Today’s world is all about networking, meeting people, keeping in touch and so on. So we have social media to make it easier for us.
There is Facebook, the most popular, but also MySpace. There is Twitter, and there is Google Buzz. Then there is LinkedIn. Each of them connects you with different part of your life, some might be better to keep in touch with family and friends (like Facebook) and some would be more professional, like LinkedIn.
But, already, having a profile on all those, and keeping it updated and live, can take half of a day, everyday! And that is not all.
If you are a scientist, you might have/be required by your institution to have, a profile on COS and on Biomedical Experts, if you are working in those fields. They are more passive services, with weekly updates on grant founding opportunity (for COS) or publications from your network (from BiomedExperts), so they do not require that much time. I find the Biomed Experts really useful, personally.
And it is still not the end of the list. Recently, the professional organizations decided to add networking to their web sites. I am a member of American Chemical Society, and they came up with their own networking solutions, ACS network. And just last month, the Society of Toxicology, in which I just became a member, created their own ToXchange.
While I do understand why they do that, it is hard for me to believe that too many people will take full advantage of all those tools. It is just too many. Especially younger people, with Facebook profiles, and maybe present on LinkedIn, probably will not want to spend too much time on additional social media. It all takes just unnecessary time. After all, you can establish on for example Facebook closed, by invitation only groups, and that at least keeps the different conversations for a user in one place, rather than sending him all around the Internet. I would be happy to see some merging, different social media coming together for a more consolidated viewing. Even if only TweetDeck or similar clients having access to all of the above.

I am cleaning the shelves of my old collected magazines, including Chemical and Engineering News for last half a year or so. Reading the Letters to the Editor combined with Editorial for those issues provides some interesting observation. Rudy Baum is a very interesting person, and his editorials, clearly expressing his personal views (with disclaimer, of course ), are still within the scope of the magazine. Several issues especially resonated with the readers, in both positive and negative way. His opinions on the global warming and teaching of intelligent design polarized the readers for months. It was very interesting to read some statements from otherwise highly educated and trained in science professionals.
In case of intelligent design, the most negative opinions were mixing the scientific theory, which is based on a number of experimentally verified hypothesis, and by default not 100% sure, as no scientific data is provides absolute solution; with a faith based statement, which cannot be verified in any other way as by, well, believing in it. I think the opinions I could accept, although not agree, were of those, who were recognizing the limitations of evolution theory and filling in the blanks with their religious beliefs. I think the intelligent design has its place in Sunday school, but in the classroom.
The human input to global warming is a bit different story. It is not a matter of belief any more, but a fight of a large number of scientific evidence, supporting both sides. And although I personally think that there is more data supporting the human induced global warming, it might be high time the skeptics understand one thing. The rate of climate changes are so high right now, that regardless if human activity contributes 1, 50 or 99%, if by changing our habits we can reduce it, we should, before it is too late and changes are turning tragic. And that has nothing to do with your political preferences.

I live in small community in Iowa. I pay taxes and mortgage. I have a cat, which I took from local animal shelter. I go to restaurants often and shop locally. Even if it only means local Walmart sometimes. I do participate in aero club activities. I am a scientist with flourishing carrier, who achieved a lot in last 5 years, published many papers, attended some national conferences and got to know a lot of people. I am established here.
I am going to loose all of what I achieved, soon.
But for all the people of different stages of my immigration process, I am just a name on the paperwork. They make a subjective decision, yes or no, without giving a minute of thought of who I really am. Or worse, my paperwork is being pushed back to the next day, for months, without being looked at.
With all the compassion and support I receive from people around me, I find it hard to believe that employees of HHS, Department of State or USCIS do not know somebody going through the process right this minute. They might be your neighbors, or members of same club. People you chit-chat every day. Give them a thought.
I am a person. There is a story behind the name.

I already complained on this blog about magazines bugging you all the time to renew subscription. Unfortunately, my favorite National Geographic is among them. The moment I pay additional year, the letters start coming to add yet another. Clearly, in this country subscribing to a magazine generates additional cost to the magazine owner, as a subscriber pays more for his renewal then if he started a new subscription. After all, if I renew in due time about 2 months before my subscription expires, they need to send me 11-12 renewal notices! My theory proved right, when I got this letter from National Geographic.

