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"I think it becomes more difficult [to cheat] when the student knows what the professor knows and the professor knows what the student knows." --Adil Shamoo

As NSF prepares to help Professional Science Master's programs multiply, employment prospects for graduates of these programs look strong, even in a weak economy.

Two new initiatives seek to prepare postdocs for off-campus careers.

A new book takes a revealing look at careers in academic science.

Research suggests that social structure, not personal ethics, determines the frequency of scientific misconduct.

A former postdoc finds teaching high school a deeply satisfying career.

"The ivory tower is getting worn and dingy [and] the provost sold the ivory ... to build the new administration wing." --Phil Clifford

" Narod has spent 2 decades simultaneously "at the vanguard of a brand-new science" and at the helm of a corporation lucrative enough to support overseas mountaineering trips and a handsome home in an upscale neighborhood."

Correcting the problems and inequities that bedevil postdocs will require changing the culture of labs and universities across the country, and the National Science Foundation can and should take steps to catalyze reform.

"Cost of living adjustments? Nobody's getting those," says Shawn Hayes, chair of the statewide University of California Council of Postdoctoral Scholars and a postdoc at UC Davis. There's also discussion of "the possibility of a 10% across-the-board salary cut for everybody, including faculty."

" According to the NLRB decision, Brown graduate assistants are ineligible to form a union because they are not employees. Rather, they "are first and foremost students, and their status as graduate student assistants is contingent on their continued enrollment as students."

Far too many postdocs let unrealistic expectations lead them to become apathetic about their own career development.

"Given postdocs' dependence on their mentors for both current working conditions and future career prospects, potential effects on mentor-postdoc relations have raised concern. Predictions range from destruction of that crucial partnership to a new era of improved mutual respect."

The postdocs take particular pride that dire predictions of spoiled relationships with mentors have not come true. The negotiations, in Wallace's words, "were very harmonious and productive."

A new California plan promises uniform health insurance benefits for all postdocs.

For the first time ever, all UC postdocs, regardless of their funding source, have access to the same comprehensive group health insurance.

"I don't think that a union and a professional society are mutually exclusive," said NPA spokesperson Orfeu Buxton.

"His lab mantra was, 'It's better to ask forgiveness than permission,' 'If I don't know about it, it doesn't happen,' [and] 'Get it done at all costs, and don't tell me how.' " --Maura Lee Upright

"We deliberately tell them up front that their possibilities of getting a faculty position are few and far between. [Postdocs] need to stretch [their] horizons."

--Trevor Penning

Mentors' obligations also include providing their postdocs practical counsel and aid in moving to their next post, as well as all needed facilities and supplies. And mentors should never add "surprise" responsibilities, a practice that is simply "not fair," Cech said.