File Photo Welcome to my new-and-improved careers column; it is now interactive. When you send your questions via the E-mail address below, I will seek answers for you. Anita Koltay, who read my networking column, wrote recently with questions about career switching. She's a postdoctoral fellow at The Burnham Institute in San Diego and would like to get a job outside the lab. Past jobs required her to write technical reports; she also authors short stories and poetry. With the aptitude for a

File Photo Breaking into an industry research job may seem like breaking through the blood-brain barrier: You can't find out about every job on the company's web site, and when the job is listed in the classified ads, the firm gets flooded with applicants. It can be tough even if you already work in industry. For a time, it seemed to Dalai Yan, a microbiologist and antibiotic researcher with Cumbre, a small biotech in Dallas, that fate would keep him from doing the research he cared about. Be

Courtesy of Alan Aderem  BAR-CODED BACTERIA: Combined activation of Toll-Like Receptors (TLRs) produces different specific responses. In this example, Microbe 1 activates TLRs 4 and 5, and is therefore likely to be a Gram-negative, flagellated bacterium. Microbe 2 activates TLR 5 and TLR 2/6, and is therefore likely to be Gram-positive and flagellated. Because of slightly different specificities, Microbe 3 would elicit a different response. Twas a head-scratcher: Twelve years ago, resear

File Photo It's not what you know, but who you know. When I jumped into freelance science writing full-time more than three years ago, it was who I knew--reporters and editors at The Scientist--that got me off the ground. Getting a job in scientific research, industry, or government is much the same--you will find out about positions through your personal network. Much has been written about networking, and it's a perennial topic at career development seminars, but one that bears revisiting,

Courtesy of Eric Erbe and Chris Pooley, ARS Image Gallery  SPRING CLEANING TARGETS: Tyrophagus putrescentiae, better known as dust mites, are microscopic, sightless, eight-legged arthropods that are natural inhabitants of indoor environments. Their droppings are the most common trigger of perennial allergy and asthma symptoms. Asthma is a classic example of gene-environment interaction. A host of environmental triggers, from cigarette smoke to cockroaches, can set it off. A dozen or so g

File Photo When I sought my first staff position in science writing, the Web didn't exist. Now I rely on it daily. Online resources provide limitless options in your job search, whether you're a writer like me, or a scientist seeking a research position. From start to finish, the Web can mostly help--but sometimes hinder--the job hunt. Judy Brobst and Erin Fendrich, both career counselors at Colorado State University, advise job hunters not to rely entirely on the Web or on E-mail to apply fo

File Photo When giving talks on alternative careers for scientists, I often emphasize skills that nontraditional science career employers look for, such as acumen in negotiating, communicating, teamwork, good judgment, business expertise, and adaptability. This skill list--derived from materials prepared by the Stanford University Career Planning and Placement Center--has also been put to good use by postdocs and graduate students to make their laboratories better places to work. Over the pas

The Picabo Streets, Shaquille O'Neals, Henrik Larssons, and Sammy Sosas of this world all face the dangers of sports-related injuries, as do weekend athletes everywhere. These injuries blow out knees, sprain hamstrings, tear up elbows, and throw out shoulders. Letting time heal the wounds of sports aficionados who have day jobs is ugly enough, but for professional players, chronic, lingering injuries threaten careers and the bottom line. For years, investigators have tried to grow cartilage

File Photo When I give career talks, I sometimes refer to Peter Fiske, a geochemist-turned- entrepreneur who recently wrote Put Your Science to Work: The Take-Charge Career Guide for Scientists (American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC, 2001). In 1996, while attending an American Geophysical Union meeting, he conducted an informal survey asking scientists this question: "Of the many skills that people develop while in graduate school, which ones are the most valuable in the outside world?" O

Graphic: Courtesy of Peter Haebel RIBOSOME REVEALEDA view of the active site of the large ribosomal subunit. Proteins of this large assembly are shown in yellow; the ribosomal RNA is in gray. Scientifically speaking, the ribosome's make-up and raison d'etre is elementary: Composed of RNA and proteins, it's the cell site where amino acids get strung together to form new proteins. And, while protein synthesis is a well-studied cellular process, says Nenad Ban, assistant professor, Institute

File Photo For Ericka M. Boone, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University in Atlanta, grant writing seemed a "daunting chore." She looked on it as a "huge mountain" to overcome, but knew she had to climb it one rock at a time. Few graduate students have an opportunity to write grants before starting a postdoc. They spend more time writing fellowship applications. But organizations and universities offer many opportunities to learn how to

File Photo I remember well the angst over writing grant proposals. When I was a fisheries PhD student, I wrote a few while indulging in long, intimate bouts with coffee. Two proposals got funded--a large one, prepared with my advisor's help, by a federal agency, and a small one by a sports fishing research organization. This experience helped me write an aquarium's funding proposal later, when I started science writing full time. (Unfortunately that one didn't get funded.) If you are a PhD st