I am trying to understand, if people are too lazy to just look at the address label to see when their subscription expires? If they did, the obnoxious spamming would stop. My money are better saved on my account, then on magazine’s.

How do you perform your literature search? When you work on a project, and need to familiarize yourself/acknowledge all the previous papers, “to the best of your knowledge” all of them, reporting same or similar stuff, what do you do? I am working in the biomedical field. The first thing I so, I always go to SciFinder, put in a name of compound I need to look for, or the structure, or formulate phrase. What I particularly like about SciFinder is that it enables you to access full text articles with one mouse click, as long as your institution has a subscription to given journal or SciFinder has (there are some like that).
I am not really convinced to using Google Scholar. I guess it just is not “scientific” enough, as it is not a database… Maybe also the form how the results are displayed doesn’t particularly fit me. What I appreciate about it is the fact, that it is linked to my University library system, and checks availability of full text, and (I love it!) if it is not available, it is linked to Interlibrary Loan and after I log in- the order form is filled for me! I just need to click Submit. It can’t get easier than that. That’s why I would use it sometimes.
Now, the one thing I never use is PubMed. I tried. It is just beyond me to understand how to formulate question to get decent response and relevant hits, and how the results are displayed is completely useless for me, and hard to browse.
Anybody has different experience? Are you using another database or service?

Technorati Tags: SciFinder

As I mentioned in last post, I know how hard it is to get visa waiver if you were sponsored by US government. My “no objection” case was denied.
You cannot argue the decision- when it is made, it is final.
You cannot file “no objection” again.
Is there anything you can do then? Yes, luckily there is.
“No objection” is just one of few basis. Look at them carefully, and see which one you could potentially use. I guess if you are from politically stable country, “Fear of prosecution” is not an option. “Exceptional hardship” will not work either, unless you are from 3rd world country and have a wife of child which is a legal permanent resident in US, and you can convince the board not to split family. So the only other option is IGA- Interested Government Agency. Of course, it is only for people with government jobs. And again, I can give details only to scientists, as this is the path I went through myself.
As scientists, we are always working on the grants, which are governmental funds, and it is the basis for this application- that our role is important and not easy to replace due to unique set of skills, expertise and experience. You need and want to stress it in your application.
This type of the case requires you get the support from a lawyer, somebody who dealt with the case like it before, and I will talk about how to find a lawyer in one of future posts. But you will also need a support from your supervisor, and a person in immigration office at the university (try asking in equivalent of International Student Office in your organization, in my case I ended up with the person from Immigration branch of Human Resources). The support from your supervisor is very important, because one of requirements is that the position you occupy is advertised to make sure that you cannot be easily replaced by the person already in US, to seamlessly continue work on the grant. He will also need to write a letter showing the importance of your work within the grant and how your work fits with everybody else does in the lab and on the particular grant.
As I am working in biomedical field, thus my case went in parallel to Department of State and to HHS (Health and Human Services). You send all the documents to a lawyer, and he sorts out what goes where.
Preparing the paperwork for HHS, and for Department of State, is a huge job. You need not only passport copies, all DS and IAP forms, but also all documentation of your achievement as a scientist- similar to “green card”- all your papers and papers citing your papers, book chapters, conference proceedings, membership in professional organizations, grants awarded, any letters showing you reviewed the papers for others, copy of your PhD diploma and anything else you can think of. Don’t worry, spending days to put it all together will quicken preparation of same stuff for “Green Card” application.
You will also need four to eight support letters from other scientist. It is different then for “Green Card” where you can provide more letters, here you cannot exceed eight. They also have a bit different focus, on your fitting in with the grant rather then on your own achievements as a scientist.
How to find people to write you a letter? Try asking people from outside your university, at least outside your lab. Whenever you have the occasion, at the conferences or seminars, get to know people, not only your peers, but also higher ranked scientist- this networking will come in handy when you need those letters. Most of them will know well how to prepare the letters, they have done it before, but there will be cases you will need to prepare the letter yourself, and send them for review and signature only. It should be easy to do, when you have your Research Statement ready, as it will organize your thoughts.
When you file the case, you just wait. First, HHS need to review the papers and send their recommendation, before you case moves on in Department of State, where you can actually monitor the progress online, as in case of “no objection”.

