FortKnox's Journal: Worst Jobs in Science

Popular science has the worst jobs in science. Some are silly, some are sick, some make you angry, and some just flat-out suck.

Obligatory South Park reference

[sielwolf]

"C'mon boy! Red Rocket! Red Rocket!"

*shudder* I wonder if any programs put such workin to their brochures?

Re:Obligatory South Park reference

[bofkentucky]

Its disturbing the first time you do it, but in the cattle industry, you have to AI to be competitive these days. Never seen a hog hand-job before though, bet that's weird?

Yeah, well...

[Otter]

Popular science has the worst jobs in science.

Actually, that would be mine...

Most Disturbing

[mike_mgo]

What I found disturbing is that under the entry for "Prison Rape Researcher" there was an icon of Barney the Dinosaur smiling. What is this trying to say?

Re:Most Disturbing

[mskfisher]

That's what I was going to say - except I noticed it under the "Brazil Mosquito Researcher."
It's the icon [popsci.com] for "Psychological Torture." Well-chosen, IMO...

Lately... mine

[OctaneZ]

removing the otiliths (ear bones) from larval fish!
so we have preserved 4-6mm long fish in ethanol from our spring sampling season, have collected all this other information from/about them, and are now tearign their heads off their bodies and digging around for 4 little round bones... the biggest pair being .3mm. quite infuriating.... esp if you needed coffee that day.
-OZ

I know (some of) these people

[aridhol]

Hmm...I know some of these people (or at least similar people):

BRAZIL MOSQUITO RESEARCHER - One of the guys my wife plays soccer with researches mosquitos. It's not quite the same (Manitoba mosquitoes are much bigger ;), and he doesn't feed them himself - that's what he has grad students for :)

HOT-ZONE SUPERINTENDENT - My wife works in a hot-zone lab (they prefer to call it Special Pathogens), so I've met some of the people that work there. Regular repairs and cleanup are done by the scientists and la

Front Page?

[Pirogoeth]

Have you tried submitting this to the front page?

Re:Front Page?

[FortKnox]

yeah, still pending

Re:Front Page?

[ryanr]

You're there:

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/09/1 6/0146237&mode=thread&tid=133&tid=134&tid= 186 [slashdot.org]

my old roommate

[jeffy124]

is a structural engineer for a civil engineering firm. he mostly deals with concrete and materials in constructing roadways and buildings, but one of his odd occasional tasks is to gather data in support of traffic surveys.

this could mean handing out pre-postmarked survey postcards to passing drivers at an intersection of interest, walking around a city block writing down plate numbers of parked cars every 15 minutes, or sitting at an intersection clicking various counters when cars go straight or turn le