Scientiae Carnival March 2011: Change is the only constant

This topic was particularly timely, as a post from David Kroll (who some may know better as Abel Pharmboy) about how careers change as life evolves here inspired Biochem Belle to write an excellent response entitled the terrible beauty of change at just about the same time. Lots of other contributors also weighed in to produce a medley of posts, and introduced me to a variety of new blogs (aka procrastination devices - a habit I really do need to change... after I've caught up with you all, that is).

Many contributors wrote about change in their own lives, and the lessons it brings with it. Alyssa wrote here about how resisting the idea of career goal change affected her PhD studies, and ends with some good advice:

“There is nothing wrong with changing your path. In fact, it can be quite liberating!”

Ro at PhD Journey, one of several bloggers new to me who contributed to this quarter's carnival, writes about the changes that have happened to her during her PhD and the challenges of being a long way from your field site. I like the pictures – but I bet getting all the twigs and leaves out of that lovely hair at the end of a field day can be a nightmare! Melissa who is part of a team blogging at confused at a higher level, looks back on the tenure track after undergoing the very positive change of becoming tenured! Congratulations Melissa, hopefully this will lead to a lot more positive changes.

A couple of life stories, which inevitably involve the theme of change, were also drawn to my attention. The first one was a contribution to Women's History Month from the Smithsonian Picture Collection, the story of a female marine biologist I’ve never heard of, Mary Alice McWhinnie (1922-1980), who achieved many ‘firsts’ for women in Arctic science. The post is illustrated with photographs from the Smithsonian’s picture collection, and reminds us of the positive changes in women’s lives over the 20th century. Another life story is this piece, which explores the challenges of managing a scientific career alongside traditional cultural expectations of Indian women.

Patchi at my middle years has the best opening line for her musings on how hard it can be to notice change when it is happening :

"Today I had a serving of philosophy for breakfast"

DrO, a busy scientist-mum, wrote on her two-year bloggiversary about how her life and views have changed since she began blogging. MsPhD from YoungFemaleScientist, whose life has changed a lot recently with her decision to leave a toxic post-doctoral position without having another job all lined up, offered an interesting post about self-esteem and confidence: issues of considerable interest to many scientists, especially female ones, and both prone to change and difficult to change.

Penny wrote a guest post over at Scientopia reminding us how sometimes quite small interventions from other people can change our views or start us off on a scientific career by telling us about science and the American Girl Scouts. Sounds fun! I remember learning to wash socks in the Brownies (which involved a bit of detergent chemistry) and setting fire to a LOT of things at Guide Camp (as well as engineering wellington stands and washing up bowl stands from sticks with the help of some illicit duct tape (covered with convincingly wrapped string), but that was about all the science in my day. Elaine, another blogger new to the carnival – welcome Elaine! – wrote about how scientific knowledge can change human emotions, in a piece about the effects of new-born genetic testing on the parents of children found to have particular conditions.

I hope you all enjoy reading this mixture of posts - I'm certainly feeling inspired to write something about how I've changed since I began blogging, since my three year blogiversary and my 1000^th post are both just around the corner.

**Added**

And a late addition from DrDudeChick, once a regular science-life blogger who's been quiet for a while: welcome back, and best wishes for positive changes including more blogging!