So, your J1 visa is ready to expire? You are in US for 4.5 years, and just start to thinking of maybe staying, getting H1 visa, or permanent residence. Think again. Or better, go and check your DS-2019 form or passport if there is a note about section 212(e), reads something like this:
“subject to two-year residence requirement based on…”
Lucky you, if you don’t. Check this blog in about a months, when I move to “green card” application. If you do, you still have options, but it is something you have to start dealing with quickly.
You can apply for so called J1 visa waiver, and you can find a lot of information about it here. The process is pretty basic, if you decide to go with simplest so called basis- “No objection”. It means that along with your paperwork and fee (check on the above web page for details) send to Department of State Waiver Review Board, you mail a form (which is on the site) and a cover letter to your home country embassy, and ask them to provide the statement that your home country government has no objection for your staying in US. Most countries do not have any objections, and the case should be closed in couple of month. With favorable for you decision. But….
It might be not as easy, if you were sponsored by US government to come to US. If you were sponsored by your home country- no problem. But if you were a Fulbright Scholar, or any foundation based in US… you probably are out of lack. I know, visa waiver is a simple process, but in this case, I strongly suggest you get a lawyer, professional advice, and as many letters of recommendation as you can. I am not kidding, you are getting yourself against a very strong commitment of US government to bring people here to get education and experience they will
want you to utilize back home! And I know it first hand. If you don’t, you might need to read my next post next week- what to do when your request is denied, and what other basis there are.

Some notes on how to get the paperwork ready.
For the form, which you need to fill out electronically and print out, you need to provide lengthy “statement of reason”. The online form expires after an hour or so, I believe, and I really suggest you make your statement strong case why you should be allowed to stay in US and what good it will do to the Americans (nobody cares about your own convenience!). For this reason, prepare your narrative first, using some text editor, and when you polish it and are happy with it, start filling out a form. You can just copy and paste your statement of reason. I was polishing mine for couple of weeks!
What to write in the statement? Hard to say what would work for everybody, I can tell you what to write as a scientist. Your case is easy, as you are probably working on some grants founded by governmental agencies, like National Health Institute or National Science Foundation. Write about your work, but mostly why it is important for science and Americans. My advice- mention every grant you work on, starting from the biggest (most money) grants. It is what makes them important.
The only other thing you will need to submit are all your DS-2019 or IAP-66 forms. Never throw them away when they expire! You need to prove that they were issued and you were legally in US at any time point.

Anyway, in my case, in 2008, it took about two months to get case processed. Using the case number generated when you fill out the online form, you can access your case status online, and see if and what is happening there.

I just finished reading an interesting post about Twitter and other social media ethics. And I am wondering, does it all imply that people with certain positions just cannot use them at all? The journalist from major paper closed his account on Twitter and is not posting anymore, because his private opinions are not considered private just because of who he is. I also recently heard about a scientist, who closed his Facebook account, because he was promoted to faculty position, and was worried that his students will see his profile.
And I see two issues here.
One is the ethics of posting, what you can and what you cannot post because of your job or position, and I agree that you have to be careful. At the same time, I think Twitter and other social media just spread the work quicker than regular word-of-mouth type of gossip, which just puts people in trouble more often that before we used Internet to spread it. So there is no new ethics coming, is still the same old ethics, just more people and quicker will discover who breaks the ethics.
The other problem is the fact, that people in certain positions might be cut off using the social media and if not the benefits, then certainly fun of it. And I do not find it particularly fair. High school and even collage students will be free to use the new ways of communications, and older people will be left out. Unless something changes, but I am not sure how it could to solve the problem.
What are your thoughts on it?

I just realized I didn’t have time to post that another paper showed up online. It is not my first-author, but a review on chiral PCBs, their metabolites, toxicity and human and environmental enentiomeric fractions. The paper is a team work of all people who presented their research during last, 5th PCB Workshop, where special session was organized “Chiral aspects of PCBs transport, metabolism and distribution”. The paper is published in Environmental Science and Technology, you can see it here.

I was organizing some of my iPhone photos, when I saw this image, taken during one of the recent meetings I attended. Future of the poster stands? Simple to set up, even simpler to display a poster- no mess with push-pins or velcro. Takes about 30 sec to prepare. I fell in love.