Because it’s a slow Friday and this was a great read – check out the following piece by the ‘piquant’ Dr Milton Love (who really does exist – check out the ‘Love Lab‘ at the University of California) on why being a marine biologist really ain’t that great:
Reason Number Three: “I want to be a marine biologist because I want to make big bucks.”
Okay, here’s the bottom line. By Federal law, marine biologists have to take a vow of poverty and chastity. Poverty, because you are not going to make squat-j-doodly in this job. Just how squat is the doodly we are talking about? Well, five years after finishing my PhD I was making slightly less than a beginning manager at McDonalds. Ooh, a 36 year old guy with 13 years of college and 5 years of post-doctoral experience making just about as much as a semi-literate 19 year old with pimples the size of Bolivia, who can speak perhaps 3 words at a time before the term “you know” enters the conversation.
Indeed. Read more in Part 1 and Part 2 of the series, direct from the Love Lab, or check out the lab’s blog written by their resident fish, the Cow Cod. In the day and age when scientists are assumed to be revered, it’s great to see someone in a high up position (with a great tattoo none-the-less) not take themselves too seriously:
Milton Love is a Research Biologist at the Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara. He has published simply oodles of scientific papers on the fishes of the Pacific Coast and has written several books on that topic. He thinks he knows more about these fishes than just about anyone. Whether this is true or merely the delusions of an individual with an ego the size Mount Kilamanjaro is still an open question.
I love the Love lab website! (a hunka hunka milton love…)
We also debunked some career myths on Deep Sea News.