| | This entry is a lazy copy of most of the email I wrote to Dr. bf's parents about the Science Policy Career Trip in DC that I was on for the past 2 days. Enjoy!
"My trip started Wednesday around 2:30 pm. Originally we planned to
leave at 3 to do a bit more work, but then I changed my mind to 2 and
it's a good thing too because if we had left any later I'm fairly
certain we would have hit traffic in New Jersey. We got to DC just
after 8pm and had dinner at a nice Lebanese restaurant. I had vine
leaves stuffed with lamb, beef, and rice which were served with tomato
slices and a yogurt sauce. It was very nice, kind of like Lebanese
ravioli! However, it was a little heavy, so it was not the greatest
start to my unhealthy trip. We arrived at the host house around 10:30
to find 4 very nice girls. They are all graduate students at the
University of Maryland. They were very friendly and hospitable and
there was plenty of room for the 3 of us to camp out in the living
room. They were almost too friendly such that we didn't sleep until
midnight with a 6am wake up time. It was very convenient to have free
lodging but not so convenient as we had a 40 minute metro ride each
way meaning less sleep. Also, I didn't feel comfortable ignoring the
girls to chat with Dr. bf in addition to not having privacy for talking
so that added to not being able to chat. We were able to send a
couple text messages and that was it.
The first day in DC was very full. We had an "orientation" at 8am
which was basically useless. There was breakfast which included
bagels and "triple onion" cream cheese. I joked with the others that
this will keep people from talking to me, which is actually what I
wanted because I had no desire to network. Our first stop was the
AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science, they are
the people who publish Science). I've decided that they are not
actually advancing anything. They proclaimed that it takes a "crisis"
and "public outcry" for anything in government to change. So I asked
them (strongly) how they could possibly think that American tendencies
away from innovation and selfishness regarding climate change is not a
crisis? They basically said there's nothing they could do because
they can't change people's morals and they can't stop Fox News. What
a lame answer! They did briefly mention something about their Project
2061 which is meant to inspire the next generation to pursue science,
technology, and innovation. My guess is it's a bunch of fluff and too
little too late.
After that the day improved. We met with a woman from the NSF
(National Science Foundation) who was much more honest and less fluff.
She said that as a Congressional staffer don't expect to have a
relationship much less a marriage. Do you know if Parliamentary staff
work as hard in Australia? DC seemed to be completely full of
workaholics with not much substance. It was informative but not
inspiring by any means. Then we talked to another woman who used to
work in Congress and now acts as a "translator" for R&D in the
automobile industry, ie. communicating their developments in
alternative fuels to politicians and the public. It sounds like a
decent role, however, she sounded like the type that sleeps 2 hours a
night in order to have time for her family and job and is somehow not
tired, so she didn't seem inspiring either. Then we heard from two
journalists, one who works on a blog called "Science Progress" and
another who publishes a magazine called "Issues" which highlights
science, written by scientists, meant to be read by politicians and
their staff. That seemed like a nice endeavor however he says it is
losing money. I asked them if there was any government support for
communicating science to the public as you'd think that tax payers
would be more proud of the way their tax dollars are being spent on
science if they could be proud of the science. They said I brought up
a good point. However, I doubt anything will change. Although there
is plenty of science available on our 300 TV channels and on the
internet, the point is, the general public is too busy watching the
balloon boy to learn about anything that would help us to grow as a
country. Oh well.
The last stop of the day was at the State Department. The man who
talked to us is the Deputy Science and Technology Advisor to Hillary
Clinton. He seemed very excited about recruiting scientists to the
State Department and said that there used to be a scientist and an
engineer at every single US Embassy, however those days are long gone.
I'm not sure really what a Scientist would do at an Embassy besides
process visa applications, but it was a nice thought and he seems like
a nice person. He seemed the least overworked of all the people we
met.
We had a quick lasagna dinner (no salad!) and then went to a Cocktail
Hour. It was too loud and disorganized as the DC organizer didn't
even go with us! Thus there were other DC types who showed up and we
didn't know who they were or that we were supposed to talk to them.
Whoops. Unfortunately we stayed at the bar longer than expected. It was hard to coordinate
since there were now 4 of us staying with the same hosts and we had to
wait for everyone to be ready. By the time we went to sleep it was
after midnight with another 6am start the next morning.
Although 2 of the girls were up at or before 6am somehow the other
girl and I completely slept through the alarms! It was 6:45 by the
time they decided to wake us up when we were hoping to leave by 7. It
was a complete FAIL! Luckily one of the girls was very familiar with
DC and thus we just skipped the "orientation breakfast," got our own
breakfast (which wasn't that great) and were on time for our first
meeting. We met with some Congressional staff, one who worked with
one of the main Senators working on the Senate Finance version of the
Health Care Bill. He was explaining the process and how now there are
2 Senate Bills, 3 House Bills, and by the time they reconcile all of
them it will be probably next June. Isn't that horrible?!? It all
seems so inefficient and seems that the big problem is that experts
are not writing these bills. In science, the expert writes a paper
based on data which is reviewed by other experts who make the paper
better by suggesting revisions or rejecting the paper if it is not
good. Why can't bills be like that? Oh I know, it's because people writing bills aren't experts as they are expected to wear too many hats. I asked the staffers if they
think their science background could contribute to making the process
better. They kind of shrugged and rambled on that that's just the way
things are and that incremental progress is as good as it gets.
Again, how uninspiring! I think Americans need to learn how to
protest more again as it seems we've pretty much completely lost any
motivation to oppose the status quo. Although I credit the AAAS for
organizing these Science Policy Fellowships which bring scientists to
Congress, what good is it doing really if their training in science is
not being used to improve the system?
We then went on to talk to a woman at the National Academy of Sciences
and that was also uninspiring. Although they seem foresighted about
predicting what needs to be done, I think their studies are not widely
read enough. I was also shocked to find out that they are not
government funded but are instead a non-profit which takes cases
sometimes paid for by government agencies. I think their name is
deceptive.
Last we went on a tour of the NIH. The campus was nicer than I
imagined but I still have no desire to work there. Then we heard from
a woman who is the Deputy Director of the National Institue of
Bioimaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB). She rambled on forever and
didn't really communicate anything on point besides that being a
director means you can stay in science without actually doing science
anymore. Lame. I mean, she didn't look overworked either and I guess
her job wouldn't be that bad, but I'm not jumping to leave science to
do that either. I guess the take home message from all of these
meetings is that they were informative, but all these types of careers
seem "alright" rather than "exciting." I guess if we can find jobs
that are "alright" that's alright, but I'm still hoping for exciting
and/or fun.
By the time we left the NIH it was almost 6 so by the time we got back
to our car it was almost 7. Then we sat in traffic for another hour
and also took a long dinner in Delaware so by the time I dropped the
other three girls off it was 2am. How exhausting!"
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| | Posted 10/24/2009 2:04 PM - 12 Views - 6 eProps - 4 comments
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