Beyond the Bench: The Surprising Truth About Academic Research

What was the biggest myth about research that shuttered as soon as you learned the truth about academia?

The biggest myth for me was “researchers spend most of their time doing science”.

They do logistics, they write research proposals, they teach and do a million other things, but you will rarely see the group leader in the lab doing the science. 

The next thing that surprised me was how much of their time is spent on self promotion and ‘advertising’.

Yes, even in the purely-intellectual and peer-reviewed world of scientific publication, a researcher’s findings require promotion.

But ‘Promotion’ and ‘Advertising’ are strictly associated with the corporate world, 

why would a researcher need to ‘waste’ time on promoting research that is obviously brilliant?

It turns out that brilliance is rarely so obvious. 

And in fact, explaining your findings to your busy peers is not an annoying aspect of the researcher’s work- IT IS the work!

It’s what researchers spend most of their time on!

That’s the reason that scientific communication studios like mine exist in the first place. 

Not because some researchers draw inspiration from ‘corporate advertising’, but because successful researchers see the opportunity and value in making their science clear in under 2 minutes with the right visuals and animation.

Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.