For the scientists and science grad students here

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I found out about AS during my 3rd year in graduate school (I'm starting my 7th now), and it impacted my work really hard. Most of my 4th year I was really distracted from the benchwork because I had a lot of trouble wrestling with the thought of having AS and putting my past in perspective. At the same time, I also initially had significant difficulty accepting the implications of AS on my future, especially after reading many of the posts made here on WP. In the end, I'm glad that I did finally find out why things were so bad when I was younger, but it really hasn't changed what I do in lab on a day-to-day basis much at all, as my social skills are I guess decent. It was hard that that process of self-discovery happened during such a stressful time in my life... but I guess it's the stressful times that allow us to get to know ourselves and our own limits.

I love it. I am so putting and "Addresses That Question" slide into my lecture PowerPoint presentation on Thursday, now. I've got to deliver a lecture to my fellow grad students and there's one guy who likes to ask questions and then argue with the answers. He's a nice enough guy, but annoying in a lecture. Now I know what to tell him.

that's how UB is. i call it the "unofficial international school" and put the blame on it every time i catch the plague (my word for any illness that makes you bedridden)... however, it's great. meeting and knowing foreign people is great. i don't know why so many people complain! if you don't like it, there's fredonia... if you're rich, go to skidmore. as for the grad students, they seem pretty nice (i'm an undergrad, fifth year, anthropology.) every time i changed majors (five times,) i always knew at least one cool grad student. also, there are a lot of adults, or older young adults that go here that make the atmosphere tolerable. actually, ub is a pretty nice place, socially. it is best to avoid the SU, though, unless you want their awesome tacos. better than mighty taco. *thumbs up*

don't major in chemistry, it ruins your spelling. j/k. it's a very fun subject.

brilliant! good luck.

Doing a Masters in archaeology/paleoanthropology here, while i am also trying to score work as a forensic scientist. I can relate to just about everything that has been said here. I cringe at public speaking and hated presenting my honours thesis. Some good tips here.

Public speaking is a weird one...... I could lecture about geology all day long. That is probably why I have been assigned to teach summer session lectures so many times. You have to be able to prattle on for about four hours with only one or two short 15 minute breaks. Teaching labs and lecturing are easy for me because I feel at ease knowing that the students expect me to be "nerdy" about the information. They are not shocked that I can go on and on about whatever it is that we are covering on a particular day. Formal presentations given in a seminar or defense setting..... those are another story completely!! It takes me WEEKS to work myself up enough to be able to do it. I think it is partly the unpredictability of the audience (students are rather predictable, but profs and other grads could do or say ANYTHING) and partly the stress of being grilled about what you know. I had a situation in grad school once where I was trying to grow anaerobic bacteria from some groundwater in the tropics. I was doing a project that would be considered interdisciplinary (i.e. geomicrobiology). To make a long story short, tropical environments are really hard to work in and collect chemical/biological data in. I needed to come up with a collection procedure that would allow me to collect anaerobic water samples so that I could grow up anaerobic bacteria and determine what buggers were in there and if they could reduce sulfur and increase the acidity of the water in the aquifer. I had one hell of a time trying to convince my PI that anaerobic samples could not be exposed to air because the anaerobic bacteria would die and all I would manage to grow would be aerobic bacteria. Being a geologist and NOT a biologist, I could understand that he was not an expert on bacteria - but I had just finished a microbiology course that I had taken specifically so that I could grow buggers for my experiments. That would be one more microbiology course than my PI had ever taken..... While I am in no way an expert on microbiology, I did know that a glove box was in order and that we had no way to really take one with us due to the expense involved. I wanted to use blood collection containers with some auger in them that had all of the air sucked out of them. I was already using the exact same device with some acid in them to collect water samples to use for stable carbon isotope analysis. It seemed like I could easily inject some water into a tube with the liquid agar and transport the stuff back to the lab, pop it into a glove box owned by the biology department and then go about the business of seeing what sort of buggers would grow up. They guy was convinced that I could use a milipore filter and grow up all the bacteria that I needed right there on the island. HOLY CRAP! It is frustrating when you realize that you know something that your PI doesn't know. It is difficult to keep your composure in situations like that...... Being grilled for information by a bunch of geologists who have never taken a microbiology course is a pain in the butt!