Academia is a tough career choice. The pay is low (especially for graduate students), the hours are long, and the job market is uncertain. Those entering the field often receive this simple advice — “publish or perish.” Publications are the central method by which people are evaluated in academia. One either continually publishes papers, ideally… Read more »
Cutting-Edge Science at IU
A change of perspective
One author is ScIU guest writer Melanie Chin, a graduate student in IU’s Department of Biology and Program in Neuroscience. This post is part of a series featuring amazing science images and the stories behind them. Comment below with your guess and read on to see if you are correct! There is no argument that the… Read more »
The early bird gets the worm, part II: How behavioral ecology is connecting the dots between early-life stress and aging
This is the second post of a two-part series on a day in the life of a behavioral ecologist, which features the stories and research of members of Dr. Kim Rosvall’s laboratory in the Department of Biology. Click here to read the first post of the series! In Part I of this series, I discussed… Read more »
From Classroom to Community: IU clinical psychology students launch their careers through local internship
In 2015, IU’s Department of Psychology and Brain Science (PBS) began a Clinical Psychological Science Certificate program for undergraduates, through which students interested in clinical psychology can learn the foundations of the field, participate in PBS research, and gain internship experience with local community partners. Although many departments offer internships, the main goal of the… Read more »
The cycle of life… and death… below your feet
As an ecosystem ecologist, I study how the cycle of life and death influences forest structure and changes over time. A walk in the woods might illuminate the forest’s dynamism as you observe squirrels tending to their buried acorn caches and listen to woodpeckers feasting on grubs. In contrast, the plant community may appear more… Read more »
When the things we can’t see matter: the plant vs. environmental change edition
Farmers are facing new challenges in the age of global change. Drought is a major stressor for crops in Indiana and other regions of the U.S. and is forcing farmers to face the question: to irrigate or not to irrigate? Irrigation equipment is incredibly expensive, but is often the best quick solution to water crops… Read more »
A night at the museum takes us back to the future!
Graduate students across disciplines agree: as your years of graduate education increase, your knowledge and skill sets become incredibly specialized. Cue Liam Neeson in Taken, “I can tell you that I do not have money, but what I do have… [is] a very particular set of skills.” So when I asked Dr. Tara Smiley, a… Read more »
Interwoven Threads
This post is from ScIU’s archives. It was originally published by Liz Rosdeitcher in February 2018 and has been lightly edited to reflect current events. A profile of IU professor Sharlene Newman in celebration of Black History Month Any glance at the demographics tells us that African American women are among the least represented of any group in… Read more »
Stellar psychology part II: what does signaling theory tell us about communicating with other life in the universe?
This is the second part of a series on extraterrestrial psychology. Read part 1 here! In Part 1 of this series, I discussed how the interdisciplinary field of evolutionary psychology can help us explore similarities between the human mind and possible extraterrestrial ones. One common potential feature is how we search for resources, which often… Read more »
The early bird gets the worm, part I: What can behavioral ecology tell us about female aggression and its underlying mechanisms?
This post is the first of a two-part series on a day in the life of a behavioral ecologist, which features the stories and research of members of Dr. Kim Rosvall’s laboratory in the Department of Biology. When most people imagine a scientist, they picture a person wearing a stark white lab coat and thick-rimmed… Read more »