On Wed, 16 May 2007, carrera d'olbani wrote:

On May 15, 11:22 pm, Straydog <a...@panix.com> wrote:

Have you thought about where the jobs are in astrobiology?

At NASA ?

They may have an administrator there. The life-detecting project on the
Mars probes was probably designed by a team made up mostly of mechanical
engineers, not astrobiologists. The whole space program probably has 18-19
engineers, in one place or the other, for every real scientist.

Experimental projects? Like plant life on Mars? Or, Venus?

On May 15, 11:57 am, Straydog <a...@panix.com> wrote:

On Tue, 15 May 2007, Uncle Al wrote:

inquiring mind wrote:

Hi,

I want to do a PhD in Astrobiology. I prefer to do experimental
projects. Where can I study ? Thanks.

Google
astrobiology faculty 137,000 hits
astrobiology faculty experimental 49,500 hits

The screamingly obvious assessment is that you do not possess the
skill set necessary to pursue research. If you cannot succeed on
paper sitting on your ***** with no time limit then you don't have a
chance standing before a blackboard much less a lab bench.

We're living in the age where kids get homework assignments from school
and their idea of _doing_ the homework is to get on the internet, click on
something or two, type a few letters, and the answer comes out, all
downloaded, formated, and printed out.

Anyone can use google. Now, how about what does the guy do after he gets a
PhD, which, today, is pretty easy.

In one of these 137,000 links Uncle Al mentioned the following is
written on the subject:

***************************************************************************************************************************************
An example of a strong research theme is Astrobiology. This theme
forms the basis of a new College initiative spanning many disciplines,
from molecular biology to oceanography. It derives much of its impetus
from progress in astronomy in areas such as space exploration,
extraterrestrial material (Martian meteorites, cosmic dust), and
extrasolar planets. Astrobiology inspires great enthusiasm among
students, postdocs, and funding agencies. We welcome any opportunity
to strengthen our lead in this exciting new field. The large range of
opportunities in this one research area is illustrated by the
incredible diversity among current astrobiology faculty in many
different departments.
***************************************************************************************************************************************

Pay attention to the phrase:
"Astrobiology inspires great enthusiasm among students, postdocs, and
funding agencies."
The funding agencies are going to spend tons of dollars for baking
PhDs in something that might not even exist. An army of
Astrobiologists will appear down the road waiving their credentials
and requesting JOBS, which results in more or less the same amount of
bitter blogs similar to that unfortunate astrophysicist that
complained that he is not worse that his colleagues A, B, C ... and Z
and still not funds.

Incidentally, how they could judge which astrobiologist is better? I
would say that one is better that predicts bigger animal living in
space or in black hole. If you predict mammoth spinning around the
distant star in the remote galaxy you are to my taste is better than
miserable guys talking about bacteria stick to asteroids.

On May 15, 11:57 am, Straydog <a...@panix.com> wrote:

On Tue, 15 May 2007, Uncle Al wrote:

inquiring mind wrote:

Hi,

I want to do a PhD in Astrobiology. I prefer to do experimental
projects. Where can I study ? Thanks.

Google
astrobiology faculty 137,000 hits
astrobiology faculty experimental 49,500 hits

The screamingly obvious assessment is that you do not possess the
skill set necessary to pursue research. If you cannot succeed on
paper sitting on your ***** with no time limit then you don't have a
chance standing before a blackboard much less a lab bench.

We're living in the age where kids get homework assignments from school
and their idea of _doing_ the homework is to get on the internet, click on
something or two, type a few letters, and the answer comes out, all
downloaded, formated, and printed out.

Anyone can use google. Now, how about what does the guy do after he gets a
PhD, which, today, is pretty easy.

In one of these 137,000 links Uncle Al mentioned the following is
written on the subject:

***************************************************************************************************************************************
An example of a strong research theme is Astrobiology. This theme
forms the basis of a new College initiative spanning many disciplines,
from molecular biology to oceanography. It derives much of its impetus
from progress in astronomy in areas such as space exploration,
extraterrestrial material (Martian meteorites, cosmic dust), and
extrasolar planets. Astrobiology inspires great enthusiasm among
students, postdocs, and funding agencies. We welcome any opportunity
to strengthen our lead in this exciting new field. The large range of
opportunities in this one research area is illustrated by the
incredible diversity among current astrobiology faculty in many
different departments.
***************************************************************************************************************************************

Pay attention to the phrase:
"Astrobiology inspires great enthusiasm among students, postdocs, and
funding agencies."

The funding agencies are going to spend tons of dollars for baking
PhDs in something that might not even exist. An army of
Astrobiologists will appear down the road waiving their credentials
and requesting JOBS, which results in more or less the same amount of
bitter blogs similar to that unfortunate astrophysicist that
complained that he is not worse that his colleagues A, B, C ... and Z
and still not funds.

Incidentally, how they could judge which astrobiologist is better?

would say that one is better that predicts bigger animal living in
space or in black hole. If you predict mammoth spinning around the
distant star in the remote galaxy you are to my taste is better than
miserable guys talking about bacteria stick to asteroids.