{"id":3973,"date":"2013-10-29T21:29:14","date_gmt":"2013-10-29T21:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tmblr.kamilah.ca\/?p=3973"},"modified":"2013-10-29T21:29:14","modified_gmt":"2013-10-29T21:29:14","slug":"i-applied-to-two-phd-programs-the-neurobiology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmblr.kamilah.ca\/?p=3973","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

I applied to two PhD programs: the neurobiology department and the biological-chemistry department. What I really wanted to do was understand how synapses work; I wanted to be a neuroscientist. But I was not accepted by the neurobiology department. I was absolutely, flatly rejected. As a result, I could not work on synapses. Instead I worked in the biochemistry department and became a probably pretty decent biochemist, working on membranes.<\/p>\n

Now the reason I mention all this is that it illustrates something, which is, I wanted to understand how a synapse worked. Had I been accepted as a neuroscientist, I would have probably worked on it. But I wouldn\u2019t have solved it. The tools weren\u2019t there. The time wasn\u2019t right. Instead, I became a biochemist. I took on a much broader view of the same subject. And I ended up, somewhat by accident, solving the fundamental problem of how synapses work. Had I set out to solve that problem in a more direct way, I might not actually have gotten there first. It\u2019s always good to know what you want to do, but be prepared for what comes. Luck plays a significant role. I went into cell biology wanting to be a neuroscientist, and I ended up a neuroscientist by accident.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

James E. Rothman, one of three winners of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, on luck.<\/p>\n

From \u201cA Nobel Prize winner on Why We Need Foundational Research\u201d [New Yorker | Elements<\/a>]<\/p>\n

(via thenoobyorker<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I applied to two PhD programs: the neurobiology department and the biological-chemistry department. What I really wanted to do was understand how synapses work; I wanted to be a neuroscientist. But I was not accepted by the neurobiology department. I was absolutely, flatly rejected. As a result, I could not work on synapses. Instead I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1522,2880,1200,585],"class_list":["post-3973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-connections","tag-fudamental-research","tag-research","tag-science","post_format-post-format-quote"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmblr.kamilah.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmblr.kamilah.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmblr.kamilah.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmblr.kamilah.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmblr.kamilah.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tmblr.kamilah.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3973\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmblr.kamilah.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmblr.kamilah.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmblr.kamilah.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}