A couple of years ago Paul Corkum, one of Canada’s outstanding physicists, was given an honorary degree by Western. In his address to convocation, he talked about the social aspects of being a scientist. For example, he said that when he was young, he imagined that a scientist would spend his life working alone in a lab, when in reality all of his work is done in collaboration: with students, technicians, colleagues…. He also talked about the fact that he spent a lot of time traveling the world to talk about his research with others. His comments have come back to me this year, as I have been doing a lot of traveling and collaborating myself!

The stereotyped image of the scientist, with lab coat and unruly hairdo, closeted alone in a windowless basement lab, emerging only for injections of caffeine or to catch the last bus home at 2 AM is very far from reality. Wait – let me correct that statement. It was actually fairly close to reality for me when I was a grad student, but it’s certainly not true now.  For a fair chunk of my grad student career I indeed worked in a windowless basement lab, wore a lab coat, and was addicted to caffeine. I often worked until 2 AM, partly because there wasn’t anyone around at that time to distract me with invitations to go for coffee. I even had unruly hair, although not a lot of it by then. However even then my science was far from being a solitary pursuit. There were several other grad students captive in the same lab, and we talked a lot and learned much from each other. I am still close friends with many of them. There were postdocs around (even at 2 AM), and even my supervisor dropped in now and then to chat. I spent a lot of time in the machine shop, where I gossiped with and learned from the technicians and other students. I also went to conferences, in Canada and internationally, where I was thrilled to learn that there were at least a few other people in the world who were interested in my little esoteric corner of physics.

And nowadays? No lab coat, no hair, and my lab has windows. I haven’t been able to drink caffeine for a long time; the result of overindulgence when I was young. I leave the office at 5:30 and although I often work at home in the evenings, it is rare that I stay up past 10 PM. But my work is even more social than ever. I have lots of collaborators, and I probably wouldn’t get any science at all done without them. I love talking to and working with students; they are the part of the job I enjoy the most. I have long-time friends who have become scientific collaborators, and collaborators who have become friends, all over the world. I go to two or three conferences a year, in various exotic (Cyprus, Rio) or not so exotic (Cleveland, Calgary) places, where I see friends and colleagues and talk about my research and theirs. I am continually in e-communication with colleagues, collaborators, current and former students.  I am fortunate to be able to spend part of this year visiting, and working with, colleagues around the world.  I believe that science is truly a social endeavor.

What do people think of physics students? What reaction do you get when you tell people you’re a physicist? Usually the reaction I get ranges from a smiling “that’s really interesting!” to the wide-eyed, exaggeratedly scared face “I can’t do math” response. Actually, it doesn’t range…it’s usually just one or the other. I like the first one.
What about people who don’t do physics, but who know about it? Again, two distinct responses come to mind. The slow-nodding, admiring “you’re learning some valuable skills, I wish I could do math”, or the “does your exorbitant, recession-proof funding solve any problems NOW?”
What do physics students think of themselves? This is left as an exercise for the reader…
The only question like this I can answer with any integrity is what I myself think of physics students. I think we’re a group of people in one of the luckiest niches we could ever nestle ourselves into. My argument for this is simple: our main responsibility is to become mentally agile. We’re not responsible for memorizing flocks of data, playing odds, being diplomatic, enforcing the law, risking our careers over political popularity, developing risky business campaigns, doing manual labour (or we can at least delegate it once we’re old enough). The responsibilities of a physicist may not all be glamorous, but my point is that it FORCES us to develop critical thinking skills that we can apply elsewhere in life. We spend hours racking our brains over the proper way to parametrize a surface, and at the end of that day we can enjoy a wealth of mental versatility that some people have to develop on their days off in order to remain sharp.
Mental versatility is a key to freedom. It makes us self-sufficient and independent, and even if it doesn’t guarantee we make good decisions, it guarantees we make clearerdecisions.
But mental versatility isn’t enough to make our lives easy. In fact, it makes some people’s lives difficult once they become aware of, for example, things they don’t like but can’t change.
I believe one of the greatest long-term investments we can make, as physicists or not, is to develop a versatile set of skills, intellectual and non. Even if we don’t need them to fight for our survival, self-sufficience begets self satisfaction.
Not to say that we should all farm our own crops and build our own houses from scratch, but what we may do is acquire new skills that allow us to solve our own problems, in the same way that learning physics fosters a mindset that can solve problems. Here are a few things you could consider doing to complete the physicist’s advantage:
1) Learn to build a fire. Even if you’re not fighting for survival, I guarantee this will hold the attention of everyone in front of it, even if they’re carrying on a conversation with someone right beside them.
http://www.wikihow.com/Build-a-Fire
2) Make homemade bread. It takes only about 20 mins of labour time, and it’s actually cheaper than Wonderbread! I really recommend this recipe.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Multi-Grain-Bread-with-Sesame-Flax-and-Poppy-Seeds-523
3) Be nice to people who irritate you, and forgive good people. Although this sounds more like a decision than a skill, some of the people who notice and respect this trait are the people whose admiration is most valuable.
4) Do home repairs. If you’ve lived in student housing, you’ll know handymen aren’t always the messiahs you hope for. This is an excellent guide.
http://homerepair.about.com/od/plumbingrepair/Plumbing_Repair_DIY_Tips_and_StepByStep_Guides.htm
5) Become informed about conversation topics that seem to come up a lot.
6) Understand the economic crisis! The Inside Job is a concise and accessible documentary that gives a thorough rundown.
http://vidbox.net/file.php?fd=c86221b7af9ba6738f45f733d916bd41
7) Consider every action an investment in your values. Find something you do regularly that doesn’t fit. Remove it from your routine.
8) Identify your biases, and go learn about them. If your opinion doesn’t change, feel happy. If your opinion does change, feel happy.
9) Don’t think about any phase of your life as a stage of necessary hard work so that you can enjoy life later. Enjoy your hard work.
10) Arrive 15 minutes early, and carry something with you that can occupy 15 minutes of your time.
*11) Here’s a bonus one: http://litreactor.com/columns/20-common-grammar-mistakes-that-almost-everyone-gets-wrong