Degradation Of A Scientist Poem by Beth Grant

You think you are successful.
No, others decide that for you.

Get the B.S., the Ph.D,
Do the post-doc

I am a minority because I do not want to follow the game.
If you stay in the same state-very bad.
If you do not want to move- worse.
If you do not want to break up your marriage to sacrifice these things- well you must not really care about your career!

I want to research.
I hear I am good at it.

I do not want to
publish or perish
talk-the-talk
be an alpha dog
play the 'game'
joing the clique of whatever hypothesis is most popular with whatever research group is most popular.

I want to research.
I want to be a scientist.
I want to be humble, honest, forthcoming, and caring.

This field requires sacrifice to 'succeed'.

It is the degradation of a scientist.