Science Education

Hello, I just graduated from college with a degree in Biochemistry, and like most college graduates, I don't know what I want to do still. I was never interested in medical school, and I looked into maybe going into law as a patent attorney, but also decided that I wouldn't enjoy that as a career. Ideally, I would love to get a Ph.D. and be able to teach at a college. My huge problem is that I really am not a huge fan of doing research. I love learning new things and topics, which is why I would love to a get a higher ed. degree, but I don't like doing research at all, which is obviously a very big problem if I were to try to get a Ph.D. Are there any sorts of pathwa…

I'm going to be in my sophomore year in college next year, and I'm still trying to figure out in what order I should take all of my classes in. Here's the thing, I'm a physics major, looking to specialize either in nuclear or statistical physics. And, as I found out the hard way, taking physics courses requires quite a bit of mathematical sophistication. Now, my particular university doesn't really tell you how much math you really need to take a particular course, i.e. many of these courses will tell you that your mathematical background doesn't have to be as high as it should be (e.g. I took an introductory modern physics class, it stated I only needed to know up t…

Why must you balance the meter stick first before adding any masses to it?

Hi! I'm a 16.5yr old community college freshman, and I'm hoping for a career as a physician-scientist. I'm currently taking Intermediate Algebra, Macroeconomics, Freshman Composition, and Introduction to Philosophy. This fall, I plan on taking Introduction to Chemistry, College Algebra, and Trigonometry. Next year, I'll take the SAT I and SAT Subject Tests in Level 2 Math, Chemistry, and Molecular Biology. I hope to get into the University of Sussex's Molecular Medicine BSc program --http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Units/publications/ugrad2008/subjects/Molecular%20medicine --. Then, maybe a medical degree, PhD, or both. Is this a good plan to become a physician-scientist?

hi ya all, thought i might see if i would get some sort of a responce here, i need a physics tutor! (yr 12 tee) ive gone back to redo my TEE and having trouble. single mum works part time and studies full time. cant offer a lot of money but maybe a home cooked meal instead? just a thought!?

The TV show. Good for Science, or not? (I say yes, in very much deed).

So, I don't like the way the educational system work. In other words, I'm poor. socio-economics ftw What courses at a university have you earned credit via examination? I'm talking about things, such as physics, chemistry, and biology. If you did tested out of Calc II and/or III, I'm interested. I emailed a professor at the university I want to go to, and he said I would have to be an enrolled student to test out of organic chemistry. Maybe I'll take some IUAPC exam or something at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne. I could do the stuff at my college. But that's a waste of time. If I go to a university, I'll need the minimum 60 credits from there f…

So the time to declare my major has finally come... and even though I can still change it later on I would like some advice possibly from people in the fields I am considering. So when I entered college (this year, I am a freshman) I thought I would major in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, leaning much more towards the Computer Science area. However, the requirements for the major are quite strongly Electrical Engineering oriented and I am unsure whether this would make me unhappy later with my choice of major. I therefore have another option that I had never considered before which is Mathematics with Computer Science. I would have to take many more math…

if you have a Phd, is this field a decent way to make enough to support a family? or is it not really a career you can have when you're poppin out kids with a wife and paying all the money to raise em? in other words, how much do researchers make, and what's life like for them during work and outside of work? anyone here do research that can describe, as i'm considering doing this in my future? thank you

Those of you who embarked upon science degrees (or those that didn't for that matter), I put to you the question above. I ask not entirely out of pure curiosity. I find myself now a high school senior within but a lamb's breath of beginning university and my contact with science hitherto has been almost totally vicarious. I've tried on a few occasions to get a research project together but always got overwhelmed and gave up (I probably couldn't have handled the math they would have needed anyway) and my school doesn't offer any internship opportunities like many do apparently. I'm working under the assumption that my neophytism still isn't totally unheard of in our d…

Well, I'm glad I found this forum since I have plenty of questions related to science careers...figured I'd find something if I typed in "science forums" on a search engine. Here's my predicament. I started out college three years ago with the intention of applying to medical school after I got my bachelor's degree. Over the years, and especially working as an EMT, I'm realizing that of the reasons I wanted to become a doctor (prestige, job security, no worry about financial future, helping others), only one still exists out of four unfortunately. And at the rate that the insurance companies are dictating medical care, I wonder if doctors will even be able to help pe…

I am currently a student and thinking of a possible future career in medicine. Perhaps, if I'm good enough I'll become a doctor of some sort. Anyway, I love to study and learn about science, it is as if you can never learn too much of it. And, I want to pick the right VCE subjects for Year 11 next year. Though, I'm afraid I've never touched physics in my life. Will I need it if I plan to become a future doctor? How hard is it? If I do choose to do it what will I actually be doing? It is a bit of a mystery subject for me. Does anyone know of any good sites to learn about it? Anyway, I will definitely do biology, chemistry, math subjects and I think it is compulsory for…

I've narrowed my college decision down to two choices, Illinois Institute of Technology or Carnegie Mellon University. I'm going to major in physics and plan to pursue a master's and likely doctorate in high energy physics. Can anyone offer any suggestions to help my decision?

