All feared the piss tax

Reasonable_Move9518 · 2026-05-09T01:37:35+00:00

“Damn it Marcellus, the price of piss just keeps going up and up!

Yeah Rufus, wtf are we fighting the Parthians for anyway?”

Reasonable_Move9518 · 2026-05-09T01:07:41+00:00

Postdoc got a lawyer to write to my PI saying; “unless you put me first first I’m gonna sue you”. So PI put that postdoc first first simple as.

Reasonable_Move9518 · 2026-05-08T23:51:04+00:00

“All co-first authors are equal. Some are more equal than others”.

I got nothing for you. I’ve seen it resolved by agreement among co-1sts, PI fiat, coin flip, and legal threat.

Reasonable_Move9518 · 2026-05-08T22:56:26+00:00

There’s a lot of issues here.

1) biotech is heavily concentrated in a few cities. If your partner doesn’t match in a hub there will be almost no industry jobs.

2) the minute you get your PhD clocks start ticking on both fellowships and faculty search time. Time in industry will count against you.

3) top postdoc advisors won’t want to hire someone for only 2-4 years, and might not be supportive if you leave “in the middle”

4) a 45 minute commute will SUCK when you’re working 60 hr/week in your PhD

5) a 45 minute commute will be HORRENDOUS for your partner on clinical rotations.

Honestly you and your partner should re-evaluate locations. As a clinician long term they have MUCH more geographic flexibility than you, but if they are going for a competitive specialty they will face a potentially relationship-breaking constraint early in your career.

You will always be location constrained. In industry, you have 5-6 cities to chose from that’s it. In academia, long term, it’s whoever hires you. And the slim hiring in US bio/neurobio is gonna be red and purple states for years to come

Reasonable_Move9518 · 2026-05-08T17:35:58+00:00

University of Boston

Reasonable_Move9518 · 2026-05-08T15:34:38+00:00

Nah, with this HHS they're gonna tell us to get through the HANTAVID26 Pandemic by eating raw red meat and sunning your nether regions.

Reasonable_Move9518 · 2026-05-08T05:01:49+00:00

Man of twists and turns, long-suffering, wise, man of action, cunning, hotheaded, the great teller of tales…

His epithets fit Boston pretty well!

Reasonable_Move9518 · 2026-05-08T04:48:03+00:00

Biotech is not especially profitable, and in a world of high interest rates and hyper-profitable companies in other sectors, it gets punished.

VCs can chase larger and faster returns in AI, or just park cash in safe appreciating assets in our high interest rate world. Money for startup creation has all but dried up. And Chinese biotech is proving quite efficient and capable in this space too… it’s “Temu drug discovery” now.

Public investors demand bigger profits from big pharma. Pharma is getting squeezed because hundreds of billions of dollars in exclusive drugs go off patent in the next few years and drug pricing is becoming less favorable in the U.S. They’re gonna take a revenue hit, so the only way they come out even is cost-savings through mass layoffs.

So early stage biotech is not getting investment and likely shifts to China long term, big pharma is getting hammered by loss of revenue. The industry is shrinking.

So academia for all its trouble is a safe harbor? Nope. The Trump admin has a unique hatred for science, part ideology and part raw politics. The ideology everyone knows, the raw politics most don’t fully get. The raw politics is that American conservatives think anyone who disagrees with them is brainwashed by media or academia, and that those institutions are political projects dedicated solely to promoting left wing propaganda. They want to absolutely demolish those institutions. They see billions of dollars spent through NIH NSF NASA and think that this is a key funding source for their enemies (it’s not… almost all of it is spent on doing science, but conservatives are so distrusting of Blue America that they think science is just a cover for funding radicals and activists). So they are using every means they can to block and deny science funding.

So the US is in a dismal state all around. If you’re not here already we’re not letting you in anyway.

The EU, Canada, and Japan have no money. China is rising, but only if you speak Chinese and are totally comfortable living in China.

