Stress and Competition: Does the Research "Lifestyle" Inhibit Innovation?

Barak Cohen has some words of wisdom for the future biologists of the world: "If you’re doing this to get rich, you’re going to be disappointed. If you’re doing this to get famous, you’re going to be doubly disappointed. The reason to do a PhD in biology is because you’re fascinated by biology." As Cohen and graduate students like Shelina Ramnarine know, being a professional scientist is typically not glamorous. It involves hard work and stress - often over funding. To continue our Where's My Jetpack? series, Ramnarine questions whether an increasingly competitive lifestyle is a barrier to innovation. In this week's episode, she and Cohen discuss how the internet, changes in governmental funding, and a lack of diversity among scientists all affect scientific progress.