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Doctoral dramas
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Doctoral dramas A series of one-liners captures the postgrad’s bittersweet existence, says Alison George Award recipients?” boasts the film’s website. Despite the film’s light-hearted approach, it was with some trepidation that I settled down to watch it. I was uneasy about revisiting the more angst-ridden aspects of my own PhD years, spent hunched over a microscope, or worse, pondering the futility of my research and/or life.
“LET me tell you how this works,” says the curmudgeonly Professor Smith, giving a would-be graduate student the benefit of his wisdom. “Being a PhD student and working with a professor is a lot like a marriage. The whole thing lasts five to seven years, and 50 per cent end in a bitter divorce.” So begins The PhD Movie, dreamed up by Jorge Cham and based on the Piled Higher and Deeper comics he began drawing in 1997 while studying for a doctorate in robotics at Stanford University in California. The comics playfully expose the inner workings of academia – or as Cham puts it, “life (or lack thereof) in graduate school”. The movie was shot at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, and most of the characters are played by real-life students or researchers. “What other movie features not one, but two MacArthur ‘Genius’
Touchingly eccentric Einstein on the Road by Josef Eisinger, Prometheus, £21.95/$25 Reviewed by Jamie Condliffe
IN THE 1970s, sociologist David Bloor suggested – to reactions of perhaps equal horror and delight – that science is an inherently social activity. He believed we should recognise that, beneath the stereotypical
The characters are all the more real for being played by academics
the phd movie
The PhD Movie written by Jorge Cham, directed by Vahe Gabuchian. For screenings see phdcomics.com/movie
I needn’t have worried. Perhaps my feelings were spared because the film mainly uses one-liners from the comics to tackle the anxieties and oddities of earning a doctorate. “Is that food for us?” asks the protagonist, an unnamed graduate student. “No, it’s for the special relativity seminar, but they’re always losing track of time,” replies his mentor, Mike Slackenerny, the eternal grad student. Or maybe it’s because I got my doctorate in the UK, so the American way of doing things didn’t always resonate. Rather than reviving old
white coats, scientists really are forging friendships while playing normal people too. Mozart, his absolute disdain for Thanks in part to insightful press conferences and ignorant biographies of scientists, the journalists, and his take on his world of research has been superstardom, which once saw shown to be as full of competition, him saunter down a Hollywood gossip and revelation as any other red carpet with Charlie Chaplin. human endeavour. In the same Most touching are the spirit, Einstein on the Road anecdotes that reveal Einstein’s provides a window into the great eccentric nature. Josef Eisinger man’s life. recounts how, during a stormy More than any other scientist, crossing of the Atlantic that had Einstein had his life scrutinised, “Einstein’s superstardom but this book, based on his saw him saunter down detailed travel diaries, affords a Hollywood red carpet more personal glimpses. So we with Charlie Chaplin” learn about his fondness for
stresses, I found the film fun and surprisingly upbeat. It was a relief to see scientists on screen that do not resemble James Bond villains. And hats off to K. Zachary Abbott, normally an IT manager at Caltech, for his brilliant portrayal of the aloof Professor Smith. Produced on a shoestring, the movie has an amateur feel and doesn’t match the brilliance of the science-themed TV comedy, The Big Bang Theory. But it is sure to win a devout following among its target audience of researchers – not such a small demographic as you might think. The US alone churns out 35,000 PhDs in science and engineering each year. They might empathise with the film’s other main character, “perfect grad student” Cecilia, who staples Taco Bell job application forms to the abysmal undergraduate papers she marks. In spite of the romcom overtones, the film’s one-liners tackle the deeper issues that plague a life in research – the dire prospects higher up the academic food chain and the futility of many projects. “I thought I was going to be working on a big problem. Now I feel like I’m working on a subproblem of a sub-problem of subproblem,” says our hero. After years of watching the onscreen travails of would-be medics, it’s good to see aspiring scientists get more time in the spotlight.
most passengers taking to their sickbeds, Einstein dealt with more important concerns. He found some bathroom scales, noted how his weight varied as the waves swept up and down, then calculated the wave height required to produce the effect. Sadly, such charming tales are the exception. It turns out that Einstein was, like most scientists, a normal person – a little too normal for this book to be gripping from start to finish. It remains, however, a touching insight into his travels, and is essential for Einstein devotees. 8 October 2011 | NewScientist | 57
Doctoral dramas A series of one-liners captures the postgrad’s bittersweet existence, says Alison George Award recipients?” boasts the film’s website. Despite the film’s light-hearted approach, it was with some trepidation that I settled down to watch it. I was uneasy about revisiting the more angst-ridden aspects of my own PhD years, spent hunched over a microscope, or worse, pondering the futility of my research and/or life.
