15 Reasons to Be A Scientist
Just for fun, here my top 15 reasons for being a scientist. Add your own reasons in the comments below if you so wish.
- Not being stuck behind a desk all day every day
- Conferences… see the world for free
- Understanding some of the fundamentals of life and the universe
- Getting paid to do something you love
- Realising just how little understanding we have of life and the universe
- Having the freedom to plan & execute your work (If you are a PhD student you may have to wait until you have finished your studies for this one!)
- People believe what you say (trust me I’m a “doctor”)
- Not having to wear a suit to work every day (could you imagine that?)
- Getting paid to think creatively
- If it doesn’t work, it’s not your fault. Most things don’t work anyway - this is research!
- Getting paid to think logically
- Owning a lab coat
- You can work in nearly any country in the world that you choose
- Owning a bunsen burner (depending on your specialization, but each has it’s own gadgets that are great to own!)
- Your mother/father/grandmother thinks you are a genius (unless he/she is a scientist too!)
Got any more?… add them below.



A lab coat? You mean that white thing the PI puts on when reporters come to photograph him swirling pink liquid in a flask?
My favorite is #7. Unfortulately, try as I may, wives and teenage daughters appear to be immune!
Striving and progressing toward, however never achieving, absolute truth
#11 Scaring the pants off IT when you say how many terabytes the lab produces in a year.. and we’ll never throw it away!
#12 Getting to handle biomedical waste up close and personal
#13 Understanding how your hybrid Prius actually works
the only time i ever put on a lab coat nowadays is when i had to do PCR, and they *never* work - not my fault right?
In my lab we are fairly rigorous about lab coats. I didn’t like it at first, but now I love my lab coat.
15 Reasons to Be a Scientist…
I ran across a web page today that gives 15 reasons to be a scientist. I thou……
16. You get paid big bucks! (Depending on your profession, of course…)
16. Getting paid substandard wages while working days and nights while on tenure track, while your buddies drive BMWs and surf in Hawaii… while you wonder why your second wife has left you and why you still don’t have an office with a window???
Oh wait, that was my “inside” voice…
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