Moving In, Out and Around Biological Sciences
ANONYMOUS
Illustration by Ipshita
Hi You!
Somehow not too surprisingly enough, this is your own self from the future, precisely, from twelve years later. I know you have recently come to know about where to go for college for your degree, to fulfil your dream of becoming a scientist, particularly a researcher in Biology. I do have some news on how it panned out- specifically that you would find your trajectory change significantly and lead you to know a field that you’d develop an interest in.
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I do know that you have confusions between all the streams in science, as in what to choose when you go to college, and believe me when I say that it stays, but for the better. You’d keep finding yourself at the crossroads of various fields in biology (Yes, there are many of them! And some don’t overlap with the others in various ways too!). You will find one intriguing, but feel that you aren’t equipped for research in it- there would be methods such as programming that you might find unattainable, and hence certain interesting fields might look out of your reach. You’ll find your technical expertise in another, but would find that the work lost its spark.
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Laboratory experiments that you encounter- the number of times you will have to do the same particularly- along with understanding how the labs work as a space- the inherent hierarchies in place for example, would start to dwindle your interest in the same, but it would also compel you to seek ways to understand it, eventually, using a different set of methods that you’ll come to learn.
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You’d learn about different ways of understanding science- you’ll get to know how some sociologists look at science and present views that were entirely alien to you once. I know you find the social science classes in school a bit boring (maybe not all of them, you do like civilizations) but in any case, you’ll eventually develop an interest in certain topics in it (thanks to your friends and social media and the activists you follow there!).
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And the best part is that, you'll find yourself trying to understand the subject of biology, using the lens of a social science researcher. You will learn how the researcher's identity matters, how the questions you seek and the way you answer them are linked to who you are, how the researchers' backgrounds dictate the dynamics of a laboratory space, how facts get established over time and so on."
This image depicts the stereotypes around cognitive abilities in men and women. Men are considered better in maths and physics while women are considered more fit to do biology. Often, biological sex differences are used to justify these differences, while research shows that the differences are in fact social.
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Illustration by Ipshita
You’ll also see that most of the things that are termed “biological” aren’t even close to being that- comments from peers or elders that you have internalised as true- such as men are better at maths and physics- would lay their truth bare once you understand how women get discouraged to take up those fields in the first place. The stereotypes on gender that you'll encounter would get debunked, through experience as well as through accounts and evidence from research itself. You’ll learn how historically and through the very biased scientific reporting, how something gets stamped and approved as biological.
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Several factors will contribute to your shift- right from a low-success rate PCR, witnessing the sunk cost fallacy that comes from investing years in one’s research and having to continue work without pay, laboratory dynamics ranging from unhelpful senior members to unnecessary scrutiny of experiments during meetings without constructive suggestions, and so on. You would also hear anecdotes and stories on how scholars’ rights are undermined. These will make you question whether you really belong to that space, if your continued interest would contribute towards this never ending cycle of hardships, or if you’ll be able to bring change. Out of this fatigue, you’ll gradually try and opt out of all this. You would find a job where you get to teach students, and you would strive to bring your values of equity into your teaching methods. It would be fulfilling, although I can’t say that it won’t bring its own challenges, starting from the workspace being a laboratory again.
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It will be an eventful journey, at the course of which you’ll hope to find your passion and pursue it.
This is how it would look like over time:
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Illustration by Author
The giraffe is not part of the flowchart btw! :D
I guess you’ll be worried about the upcoming board exams. You’ll do great in those! And I can’t wait for you to see what’s out there for you!
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With love,
Yourself from 2024!
About Anonymous
Anonymous completed their masters in biological sciences from a premiere institution and is now involved in teaching biology. They are also exploring the field of science-technology-society studies.
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