I really don’t know how to sum up this summer; it’s seems like such an insurmountable task that simply suggesting it is Dr. Grunwald’s lasting jest. But here goes:
1. For all the things we have discovered and understand, there is 10 times more that we don’t. Discovering those things is one of the greatest responsibilities, burdens, and blessings one can be bestowed with.
2. There is no one path one must follow to do science. We’ve been spoken to by multiple former premed students, a musician, a couple of bio-nerds, all with different goals in mind and in very diverse fields, oftentimes, just as confused in their undergraduate career as we are now.
3. Collaboration is life. All work has the work before it to thank for its existence. All the scientist now have previous scientist to thank for their succes. There is no way of doing science in an isolated system. Every person, discovery, observation, publication, and award adds to the growing aggregation of intellectual wealth.
4. Having an interdisciplinary mind can be very helpful. Every biological phenomenon has foundations in chemistry and physics; their implications can even go beyond cellular and can become cognitive, or behavioral. So, once again, SCIENCE DOES NOT HAPPEN IN A BUBBLE.
5. TROUBLE-SHOOTING IS RESEARCH. We just gotta tweak and tweak, and pull, and crank, and over some years we get discoveries and, hopefully, a defend-able thesis. So a nice, flexible, and imaginative mind works very well in this field.
6. Scientist are some of the best people to be around. I once thought I’d marry a dancer, singer, or something, a person with a profession that is characterized in manifesting their creativity into reality. With this in mind, I can definitely see myself marrying a scientist.
This summer was so much more enjoyable and beneficial than I’d ever would have imagined. Thanks Howard Hughes, thanks fellows, thanks Dirty Durst, thanks KP, and thanks Dr.G. Now let’s all give a round of applause to science; you da real MVP.
