Bad Luck

Coincidentally, the week our lab published the only scientific journal article on which I will ever have authorship, the journal changed its name from the Journal of Neuroscience to the Journal of Developmental Neurobiology. Hehe. All out subsequent lab articles were subjected to the same - the day this happened, our lab sat and cried.The change of name definitely makes the research sound less grand and more narrow in focus on resumes, though the essence of the journal's articles remained the same. Not that I care but given that papers are the only yardstick to measure progress in research, the paper serves to establish me professionally as a researcher during my stint in labs.Moreover, now as a science journalist, interviewing a lot of scientists can be less painful because of that. Sans this, scientists are the most arrogant species on the planet when talking to non-scientists and especially journalists whom they look upon with suspicion and disdain. Not only do they talk down, they reply to interview requests with "I will be happy to provide you with this interview". Are we receiving some kind of a blessing ( without disguise) here? Hehe. :).I think we're just trying to do our job - but unknown to them, we take our job just as seriously and don't always buy everything a scientist says.They explain at length with might , but we are not taking class notes, so we sift. To bring the jargon-loaded convoluted, twisted Nature and Science studies to the most generic reading material in the world which doesn't niche out its reader at all ( a newspaper) needs a whole other skillset. In fact, a PhD can sometimes do irreversible damage to a person - in the sense it can change a person's orientation to the highly specific and narrow to the point that this person is rendered incapable of communicating with anyone outside of science about science, the last of which is the layman.

It's like that GRE student phrases thing - so the neurobiology of compassion is published as "Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice". Hehehe. Enjoy you jargon loaded freaks.

Yet, Time magazine named Dr. Richard Davidson one of the world's top 100 most influential people in a 2006 issue.

Having been on both sides of the spectrum equally feels odd - one side where only jargon and narrow foci are considered signs of intelligence and the other where jargon is considered Greek and the layman or the interested but non-professional science magazine reader is the center of the universe. I know how scientists feel about the press, but now I'm learning how the press feels about science. Funny thing is, sometimes I feel like I still belong to both worlds which makes my loyalties blurred.