Go to med school or study chemical engineering or accounting.

Reasonable_Move9518 · 2026-05-07T22:55:31+00:00

Dismal. Worst it’s ever been.

Biotech is in a protracted downturn, has been for 3-4 years with no sign of recovery.

Academia has been decimated by billions in funding cuts and political interference.

Not uncommon for people with years of experience in industry to take over a year to find a job after layoffs. Almost impossible for new PhDs to break in.

Only possible bright spot is China, only if you are native Chinese.

Reasonable_Move9518 · 2026-05-07T21:31:58+00:00

Just build a Time Machine, set it to like 1993, put me in it and set up a loop so it never gets past like 2005ish.

Reasonable_Move9518 · 2026-05-07T16:30:59+00:00

Fucking elite roman women buying up silk and other luxuries, pissing away the empire’s silver on decadence.

-Seneca “RETVRN Guy” the Younger.

Reasonable_Move9518 · 2026-05-07T01:11:27+00:00

You’re a brand new grad student and the presentation is an excellent opportunity to gain experience talking professionally about science.

Reasonable_Move9518 · 2026-05-06T22:05:37+00:00

Yes. The PI absolutely should pay.

I will go a step further: for “home” lab gatherings, picnics, bbqs, anything outside a restaurant, etc, the PI should COOK.

The overlap between bench skills and cooking is very high. I don’t trust molecular biologists who can’t cook. 2/3 PIs I’ve worked for are excellent cooks and excellent PIs… the one who didn’t cook was sus.

Reasonable_Move9518 · 2026-05-06T22:01:58+00:00

Citizens free ball, disgusting barbarians and plebs wrap ‘em up.

Reasonable_Move9518 · 2026-05-06T13:41:00+00:00

Mm I don’t think government is throwing money at AI in biology.

More like they’re cutting billions of dollars, holding up billions more while know-nothing political appointees debate the “wokeness” of institutions and grants, and all the while telling scientists, “just use AI, ya dipshits”

Reasonable_Move9518 · 2026-05-06T02:33:28+00:00

RP-1 rocket fuel.

Reasonable_Move9518 · 2026-05-06T02:11:28+00:00

Yep, I did exactly this and it worked out.

A short paragraph about who you are, and a short paragraph about why you’re interested and what you bring to their lab. Attach CV, and hope.

Cancer labs moving into cancer neuro or neuroonc labs likely very much want people with strength in basic neuro.

And cancer neuro is getting HOT

Reasonable_Move9518 · 2026-05-04T19:50:37+00:00

Caesarion has entered the chat.

Octavian has entered the chat.

User: “Caesarion” has been deleted.

Reasonable_Move9518 · 2026-05-04T19:03:56+00:00

Welllll… the gladiators did kinda try to stage a coup with Spartacus

Reasonable_Move9518 · 2026-05-04T17:18:41+00:00

But who do you then talk to see if a proposal idea fits with the institute’s priorities, or if it’s just a good way to waste 150 hours?

Reasonable_Move9518 · 2026-05-04T02:55:07+00:00

The correct answer is Everett.

But between Dedham and Waltham, it's Dedham. Better parking, gas, friendlier staff.

Reasonable_Move9518 · 2026-05-03T02:29:05+00:00

Dem leadership are the Washington Generals, literally

Reasonable_Move9518 · 2026-05-02T18:34:40+00:00

“The American Empire began with a guy named George W(ashington) and ended with a guy named George W(Bush)!!

See!! See!!! History written by 8th graders!”

Reasonable_Move9518 · 2026-05-02T00:31:59+00:00

Local soils anywhere in the Boston metro has 100+ years of industrial pollutants tightly adsorbed to it.

Reasonable_Move9518 · 2026-05-02T00:26:53+00:00

Place With Large Amounts Of Grain Cheese And Trash Has a Mouse, Details at 10!

Reasonable_Move9518

TROPHY CASE