In the News: Impersonating Doctors, Doctor?

I'm a little late with this one but I have been on vacation.....Chemical and Engineering News (CEN) reported on March 10, 2008, the following:

http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/86/i10/8610notw1.html

Scientists in Germany with U.S. Ph.D.s face charges for posing as 'Dr.'

AT LEAST SEVEN U.S.-educated scientists working at the Max Planck Society's (MPS) prestigious research institutes in Germany have faced or are facing criminal charges for impersonating a "Dr." The maximum penalty for this crime is one year in jail.

It didn't take long for the MSM (main stream media) to pick up the story and run with it. CEN reported on March 17, 2008 that Germany education ministers have begun to back down and allow US researchers to use their titles.

http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/86/i11/8611notw7.html

However, what has been described as a cultural misunderstanding by some, has been ascribed some darker motives by others. The Washington Post reported the following:

http://tinyurl.com/2ehms4

The German doctor rule has been in effect since the 1930s, but it has been only sporadically enforced in recent years.

That changed last fall, when an anonymous tipster filed a complaint with federal prosecutors against seven Americans at the prestigious Max Planck Society, which operates 80 scientific research institutes across Germany. Federal authorities forwarded the complaint to prosecutors and police in at least three states, who decided to take action.

Some have questioned why were only Americans charged as the Society hosts Ph.D. researchers from around the world--all of whom presumably use 'Dr.' as their title.

But whatever the motive of the "anonymous tipster", it is unfortunate that the Max Planck Society has a received a black eye over the matter as they do interesting and pertinent scientific work there.

Time Waster of the Day: Global Incident Map

Here is a fascinating website that is potentially addictive and could be a huge time waster. You have been warned.

When you click on the website link below, a world map comes up showing what strange and dangerous things are happening right now in the entire world. It is updated every five minutes. You can move the map around, zero in on any one area and actually upload the story of the incident. It is amazing the things that are happening right here in the U.S., sometimes right in your own backyard.

http://www.globalincidentmap.com/home.php

The End of an Era

I received some bittersweet news this past week---one of my dearest mentors and college professors, Professor W. (an analytical and inorganic chemist by training), is retiring at the end of this spring semester. It is hard to believe that it has been over 10 years (gulp!) since I sat in one of his classes. Where did the time go?

As I mentioned in my first ever post to this blog, science caught my imagination as a kid and I knew I wanted to pursue it as a career. I just couldn't decide which branch of science I liked more. One day, I was going to be an astronaut and the next, a biochemist. In high school, I had an awesome chemistry teacher--Mrs. Sadler. Between my experiences in her class, that infamous chemistry set from a few Christmases back, and courses I took at Governor's School the summer prior to my senior year in high school, I finally focused in fully on chemistry. (Specifically, chemical research in the development of pharmaceuticals.)


But it was in Professor W.'s general chemistry class as a college freshman that I came to fully appreciate what could be possible with chemistry.

I was actually sitting in my academic adviser's office (whom I will call Professor D--a physical chemist by training) planning my college freshman fall semester schedule when I first met Professor W. I remember it like it happened yesterday. Professor D introduced us and told him I was from P.B. (my hometown that was about 90 minutes south of my college town). Professor W. kinda tilted his head to one side (a mannerism I would come to know and love) and asked if I were Ann's little sister.

(My sister, a biology major, attended the same small, private liberal arts college that I did. She was a senior when I was a freshman--we even lived in the same dorm. She had taken a couple of chemistry courses including Professor W.'s general chemistry course so he was acquainted with her.)

I said yes and he made a joke about how they (the school) was going to have to endure another ----- (my last name) woman. I replied other schools should be so lucky. He grinned broadly and said,"Spunky, too."

Little did I know how Professor W. would prominently figure into my future. Over the next four years, our mentor-student relationship and our friendship grew steadily. When I had a bad week, he was there. When I triumphed in lab, he was there. And later, after graduating college, when I was dealing with the overwhelming stress of less-than-benevolent graduate and postdoc advisers, he was there--telling me I could do it and not to lose faith in my abilities. He is one of only a handful of people I met in my 32 years that--I know this sounds dorky--but who truly seems to get me. I think it was in part due to the fact we were cut from the same cloth.

But I just can't imagine my alma mater without him. And I know he hasn't died and he is just a phone call away but it really does seem like the end of an era.

Chemistry in Your Life: Peel and Taste Ads

Coming to a magazine near you.....

First it was scratch-and-sniff perfume ads. Now it is peel-and-taste ads.

From Chemical and Engineering News (link on sidebar):

"Readers of the February 18 issue of People magazine are able to sample Welch's grape juice by tasting a full page ad. The peel-and-taste technology uses an edible film similar to those used in breath strips. First Flavor of Bala Cynwad, PA, custom develops hydrocolloid films, made from hydrolyzed cellulose gum, flavors and sweeteners, to capture the flavor or food or flavored medicines for use in advertising."

