hanming86 on May 1 2009, 10:50 AM said:

Hehe, I get that!

So for me it's passion and also curiosity. YES, I want my results to solve problems! YES, I want to cure illness and save the wolrd

I'm doing my masters right now, in the industry, and so I'm fairly new and unconsumed.
But I know, if it wasn't for passion but survival, I would do something that earns more money... e.g. driving a cab No, seriously, I don't think you can do science for money. Maybe survival, but still it's a weird choice when there is no passion. You could have dozens of other choices to earn triple the money and do it without the passion (and maybe not get frustrated every second evening)

As said earlier : what endure all this for??

I second that

Passion it is. Not saving the world - despite my signature I do not believe I have such power - but boy I do loooove puzzles.
I went from idealistic passion through lots of dissapointments and passion again.
Of course, sometimes it is a love/hate relationship, but old marriages have it like that.
A warm feeling from job well done and paycheck every month is a good thing, too, but if I desperately wanted more money, I'd move somewhere else.

Easily, I'd say for the passion - i cant possibly understand how you would survive in scientific research without the passion, without the drive to discover etc. i mean, who really loves working in the lab til 11pm at night and coming in on weekends.. AND get underpaid for it? its great to see a the majority of researchers are driven by the passion and not by the $$. and besides, what kind of scientific research salary would motivate any of us to get out of bed? considering the 7 + years people are required to complete to be doctors in their field... what else would drive you to do something so insane??!!! without passion, there is no will.. and without will.. there is no perserverance.. and where would one be without perserverance in science? stuck in the corner of the lab with a broken agarose gel sliding out of your hands and crying miserably (this probably happens to some of us on occasion )! i think all of us scientists do it for the passion.. regardless of what they say.. the passion is always there subconsciously!

Passion...I really love my job!!!!I used to told to my students that if they want $$$ they should change their studies to engineer. Scientist work for love of iscience not for love to money....

It would be nice to do something I enjoy and get paid well for it, until that happens I am happy to be in science (but you can't be a postdoc forever).

perlmunky on Jul 7 2009, 06:36 PM said:

can't you?? i've seen some quite old postdocs....

perlmunky on Jul 7 2009, 07:36 PM said:

Silly question and it has most likely to do with semantics but what do you mean with you cant be a post doc forever? Once you got your phd, you are always doing a post doc ..? or ? Or you simply mean you cant to research for ever?

pito on Jul 7 2009, 02:23 PM said:

it's a transitional stage from being a student to being a productive and tax-paying member of the society.. ..not exactly semantics bec the position entails different responsiblities, rights and priveleges...they're trying to limit tho the maximum time a post doc can serve out this "sentence"...after 5 years (am not sure in the States), the postdoc has to be offered/can apply for either a research associate or faculty position.....this then is real gainful employment...

The idea being that you get your own lab ... with your own phd students and postdocs. In the UK it is generally accepted that you do 2-3 postdocs, after that you start applying for you own funding. I have been told it becomes increasingly difficult to get postdoc positions after that.

Your other 'option' is to GTFO (google it) ...

perlmunky on Jul 7 2009, 05:10 PM said:

Hi perlmunk, but is this an academic/faculty appointment or what? How do you get your own lab if you're not appointed by a university or an institution? So you don't have the research associate position?