I want to avoid a repetitive post, so I will avoid asking the questions posed in the other post with the same name. I read that over completely and now realize there is still hope. However, I need some guidance. My story first of all. 23 years old. Highschool dropout with a GED. Extremely intelligent person who decided to be lazy and try to take the easy route. I sell cars . However, I cant escape the pull of the extremely interesting world of math and science. I really want to be a physicist, an astronomer, a mathematician, something that will challenge the intelligence I was lucky enough to be born with. Maybe it just took me until the age of 23 to grow up and reali…

I am planning on majoring in Biology or Microbiology when I attend college. I am curious as to how difficult and what kind of math is involved with it? I am starting to worry, because I love science but am not very good at math . Can you not have one without the other? Are there any other majors out there that are kind of similar to biology but less math intensive?

This question is to anyone who's studying / studied a physics degree. I'm covering SR in a couple of months, so I decided to look through my future courses on studying GR (undergrad.) It seems to be pretty basic, infact a huge bulk of differential geometry isn't covered until the Master (postgrad) math courses...I typed in tensor into the prospectus search, and no results came up !?! What is covered of the Einstein equations seems to be lacking the mathematical background you need to fully understand the equations. Is this right ? Are you only expected to understand GR fully at post-grad level and further ? EDIT: Having another look, our post-grad courses see…

I love science classes and have a general idea of what i want to do when i'm older but its not really specified yet. I'm a sophmore and am taking Bio and Chem(was going to take AP chem but school messed up so i cant). Generally i find all the science classes easy but i love things with atoms. the idea of atoms and getting power from them is incredibly interesting. Obviously i know i want to do somthing with atoms but i'm not sure what, i know i also want to do research. One of my life goals is to find a way to stop an atomic bomb, whether i find a way or start a program to get it done somtime in the future. basicly what i am asking is..What are some good job ideas…

I have been looking at the skimpy guidelines offered to potential authors by science journals. There is very little guidance on syntax and style. Many of the referees seem to be unfamiliar with English, possibly because it is not their first language. There are issues such as the following: Suppose one is doing a literature review. One writes: "Smith (2003) did a series of experiments and originated the Smith-Jorn model, which has grown in popularity." The experiments are clearly in the past, but the Smith-Jorn model is still popular. Next should one write: "The Smith-Jorn model has three variables," or "The Smith-Jorn model had three variables"? …

I was just wondering if any neuro grad students can share their experiences with us. I am thinking of going into grad school for neuro and was wondering about... -pros/cons -daily activities -favorite parts/worst parts -how you chose your research field -why you went into the field -masters or Ph.D student -plans for after grad school -any advice for prospective grad students ...I know there are other ways to find this information out, however I want to hear everyones personal experience and besides people tend to be more realistic/honest online than in person.

OK I read on another part of the forum about the determination of the speed of light using a chocolate bar and a microwave, My and my students tried this out today and came up with a value of 2.2 x 10^8 m/s. originally I thought that most of this error comes from the dodginess of the measurement and from the inaccuracy of the frequency on the back of the microwave. however, I asked my students about the sources of error and one came up with a very interesting thought: The speed of light varies in different materials. In water the value is about 2 x 10^8, apparently. So if this is the case, and chocolate is more dense than water (i think), so we would expect…

i'm interested in understanding the different skills needed to succeed in these 3 natural sciences respectively. just from taking a few 101 courses at college, it seems biology is more rote memorization, while chem and physics are heavily based on critical thinking and problem solving. does this hold true at all, and if so, how far up the ladder towards more and more advanced study does this trend continue? is the division (if there is one) apparent in doctoral and postdoctoral learning as well? not to slight any biologists of course, but it just seems that chemistry, and especially physics, are a lot more demanding/intellectually challenging. or is it not a matter o…

This week, I received invitations from both the National Youth Leadership Forum on Medicine, and the National Student Leadership Conference. They tell me that I was nominated because of my academic excellence , a teacher or guidance counselor nominated me, and found me through the College Board. Academic excellence? I only have a 3.3 GPA... Has anyone on here ever been invited to these things? I considering doing one of them, not totally positive.

I love to read about science: all aspects of it. But I am not very mathematically inclined. Does anyone here know of any great science books for the average reader? I like Physics, Biology, Theory, ect... I like just about everything to do with science. I especially like Q&A science books. Any suggestions?

I've been searching through journal databases for recently published organic compound journals. I have to do a project paper and seminar and I'm interested in esters. Does anyone know other open access sites besides biomedcentral, chemistrycentral, pubmed, pubmedcentral for o.chem stuff? Thanks, Kaylyn

Check this out, I found it hilarious: http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~kovar/hall.html