Women in Science - a historical outlook...

I think this cartoon does not need any explanation... And I am sorry to say that it is not only a joke... even these days...

Chemical masquerade ball 2011

We may all remember school carnivals or masquerade balls of our own with desperate mothers trying to convince us that this or that costume or mask will be fantastic... Now it is time for us to be creative and to put our kids in scientific costumes... (Poor baby Boo with his chemical masquerade balls...)

Quantum physics for beginners...

Becoming a mother makes you quickly understand and simplify the most complicated scientific principles... 

Bacterial rendezvous

Although I still have my conflicts and problems in my scientific carreer right now, I decided deliberately to include a cartoon that is not linked to the problems of women in science but is just a joke... I would not like to make this blog the "wailing wall" of women working in science, it should make us smile from time to time...

Scientific MLM system (copyright GS)

Being on maternity leave your situation is fragile (you depend evenmore on your boss and colleagues unless you want to quit science completely). At the same time you have more time to analyze your situation and that of your boss or your group. We've seen several groups, but their basic structure and functioning is similar, only their size varies, or they may be grouped to be more effective (then several pyramids join each other to produce a Nobel prize for the people sitting on the top). Discussing such questions, the first reader of the blog suggested me to draw this cartoon... (Thanks a lot for it!)

Study material in the kitchen - how to take your work home

As a woman scientist you probably find interesting phenomena and study material in the household, especially in the kitchen and sometimes your interesting study material may end up as a dish... Especially if you need to buy a big piece of vegetable to use only a small part of it in the experiments...  (And even more so if you are in general not particularly well-paid, and most grants do not accept greengrocer's bills, so anyway you have to pay from your own money for it.) There were times when I tried all possible recipes of the plant actually studied in the lab, and my family started to become fed up with it...

Dream Team

Being a woman in science you can probably only dream about a real team and about leading a team. However, you have a lot of opportunities to observe how top dogs build up their highly effective teams. Based on this recipe, as a very ambitious boss, you only need a lot of Shiva-droids for the dirty job in the lab and a pussycat candy doll to spend your time in a charming, inspiring and positive environment, to blow up your ego from time to time, and to entertain you. Having several candidate pussycat candy dolls (a real harem of such young 'scientists', with eventual competition between the girls) might make the situation even more interesting for you. (To be honest and correct, the doll is only optional, not all bosses have or need it, but unfortunately I have never had such a boss.) Later (in the upcoming comic strips) I will show you how the presence of other real women (in real science) can spoil this ideal situation in the lab.