Is Heath Ledger's Death a Drug Addict's Overdose?

The death of 28-yr old actor Heath Ledger is in the news, provoking a cynical “What, another celebrity drug overdose? Big deal!” response in some corners. Ledger fans, OTOH, are no doubt right there with the media reports which are going way, way out of their way to not speculate that this was indeed a drug overdose and, more to the point, whether this was the result of an addiction to drugs. Gasp. Of course it was.

Is Heath Ledger’s Death a Drug Addict’s Overdose?

The death of 28-yr old actor Heath Ledger is in the news, provoking a cynical “What, another celebrity drug overdose? Big deal!” response in some corners. Ledger fans, OTOH, are no doubt right there with the media reports which are going way, way out of their way to not speculate that this was indeed a drug overdose and, more to the point, whether this was the result of an addiction to drugs. Gasp. Of course it was.

Please, Just Kill Me Instead

The Center for Scientific Review at NIH just released a two-page PDF pamphlet called the “Insider’s Guide to Peer Review For Applicants”. This publication contains little squibs written by former and current study section chairs intended as advice for applicants about how to write a good R01 research grant application. (h/t WriteEdit.)
Much of the advice is trite, but unobjectionable. However one of the suggestions relates to something that is one of PhysioProf’s bêtes noires.

The Holiday Party Circuit

Although it is a good month out from the barrage of holiday parties, I’m really only able to talk about it now. I hate them. Once you get to a certain age and have lived in a place for awhile though, there’s no avoiding it. Between work parties for you and your spouse (sometime several each), parties for the Spawn (extra bonus: separate party for SpawnFriend Parents!), neighborhood… There are about 4x parties where x represents the vaguely reasonable number of party opportunities from Thanksgiving until Christmas. Here’s the thing though.
This is one of the best parts of my actual job because I get to talk with the Boss, who is also my client. You know, the US Taxpayer.

Au revoir

In a bitter sweet moment, I announce that we are bringing activities on drugmonkey.wordpress.com to a close.

Thanks to you DearReader. It has been a fun and very memorable ride on DrugMonkey over this past year. I started out with the intent to talk about careers in NIH-funded biomedical science generally and the subfields of drug abuse science in particular. Through this I’ve learned a great deal, both by trying to get coherent thoughts together for a blog entry and in reading the comments of readers from a broad set of backgrounds.

One for the Journal-n-Impact Factor Geeks

DM, I’m looking in your direction. Anyway, Chris Rowan of Highly Allochthonous has a bit on the new Nature Geophysics journal. For the usual bioscience audience around these parts, I think you will see some familiar themes emerge and one comment that goes a bit off the path:

Riffing On Establishing Independence

DrugMonkey’s post today is an excellent introduction to the topic of how a post-doc might choose to organize experimental/conceptual effort as a post-doc to maximize the appearance on the CV–and, hopefully, the reality–that she is an independent thinker capable of being PI of her own lab. I have a few illustrations and amplifications on his post below the fold.

On Establishing “Independence”

One bugaboo of scientific transition, and gaining respect in the field in which one works, is the concept of scientific “independence”. In a prior post I tried to grapple with the question of why we care about independence. Now I want to get into how the postdoc/senior research associate / (very) junior faculty scientists can work to demonstrate independence.

The first essential concepts are that you want to establish evidence on your CV, of the type that people understand when looking for such evidence, that you have more intellectual and functional independence from the PI than the average bear. Second, that you want to convince people who are in a position to testify about you of your independence. These are distinct issues and you will need each type of support in different circumstances, even though much of this is interrelated.

Musings on a New Year

I already did the “out with the Old” and the maudlin things. Now it is time for “in with the New”. It’s a New Year and it will soon be a new year of DrugMonkey.

So in shameless solicitation of our own little Sally Fields moment, DearReaders, would you be so kind as to supply some thoughts on the first year of DrugMonkey? [Update 1/16/08: Although WP doesn’t do sticky, I’m re-time stamping this. I got my reasons…; Update2: and “sticky” again.]

NIDA’s Strategic Plan Draft is Open for Comment

The draft of NIDA’s next “Strategic Plan” is now open for comment:

The public is invited to review this draft plan and provide comments via email to stratplan@nida.nih.gov or mail to:

National Institute on Drug Abuse
Attn: Draft Strategic Plan
6001 Executive Blvd.
Suite 5213, MSC 9561
Bethesda, MD 20892-9561

Comments must be emailed or postmarked by February 6, 2008.

Knightie Knight

Sheep cloner Ian Wilmut, Knighted. Vision neuroscientist and recent MRC head Colin Blakemore, stiffed for being “too controversial”.

I don’t understand these British things…

Huckabee on Medical Marijuana

I posted on John Edwards views on medical marijuana before, here’s Mike Huckabee fielding a similar question:

[h/t: Kendra Campbell of The Differential]

Blogrolling: Oi

I’ve found myself utterly useless at the Blogrolling thing. I have one, and it does list many frequent reads. But I also read quite a number more blogs with relevance to the blogging here. I’ll try a little catching up. Some of these will be old favorites for many readers, perhaps you’ll see at least one new one though.

It may take me a bit to get these on the actual Blogroll. But in the meantime DearReader if you have a blog in mind that I just gotta see, drop a comment.

I Love Science, Really by mrs. whatsit

A scientist’s life by Lou

Dave Moulton’s Bike Blog by, um, yeah Dave Moulton

Bitch, Ph.D. by, well, bitchphd

cannablog byMichael

Dr. Shellie by Dr. Shellie

Am I a woman scientist by  Am I a woman scientist

A Somewhat Old, But Capacious Handbag by MissPrism

and of course

Absinthe. I note she’s back with both sock monkeys and the Potter Pals. Dude.  The DM loves him some sock monkeys. And the whole DM fam has a version of the ticking clock a capella. Waitaminit, she’s really back

Many people complained when I descoped my blog. I had reasons for doing that back in August, but I also have some empathy for people who linked to my old posts. So, I’ve brought the blog back from the ashes (after a lot of work). I’ve also turned comments back on. I’ll still delete comments from jerks though. Hopefully the four month hiatus from blogging means that I’ve fallen off the radar screen of assholes who have nothing better to do with their time than search for feminist blogs to leave hate comments on.

This is so good. Go over there and welcome her back, would ya?

On Reviewer Acknowledgement from J. Neuroscience

One hears now and again from journal editors of one’s acquaintance how hard it is to get reviewers for papers. In fact a William F. Perrin detailed the problem in his field in a recent Science letter-to-Editor:

As a past editor of Marine Mammal Science and a present associate editor of the Journal of Mammalogy, I have had great difficulty in lining up reviewers. Sometimes it takes 8 or 10 tries to find someone who will agree to review a paper. The typical excuse is “I’m too busy.”

Wiener Blut

You just knew if it was such a profitable business, then the lab in Operación Puerto couldn’t be the only one didn’t you? Cyclingnews has the call: