Forget the image of the lone scientist in a white lab coat – a new book tells the truth about the life of a scientist, writes CLAIRE O'CONNELL
So You Want to Be a Scientist?by Philip A Schwartzkroin, published by Oxford University Press.
DO YOU wonder how things work? Or are you more inclined to ask why? If you fall into the “how” camp, chances are you may be cut out to be a scientist.
It’s an easy litmus test, yet many pondering a career in the sciences don’t apply it. And it’s one of many insights in a new book describing the job of being a scientist as it really is.
Non-scientists tend to have romanticised notions of how science works and unrealistic expectations of what science can tell us, according to Prof Philip Schwartzkroin, author of So You Want to Be a Scientist?, in which he offers observations and pragmatic advice drawn from over three decades as a researcher.
The book challenges many canonical images, not least the lone, white-coated scientist doggedly applying rigid rules and coming up with absolute truths. The real truth is scientists are doing a job and, like most human endeavours, that involves creative, social and political elements, says Schwartzkroin, a professor in the neurological surgery department at the University of California, Davis.
“I think most young people going into science have a very narrow, and in a way idealistic, idea of what being a scientist is – the idea of being in a laboratory and working out all these problems and somehow being insulated from the rest of the world,” he says. “And I hope one of the messages in the book is that it isn’t really like that. That’s part of the job but there are a lot of other things involved.”
One of the more surprising elements is the degree of creativity needed for thinking about innovative research – imagination is a strength in science, says Schwartzkroin. “One can be a scientist and plod through things step-by-step in a not particularly imaginative way, but I think one doesn’t get particularly far if one does that,” he says.
Sociability is also important, he says: scientists are not ivory-tower-bound loners and they benefit from networking and communicating their work and strengths. Politics, too, is an integral part of life in the academic profession, not least the art of securing competitive grants. “Politics is unavoidable. Most young people don’t have any awareness of what it means, or if they do they have no interest in engaging in it. But they end up getting drawn into it sooner or later,” he says.
In terms of motivation, researchers need to look for rewards intrinsic to the work – like intellectual freedom in an academic environment – rather than waiting for the cash registers to ring, says Schwartzkroin. “You can certainly make a comfortable living being a scientist, but you have to be looking for other kinds of rewards to put up with the hardships and frustrations, because it’s not glamorous, it involves a lot of just getting in there and doing the dirty work,” he says.
Staying fulfilled in lab-based science – and Schwarzkroin counts himself among those who do – means weathering the challenges and opportunities an advancing career can bring. “The issue I think is encouraging people to think about themselves and what their own makeup is and what their reinforcement needs are, and then compare that to what they are likely to get in the laboratory.”
Young scientists need to be aware, too, that they may be drawn away from their first love of the lab bench towards management and paperwork as their careers advance, but they need to keep a focus on the positive, Schwartzkroin says. “It’s a career trajectory that is very common and most of us struggle with. If you go into science paperwork is probably not what you thought you were going to do. I don’t spend much time in the lab now, I’m the ideas man. But it’s not necessarily such a bad thing. You just need to understand you are doing a different job that has its rewards as well.”
Communication is a vital skill to help challenge unrealistic expectations, he says, like coming up with absolute truths when science does not provide for them.
“I think on the face of it people think science is a wonderful thing but people don’t really understand what scientists do or what science can produce. Sometimes it doesn’t turn out the way the scientists said it was going to and that’s okay too.”
Despite the challenges, when the fit between an individual’s personality, mind and science works, it works well, says Schwartzkroin, whose love of science was sparked while working in a lab as a high-school student. “I’m not a masochist, I think it’s a wonderful profession and I can’t think of anything I’d rather be doing. It has lots of rewards: you just have to enter the profession with your eyes open.”