So dear reader, do you think it will catch on? Hydrocolloid films have been used in food production for a while now so I am not really worried about the safety of the basic idea. However, if you went to your favorite magazine and picked up People, could you bring yourself to lick the film? After having seen some crazy things at Barnes and Nobles over the years, it gives me pause....

The Dumbing Down of our Kids

I have been thinking about the blog this past week---trying to decide what tone it should take, how often it should be updated, what content should be included, and how much personal information to disclose on it. I am afraid I have not come to many conclusions. ;-) I hope to update it a minimum of once a week, but I am aiming for more.

In my spare time, I have been perusing my favorite blogs in hopes of it helping some of my own ideas cement (BTW, check out the sidebar for the links to some great blogs). So until then, I guess you will have to deal with the rambling, sometimes fractured nature of my writing. ;-)

The other reason I have not posted much this week was that this past week was crazy. And when I say crazy, I mean it sucked big time.

Part of the reason it was a bad week (the other reason is another post all together) was that I started a second, part-time (seasonal) job somewhat unprepared. I work in the lab from 8AM-5PM and then work at the second job from 6PM-10PM---and for some reason, last weekend I didn’t get the domestic things done that would have smoothed this past week out some—ya know, like doing the laundry so I didn’t have to run around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to find a clean shirt in the morning, making meals in advance so I wouldn’t be forced to grab crappy take-out for dinner on my way to job #2, etc..

And I know 60 hours is a lot but I worked considerably more as a grad student and then as a post-doc. In those [sarcasm] good ole days [/sarcasm], I would work 80 hours per week and sometimes more. But I had forgotten (and rather quickly at that) how nothing domestic ever got accomplished during that time [Translation: the apartment would look like a tornado hit it, green stuff would be growing on the dishes in the sink, the answering machine would be full of messages from friends and family wondering where the heck I was and if they needed to call the police, etc.]

Anyway, the second job has nothing to do with chemistry, will run until June and will help contribute several hundred dollars a month to the savings account. Also, I am meeting new people (not chemistry geeks!) and learning new skills which are nice bonuses.

So what am I doing in this second job? I am scoring the standardized exams that kids in K-12 have to take. I am 32 years old, but I still vividly remember those exams from grade school.

They were long, hard, and grade level specific (meaning third graders all took the same test, fourth graders all took the same test but different from the third grader test, etc.). They had subject-based sections: math, English grammar, science, reading comprehension, etc. They were completely multiple choice. The only pictures on the exam were usually in the math section to help one determine the parameter of a yard or the circumference of a circle.

Fast forward to today’s exams. About the only thing that hasn’t changed is the little red stops they place on the exam to indicate one has reached the end of a section (Is it weird that I got little warm fuzzies from seeing the stop signs again?)

There are five types of exams: K, 1-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. Each type of exam has three levels: A, B, C.

Initially, I thought that the A, B, C exams were all the same level but the questions were slightly different to prevent cheating. Uh no. The complexity increases with each level so they are three different exams entirely. And do you know who decides which level of exam your child takes? His/her teacher. I may be alone in this, but I find that a little disturbing. What if the child is given too easy/hard of a test? The implications for your child advancing or the track they might be placed on as a result are scary.

Gone are the subject sections from the exams. Questions from various subjects are mingled together. The only sections that exist are hearing comprehension and reading comprehension.

Also, gone are the text-only multiple choice questions. Usually, there is a picture on the page and two or three multiple choice questions below that refer back to it. Essay questions are now standard—which I applaud. I graduated high school with too many people barely able to sign their own name.

Unfortunately, the questions seem to be dumbed down. For instance, on the 9-12 exam, there is a page with a picture on it that shows a chemical laboratory. The question below the picture asks the student to identify the object that would be found in a chem lab. The three possible answers are given in picture form: a beaker, a tire swing, and a tray of food.

Now, I would be the first to admit that I am not trained in the education of children. But shouldn’t ninth through twelfth graders be able to handle more complex questions that that? Shouldn’t they be able to answer questions where the possible choices are given in words and not pictures?

And the essay questions---shouldn’t they come to the test already knowing how to write essays? Is it necessary to write an entire page of instructions telling them how to write their essays? Literally, there is a page that shows how to write an introductory paragraph complete with hypothesis (which was also defined), how to use the next one or two paragraphs to give reasons/facts to support one’s hypothesis, and a summary paragraph.

On the essay questions, the sad thing is—even with all that “help”, most students couldn’t write a correct simple sentence to save their lives much less a coherent essay. Most of the hand writing on the 9-12 exams is indistinguishable from that on the 1-2 exams. The grammar is only slightly improved.

What are we doing to our children?