“LET me tell you how this works,” says the curmudgeonly Professor Smith, giving a would-be graduate student the benefit of his wisdom. “Being a PhD student and working with a professor is a lot like a marriage. The whole thing lasts five to seven years, and 50 per cent end in a bitter divorce.” So begins The PhD Movie, dreamed up by Jorge Cham and based on the Piled Higher and Deeper comics he began drawing in 1997 while studying for a doctorate in robotics at Stanford University in California. The comics playfully expose the inner workings of academia – or as Cham puts it, “life (or lack thereof) in graduate school”. The movie was shot at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, and most of the characters are played by real-life students or researchers. “What other movie features not one, but two MacArthur ‘Genius’
Touchingly eccentric Einstein on the Road by Josef Eisinger, Prometheus, £21.95/$25 Reviewed by Jamie Condliffe
IN THE 1970s, sociologist David Bloor suggested – to reactions of perhaps equal horror and delight – that science is an inherently social activity. He believed we should recognise that, beneath the stereotypical
The characters are all the more real for being played by academics
the phd movie
The PhD Movie written by Jorge Cham, directed by Vahe Gabuchian. For screenings see phdcomics.com/movie
I needn’t have worried. Perhaps my feelings were spared because the film mainly uses one-liners from the comics to tackle the anxieties and oddities of earning a doctorate. “Is that food for us?” asks the protagonist, an unnamed graduate student. “No, it’s for the special relativity seminar, but they’re always losing track of time,” replies his mentor, Mike Slackenerny, the eternal grad student. Or maybe it’s because I got my doctorate in the UK, so the American way of doing things didn’t always resonate. Rather than reviving old
white coats, scientists really are forging friendships while playing normal people too. Mozart, his absolute disdain for Thanks in part to insightful press conferences and ignorant biographies of scientists, the journalists, and his take on his world of research has been superstardom, which once saw shown to be as full of competition, him saunter down a Hollywood gossip and revelation as any other red carpet with Charlie Chaplin. human endeavour. In the same Most touching are the spirit, Einstein on the Road anecdotes that reveal Einstein’s provides a window into the great eccentric nature. Josef Eisinger man’s life. recounts how, during a stormy More than any other scientist, crossing of the Atlantic that had Einstein had his life scrutinised, “Einstein’s superstardom but this book, based on his saw him saunter down detailed travel diaries, affords a Hollywood red carpet more personal glimpses. So we with Charlie Chaplin” learn about his fondness for
stresses, I found the film fun and surprisingly upbeat. It was a relief to see scientists on screen that do not resemble James Bond villains. And hats off to K. Zachary Abbott, normally an IT manager at Caltech, for his brilliant portrayal of the aloof Professor Smith. Produced on a shoestring, the movie has an amateur feel and doesn’t match the brilliance of the science-themed TV comedy, The Big Bang Theory. But it is sure to win a devout following among its target audience of researchers – not such a small demographic as you might think. The US alone churns out 35,000 PhDs in science and engineering each year. They might empathise with the film’s other main character, “perfect grad student” Cecilia, who staples Taco Bell job application forms to the abysmal undergraduate papers she marks. In spite of the romcom overtones, the film’s one-liners tackle the deeper issues that plague a life in research – the dire prospects higher up the academic food chain and the futility of many projects. “I thought I was going to be working on a big problem. Now I feel like I’m working on a subproblem of a sub-problem of subproblem,” says our hero. After years of watching the onscreen travails of would-be medics, it’s good to see aspiring scientists get more time in the spotlight.
most passengers taking to their sickbeds, Einstein dealt with more important concerns. He found some bathroom scales, noted how his weight varied as the waves swept up and down, then calculated the wave height required to produce the effect. Sadly, such charming tales are the exception. It turns out that Einstein was, like most scientists, a normal person – a little too normal for this book to be gripping from start to finish. It remains, however, a touching insight into his travels, and is essential for Einstein devotees. 8 October 2011 | NewScientist | 57