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We are finding that we are beginning to constrain some of our understandings and exclude some possibilities.

"In the current environment, any increase is welcome." --Dave Moore, AAMC

"I felt that it was time to return, now that Portugal was changing and giving us much better conditions, [and] that we should contribute to the development of the country," says Bruno Silva-Santos.

“Reduced economic opportunities in some fields relative to others … may be an important factor driving native students to enter particular occupations and avoid others.” --George Borjas

Although efforts to provide real career opportunities for more scientists would create stronger incentives for Americans to seek science careers, the political momentum appears to be on the side of granting more H-1B visas.

"If [a career framework] is just going to be a lot of woolly phrases that don't help anyone, then there is no point." --Lee Higham, Newcastle University

GREAT is now transforming its committee on postdocs into a body that will have its own independent, university-appointed membership, elected leadership, and meetings.

I am using the time wisely and, right now, I feel like I'm the lucky one

"Programs should provide all NRSA trainees with additional professional development skills and career guidance."

[F]or all the stump-speech hyperbole, a single, remorseless reality must govern the next president's actions, no matter who he is. The huge budget deficit, the war in Iraq, and the war on terrorism will combine to squeeze federal scientific agencies not directly involved in defense, homeland security, or several earmarked projects. Competing for scarce funds with a myriad of other money-strapped domestic agencies, the civilian science agencies face the likelihood of budget cuts, some quite substantial.

Now is the time to make the most of getting published, even while unpaid.

To invoke a phrase I first heard in connection with sport fishing, "You've got to know the water."

My main advice for writing an EC application is to keep checking the Cordis Web site for the relevant and up-to-date handbooks and guidelines .

“We very much support employees’ rights to choose for themselves whether or not they think unionization is beneficial.” --Paul Schwartz

"Brought back down to earth sharply when I realise that it will take the insight of Einstein, the prose of Proust, and the spin of Alastair Campbell to turn this mess of half-baked ideas into any kind of story."

"Our main target ... is [for] the postdocs being trained to go out and get jobs of their own. There are so many different types of jobs that it's hard to provide a good training environment that's right for everybody. So we're trying to figure out what types of things people would like to have." -John Lipscomb

"Nowadays," she continued, "people have much more freedom in their personal lives and professional choices than they did when they were sold to an apprenticeship in the old days, and yet, at the same time, they're buying into this almost feudal system in which once you dedicate a certain number of years, you are bound by the amount of time you've spent." --Allegra Goodman

"If you can give a good account of why you did what you did, you are already a long way to winning your examiners over."

Fancy having a Ph.D. and not being able to get a job!

Whilst I deliberate on my next move, the view from this narrow ledge is interesting.