And one more piece from Zombie Marie Curie...

Just to top off the ranting for tonight, here's some advice from xkcd. Hilarious but so true at the same time. And this is a perfect addition to my previous post.

I'll leave you with some famous words by Zombie Marie Curie: "You become great by wanting to do something, and doing it so hard that you become great in the process".

 

Something for the (other) women in science

And while I'm at it ... I might as well continue and share this with you. The ladies over at Feministing.com have always had a special place in my personal 'blogosphere'. So when this came up in their 'Friday Feminist Fuck Yeah!', I felt I had to share. Not just because the graph is very well made (by people over at Sociological Images) but also gives a nice overview of where women are nicely represented to 'where are the women?' in engineering, computer science and physics.

Still it is great to see my discipline, biochemistry, where women are close to being equally represented. What I would like to see next (if I may) is a timeline of how this graph has changed over the last 50 (maybe even 100) years. I think that would be a nice message for young girls thinking about a career path. Like the 13-year old we showed around the labs last week, and actually demonstrated that science is fun and exciting after all.

I just want to give credit to the girls I work with at the lab, there's some kick-ass lady-engineers, chemists, biochemists (!), biologists and computer scientists, all working on renewable energy.

Just one reason for being here

Because these are flowering, in the Wild West open spaces. This just makes me melt when I see them...

Three years and the fields are still golden

It just dawned on me that today is my three year anniversary in the US!

So I figured it would be appropriate to dust off this blog and give a sign of life. I will not begin to summarize the last three years in a couple of paragraphs, this wouldn't do it justice. Moving here was scary, going through my old emails reminded me today of what it was like those first couple of days. A new country, new job and a new life. I guess I was riding on adrenaline and it was quite the roller coaster. The excitement is slowly wearing down and is being replaced with a healthy dose of reality (whether I like it or not). I'm still a scientist, still working on algae, still in the Renewable Energy Arena, where the spotlight and scrutiny are still present. Although, a lot has changed, and probably for the better, I live in the city now, Downtown Denver, and I'm enjoying the cosy corners, restaurants and coffee shops, because they remind me of 'Where-I-Grew-Up'. Good ol' Belgium does still get under my skin, a visit over the holidays made me wonder ... of what life would have been like if I stayed put. Though thinking about it, I probably wouldn't have been who I am now. No. I don't regret having made the big jump, if anyone ever reads this, and is thinking about trying another country for a while, it's scary for a  while, but it's worth every drop of adrenaline.

Though on the other hand, the Americans are a special breed. Funny sometimes, being so immersed in the crazy politics, rules and (lack of) regulations of this country. It makes me long for boring old Europe, but then again, when I think about how I've enjoyed the many adventures and discovering so many new things at 100 miles an hour, that I'm not quite ready to give it all up.

We'll see how many more anniversaries I'll be celebrating here. If this melancholic mood doesn't stay put, it might be many more.

The scientific method ...

Here's another contribution from Tessa (Master of Belgian Procrastination).

Rather appropriate, but scary at the same time. Kansas has officially introduced Creationism in the curriculum, creating a promising new generation of youngsters. Think about it, creationism should be taught as a 'scientific' theory or belief alongside evolution (another theory that scientist came up with).

There is a lot more I want to say about this, but I'll have to keep it for another time, since I really (no, Really!) have to finish off this paper this weekend.

Be OK

I am the Master of Procrastination today. My co-author has gone to sleep, since it is close to midnight in the UK, giving me the rest of the day to write and get material sent off by midnight. We have been writing this paper for almost as long as I can remember and finally, finally, we can see light at the end of the tunnel (which is prose for a second, and hopefully final, submission on Monday). Promise of a fun weekend ahead, if only I would stop procrastinating and posting on my blog.

I the background Ingrid Michaelson is pouring out of my speakers. Another weakness of mine is good (very subjective I know) music. I have a particular taste. Friends have often asked me whether I have any positive sounding music and usually bring their own music along on a road trip.

Well, does it get anymore positive than this?

Training video on bipartisanship

A nice section in the Onion on how to stimulate bipartisan cooperation in Congress...

Image from the Onion