If people were like plants

Plants of the same species can vary in size by orders of magnitude.  Bigger plants soak up disproportionately more sun and shade out smaller ones. The big keep getting bigger, and the small stay the same size. Because of this asymmetric resource competition, a small size difference can quickly become very large size inequality.

tiny tornado and the astrophysicists

What to do when you're a lone graduate student at a massive conference outside of your field? Branch out, get out, and follow the folks carrying instruments. 

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In early Dec, I attended the American Geophysical Union annual meeting in San Francisco. It was a bit different from other conferences I've been to. I'm an ecologist, so, while there was a little bit of overlap between my field of interest and some of the topics presented here, most of the topics (Astrophysics! Glaciers! Climate models! Volcanoes!) were pretty far outside of my comfort zone.  It was also a very large conference, larger than ESA, the corresponding annual meeting for ecologists.

Not surprisingly, I felt a little overwhelmed at first. Then I came up with a plan.

Go undercover as a non-scientist.


It honestly shouldn't make that much of a difference: scientists and non-scientists are all just people when you get down to it. And the whole point of research is to answer questions or solve problems that humans care about. Attending a different-field conference does make you realize, however, just how esoteric our talks can be, even for topics that are very much of public interest (e.g. climate change).

When I took off the scientist hat, I gave myself permission to skip out on the esoteric talks that could possibly have been related to my field of research. I relinquished my responsibility to try to glean some sliver of research-related insight from each talk and instead gravitated towards events that were geared towards a broader audience: climate literacy, science education, fracking, and collaborative science.

I learned that there is even less data available on fracking than I thought; I jotted down several online resources for clean and simple explanations of climate science; I rekindled a little excitement for effective and exciting science outreach. I even got to practice and participate in a science-community collaboration project called the Thriving Earth Exchange. These are skills and topics that I care about as a person (not only as a researcher). This means that I am more likely to retain this information, share it with others, and actually use a few of these tips and tricks in future outreach projects.

All in all, going undercover as a non-scientist made my experience at AGU much more valuable than had I stuck with the original conference plan. The difference is not a reflection on AGU's ability to be accessible to broad scientific discliplines; I believe it has more to do with the mindset of a young researcher at a conference. Conferences are supposed to be avenues to network with higher-ups in our field and learn the latest information. Trying to glean the most research-related productivity out of a conference, however, can be both mentally exhausting and self-defeating. Conferences are also important for broadening your knowledge and learning about fields you're not usually connected to. Taking off the scientist hat really means taking off the scientist blinders. It's good to remember that the *person* me cares about many more things than p-values.