Pandemonium - in stores now

In my department, we have a seminar series called 'Career Talks'. Basically, by graduation time, many graduate students are not certain they want to go into academia anymore. Perhaps they realize research is not for them or they are disenchanted with the granting systems and the unending training requirements. In any case, most grad students do not know about other job opportunities where their degrees can be applied.

Enter 'Career Talks'. The goal of this seminar series is to introduce grad students to a variety of professionals in science related, yet non-academic careers. For example, in previous years, we've hosted a patent lawyer, an RCMP forensic officer, a clinical microbiologist and a biotech company businessman. This year, Joelle and I are the student rep's organizing the Career Talks, along with a faculty member. We've only had 2 career talks so far (we usually aim for at least 4 over 8 months). The first was a salesperson for a microscope company. She told us about the sales side of science, which is the right career for just a select few of us. Today, we had our second Career Talk seminar for this year, featuring a scientific journalist - Andrew Nikiforuk.

Andrew has written a number of novels as well as tons of free-lance articles for magazines and newspapers across Canada. His most famous novel is a bestseller from a few years ago, titled 'The Fourth Horseman: A short history of plagues, scourges and emerging viruses'. He has another new novel out called 'Pandemonium', which is about current biological threats. They both sound like interesting reading to me, but hey, I am a scientist and I think that stuff is cool already.

The most notable part about the talk Andrew gave today, as well as our conversations with him at his lunch with the grad students, was how inspirational he was. I have never talked to someone who made me want to make a difference as much as he did. I think the other grad students felt the same, as many people commented on how great his talk was later on in the day. Andrew was just so passionate and honest about the things he believed in, while still being practical about the reality of the situation. To put this in context, we talked to him about climate change and the lack of reporting on it - how most Canadian citizens don't know much about it and what it actually means to us in the near future. We talked about the responsibility we, as scientists, have to the general public to try and educate people and give back to our society. He talked about interesting things, like how many of our current systems have given way to even bigger problems. For example, the style in which chickens are housed in China has created a microcosm where evolution of a virulent avian flu is enhanced. Or how we have created methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) because of our overuse of, and lack of foresight with, antibiotics.

Anyway, the details are likely confusing for most of you, because I'm not really describing the terms nor the circumstances. If you are interested in the science of diseases, as well as the relationship of human civilization, economy and lifestyle on the evolution of disease (and vice versa), you might want to check out his books. As a scientist, I felt he had a really refreshing view on how we should deal with worldwide disease - he doesn't think like a scientist, because he is principally a journalist.


On a lighter note, we saw 'The Prestige' tonight, featuring Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale and Scarlet Johannsen. Great movie! I strongly recommend it to everyone. Well, maybe except little kids.