On January 23, 2013, I had the opportunity to watch a
documentary about the life of a group of graduate students called “Naturally
Obsessed: The Making of a Scientist.” This hour long documentary basically
talked about how graduate students lived their lives not only in the lab room,
but what their personalities are like, what backgrounds they came from, and
what projects they were working on. One of the most memorable individuals
interviewed was Robert Townley, who started graduate school very late in his
life but is very satisfied with his life choice. As I mentioned before, the
audience has an opportunity to see these scientists act outside of the
laboratory environment. They, just like us, have their own lives that are
filled with joy, tasks, and creative hobbies (Robert built is own climbing board
which recreates the effect of him crawling up a mountain while being attached
to a cord). I was exposed to some techniques and projects that I have only
heard but not seen, such as x-ray crystallography of proteins. (picture provided)
Cool...
It was
interesting to see how dedicated the individuals were with their project. For
them, it was their life and some have been working on their project for years.
Any type of failure is personal to them; at least that was the impression for
me. One thing that I did notice was just how obsessive they were about science!
In fact, there is a reason why the documentary is called like that! In order to
succeed in the graduate program, they have to revolve their lives around their
research. The research can be lengthy, frustrating, and life-sucking. I was
surprised to see that some of the graduate students already had marriages! If
you ask me, that is a bad idea since you would have to dedicate some of your
life to your spouse and judging from how this documentary made grad life sound,
I think it would be selfish and unfair of a person to get married while in
graduate school since one actually get married to their work. It was surprising
that they would show former graduate students who have left graduate school. I
suppose they wanted to show how life is treating them. The woman they
interviewed who left seems to be doing just fine. She mentioned that she found
a good job. One thing that I forgot to mention was just how many times the
documentary showed the students playing outside. I think that it was trying to
show us that deep down, the grad students are people just like us and are not
just a bunch of lackeys with no life except science.
Overall,
I thought the documentary was very informative in describing what graduate
school would be like for anyone interested. It did a good job at highlighting
the most important parts of the research process. I believe that individuals
who do go into graduate schools should be people who are completely dedicated
to the scientific method. Something else that I feel firmly about is also that
it would be the best choice for single individuals to choose as a career. The idea
of having a family and a life-dedicated research project would create too many
problems, especially for your kids since you would most likely not spend more
time with them. At least it would make sense financially and time-management
wise to start settling down with a family after you get your PhD. It was also a good idea of interviewing that
woman who droped out of grad school. Though it may sound wrong at first, I
think what the documentary was trying to say is that grad school is not for
everyone and no one should feel bad about it. I give this movie 3.5/4 points of
excellence!
References
No comments:
Post a Comment