[gregpawin]

I was wondering how other people cope with the incredible specialization that has existed for some time in chemistry.  You go to a general seminar, but they are anything but general and often cover some cutting edge research in a field you didn't know existed.

Do you find yourself experiencing this at all?  Do you have time at all to broaden your knowledge to understand what other people in other specializations are talking about?  Or do you barely have enough time to understand what you're doing?

[Mitch]

I never know anything what anyone of those chemical biologist say.

[Donaldson Tan]

i don't think anybody knows, even the speaker himself. LOL. that's why nobody understands but don't have the humility to admit

[constant thinker]

I attended a genetics seminar. This first half of it (before lunch) was a breeze. It was all basic genetics stuff. The second half went over my head. It probably didn't help that I was late to the second half because Quiznos takes for ever to make you a fricken sub.

I never knew there were so many types of RNA and they did so much...

Next up is latest break throughs in medicine at Harvard University probably. I think that's what's next atleast.

[movies]

I never know anything what anyone of those chemical biologist say.

I second that.  Of course I haven't taken any bio classes since sophomore year of high school.  For a while during my first year of grad school I forced myself to go to a lot of seminars, even ones that I would have previously dismissed as "too much bio" or "too much p-chem" and I found that after a few seminars I started to fill in some of the gaps and I was actually understanding a lot more than I expected to understand.  I have definitely learned a lot more about biochem and a lot more about computational methods.

I'm always amazed how someone like my advisor, a hard-core synthetic organic chemist, can ask intelligent, insightful questions at a p-chem or bio-chem seminar, but I think I am realizing that this skill comes from attending a lot of seminars and reading a lot of papers.  It's really just a different way of learning than a normal classroom setting.  The basic concepts of bonding, etc. are always going to be the same, but one of the keys to conducting independent research is to be able to apply your skills as, say, a synthetic chemist, to problems in other fields.  Interdisciplinary research is the way of the future, no doubt about it.

[Donaldson Tan]

Interdisciplinary research is the way of the future, no doubt about it.

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