10 worst jobs in science...

[cobalt1999]

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/0203101256a23110vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html

Number 10: Whale-Feces Researcher
They scoop up whale dung, then dig through it for clues

Number 9: Forensic Entomologist
Solving murders by studying maggots

Number 8: Olympic Drug Tester

When your job is drug testing the world’s top athletes, there’s no way to win

Number 7: Gravity Research Subject
They’re strapped down so astronauts can blast off

Number 6: Microsoft Security Grunt
Like wearing a big sign that reads “Hack Me”

Number 5: Coursework Carcass Preparer
They kill, pickle, and bottle the critters that schoolkids cut up

Number 4: Garbologist
Think Indiana Jones— in a Dumpster

Number 3: Elephant Vasectomist
When your patient is Earth’s largest land animal, sterilization is a big job

Number 2: Oceanographer
Nothing but bad news, day in and day out

Number 1: Hazmat Diver
They swim in sewage. Enough said.



I'd still like to be an Oceanographer though.

[SacredCow]

1. Took a class under a highly-respected forensic entomologist...

Talk about some stories!

[cobalt1999]

4. My wife teaches forensic science at the local university.

You don't want to look too closely at the textbook pictures before eating! Needless to say, she disagrees with that job's ranking.

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

7. Dr. Gil Grissom, perchance???

just kidding... I find the whole forensic science thing very fascinating.

[SacredCow]

8. LOL....

So do I, actually. I'm in the science field and I had considered re-routing my career path to work in forensics. It's still a possibility, I suppose. I've got 10 years of electron microscopy under my belt and something of a firearms afficionado so I think I could be a decent GSR analyst.

[DS1]

2. guy who runs blood centrifuges

there's a 24% chance you'll stick your hand in and get infected with zombie blood.


happens all the time

[Deja Q]

3. Microsoft? Maybe if I gave them the list of "whoopsies" I've found, they'd hire me for QC...

On the other hand, they probably won't. They prefer having users be guinea pigs and as such save the costs of an actual QC department. Not when 75% of what I've seen should be deemed "too obvious" and yet it isn't. They ought to be embarrassed.

[TZ]

5. Related to number 5 is rodent necropsy specialist....

I know some people who did that on a daily basis....thats pretty icky too (especially since a lot of the critters are alive when they enter the lab):puke:

[cobalt1999]

6. dying rodents, fleas,...

isn't that how the Black Death started? Similarly, in college I had a part time job preserving and cataloging fish specimens for the Ichthyology Department (amazingly no one would sit next to me in the class following that job).

[TZ]

10. Lab animals being sent mostly...

so usually they didn't have fleas...but potentially other nasties though. Anybody who didn't wear all the ppg (personal protective gear) was INSANE.

[Lisa]

14. I once had to clean a maggot-infested wound on a week-old baby fawn

The grossest part was hearing the rustling noise made by such a large number of maggots. I drenched the area in disinfectant and pulled them out of there with tweezers ... meanwhile, the fawn was bawling and licking my face for reassurance.

[darkstar]

15. You are superb!

I picked these myself.


Seriously, in some odd way, you just made my day!!!!

:yourock:

[Deep13]

9. assistant virus sniffer

[Wapsie B]

11. This looks like a job for Mike Rowe!

Dirty Jobs!!

[TZ]

12. Oh yeah...

How do they not have "Bat Biologist" on that list? I love "Dirty Jobs"....:)

[Lisa]

13. related to #4 -- my former boss was an archaeologist who studied Roman sewage systems

Being the smallest person on the team, her colleagues would make her crawl through the channels (e.g. at Carthage). She reported that crap still stinks, even after a millennium and a half!

By the way, I actually know some people who do the #10 job ... they're right down the hall from me, and have shown me "their" dung. It's actually not too bad ... what really stinks are the dead whales washed up on beaches, when they go out to do necropsies (and come back with a cooler full of putrefying samples).

[XemaSab]

16. Seriously

Marine mammal necropsies are the WORST.

The ABSOLUTE WORST.

Not only do the animals stink in and of themselves, but usually they've been floating around for a while before they are scooped off the beach, and they're so big there's NO escaping the smell.

There's also really no choice involved, like if you're the person who does the necropsies, you can't say "no thanks, too stinky." Sort of like a human autopsy in that regard.

I know a guy who did a necropsy on a whale, and not only did it involve a chainsaw, but he actually had to climb inside the thing to search around. :puke:

[krispos42]

18. Infamous Exploding Whale cleaner-upper

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Vmnq5dBF7Y

Ugh. I'd quit, myself.

[Nikia]

17. Anything that involves hazardous materials

Especially if proper training and equipment is not provided. Working in science is not always safe. There are often many oppurtunties to do stupid things that could get one killed or at least injured.
Why couldn't I have done something that was always safe, like being an accountant?

[Xipe Totec]

19. #10 - Scatology

Had a friend who did his master's feces,... er. Thesis, on the food habits of the South Texas coyote.

The trunk of his car usually contained several pounds or more of fresh coyote crap.

And it was not hermetically sealed, so if you had to travel in his car, it was with the windows down at all times.

:puke: