Read our school visit diaries!
11 November 2008
EMBL Heidelberg, Germany
Marlene Rau and Johanna Scheuermann
On 11 November 2008, a group of 20 grade 13 students from the Gymnasium Bammental came to visit EMBL, accompanied by their biology teacher, Desirée Hartmann. The students had all chosen biology as a major subject and were therefore already interested in the topic. Since this is the final year before they leave school and maybe go on to university, we wanted to give them an idea of what it is like to be a biologist - inside and outside of the lab.
Johanna Scheuermann covered the lab scientist side of it - she is doing her PhD working on molecular biology with fruit flies at EMBL and talked about her work. I used to work in a lab at EMBL myself - I did my PhD here in developmental biology, working on zebrafish - but then I switched gears. I went into science journalism and communication, and am now the editor of a science journal for European high-school teachers.
If you are interested in science, but decide not to be a researcher, there are many other options you have. Science communication is one of them. Already during my PhD, I started writing for the science page of the local newspapers. And when I had finished, I decided to try it out full-time for a year. I studied journalism in a long distance university course and complemented it by doing internships in various journals and at a press office. The journals were quite varied: one for scientists, which publishes their scientific papers for an audience of other scientists in the field; a journal from a cancer research institute, which covers mainly the research at this institute, but for a lay audience; a more entertainment-oriented journal similar to National Geographic, and others. I learned a lot and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
A very important person during this year was my mentor, Kirsten Bode. I joined a local mentoring programme for women in science and technology, and they found a perfect match for me: a biologist who had become an online journalist at a major TV station after her PhD. She was very inspiring, explained the practicalities of her work and tried to answer the many questions I had - either herself or by putting me in contact with people she knew. She helped me stay on track and apply for jobs - and since March 2008, I have been back at EMBL.
It is great to be back and work among friends in a place I like. The direct contact to the scientists is important, although now I'm on the other side. I spend most of my time in my office - my boss and I run the journal together, and the fact that we are just two makes for quite a varied job: it's not just plain editorial work. It also involves public relations, web maintenance, administration, production, distribution, contact with the readers. Since we cover not only biology, but also all other sciences, I get exposed to a lot of new and interesting topics. It helps to be curious, and you get to meet many new people - on conferences, at science fairs, or interviewing them. You can actually get to talk to some of the most important and influential scientists in the world - and that's really great. Of course, it is also very rewarding when readers tell us they really like the journal.
I hope that I could give the students from Bammental an idea of what my work is like - maybe one of them may one day decide to turn his or her interest in science into a career in science communication. Because science is fascinating - and it needs people to transmit this message!