedious aspects of editing my manuscript some of which include: removing periods from figure captions, adding scientific names to common species I refer to (like humans and white-tailed deer), coming up with ways to soften the wording I used to interpret results, making color images black and white, italicizing mathematical equations, deleting large sections of text that I thought were informative to the reader and so on. Ok so science writing can be pretty bland, BUT it’s important! The scientific peer-review process ensures that the science being done is done correctly, that the methods are understandable to those in that field and are repeatable so that the results from one study can be compared to those of future studies. A published peer-reviewed paper means that the study conducted has merit. I recently came across this quote a professor in my college has as part of his signature on every email he sends to staff, students and faculty alike: "Claims that have not gone through critical review by a jury of scientific peers-or have gone through it and failed-are not scientific, and do not deserve equal time in a scientific debate." -Oreskes and Conway in Merchants of Doubt 1) Comprehensive exams In the fall I took the dreaded Ph.D. comprehensive exams. “Comps” as they are affectionately called, are akin to the Bar for law students. They are the gold standard that ensures an individual is fit to be called a Doctor of Philosophy in (fill in the blank). However, they differ from the Bar in that they are not standardized, and are not administered by strangers that have no bearing on your success on the test. The comps for Ph.D. students are tailored to topics the student is expected to be an expert in (or at least conversant to fluent in) and given and graded by their Ph.D. committee (essentially it is a grilling. The way the test is carried out varies by college and department. In the Fisheries Department at my university, the committee can choose the topics you will be tested on, how you will perform the exam (written/oral, alone/monitored), whether or not it is open or closed book and under what timeline they expect you to complete their portion of the exam. Fortunately, I got to make some decisions too including when I chose to take the tests (spanning one or two weeks, back-to-back or days off and my start time) and the order in which each exam was given. Each of my five committee members allotted me 24 hours, open book. PHEW! In some cases I was done in 8-10 hours. Others took 21. Topics included biochem, statistics, co-management of marine mammals, endocrinology, evolution and marine mammal fossils and understanding the Marine Mammal Protection Act (of 1972) as well as the Endangered Species Act. I’ll be honest, they were terrible. I mean I got sick and was up all night blurry-eyed sifting through literature and library books, rapidly creating bibliographies. I was stuck inside during the nicest fall I have ever seen in Southeast Alaska while friends were out catching coho and camping. My car battery died one day, leaving me stranded. But the support was outstanding. My awesome fiancé, then boyfriend, drove out to the lab, took out my car battery and then replaced it with a new one in the parking lot while I was testing. My friends and lab mates cooked me pre-made dinners and gave me chocolate and electrolytes and walked my dog. It was a long, stressful, tenuous ten days. The day after my nearly two weeks of testing were up a friend called me up and invited me to Eagle Glacier cabin for a night. It was like awakening from hibernation. The devils club was golden and an array of constellations painted the sky that night. I must have slept for 12 glorious, uninterrupted hours. Weeks later I received word that I passed with flying colors! I am now a Ph.D. Candidate. Sleeping like a rock Golden
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AuthorHi, I'm Jenell. Biologist, student, outdoors woman and author of Mother Walrus. Archives
March 2019
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