As a graduate student in evolutionary genetics at the University of Edinburgh, I experienced a fundamental shift in the way science is done. In my first year, we had a radio softly humming along in the corner of lab, tuned to talk radio when I could help it, and top 40 music when I couldn't. Either way, however, my lab mates and I were always conversing—sometimes about what was on the radio, sometimes about life in general, but quite often about our ongoing experiments.
All that changed with the arrival of iPods, or portable MP3 players, in my second year at the bench. Without the need to pussyfoot around the radio dial, we were all free to plug in our ear buds and recoil into our own aural oases. I loved it, and often listened to science-related podcasts. But part of me suspects I may have been a better scientist ...
