Playing with electrons

          Well, this is a question discussed, debated and pondered over very often, and for really time in my colleagues' (or friends') circle. By the way, if you spend most of the time of the day in the lab, with your lab-mates, and almost every day of the week, then, your lab-mates or colleagues become your personal friends too (not a general rule though !), provided they are not nut-heads or introverts or fierce rivals. I can not generalize it, but at least for some members in our group (and including a couple of co-PhD students from an another group with similar research area as mine), the borderline between personal friends and professional colleagues is kind of a diffused one. It is a really good thing, where you not only work towards a healthy research ambiance with an extremely helpful attitude sans rivalry and competitions but also share personal stories of happiness and sorrows very often. More on this later !            ...

  I was reading a very recent article “Graduate students: Aspirations and anxieties” published in Nature Jobs ( http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/2011/110728/pdf/nj7357-533a.pdf ) which was comical but very true at the same time. It reflects what I and many of my colleagues (or personal friends) are feeling right now as I am writing this blog. The article, which consisted of statistical results based on a survey of about 5000 PhD students scattered across a dozen countries, shows how with each passing year, in an average five year period of a typical PhD student, things like - satisfaction in one’s PhD, interest in one’s work, guidance received from one’s adviser and probability of commencing a research career after PhD – decrease gradually. The dip is the sharpest in 3 rd year although it rises a little bit in 4 th year for some parameters and eventually decreases for the final year. I am going to complete my 3 rd year of PhD in a month, which speaks about my mentality, att...