A lot!
I am a PhD student in a university.. I study computer science (CS), but I have always worked on Bioinformatics (The definition of bioinformatics changed over the years, but roughly we can describe it as a cross disciplinary science that deals with data from life-sciences by using computational methods.) related projects since my sophomore year in college. Until recently I thought that I had it aaall figured out! I thought I had the coolest ideas! After all, my ideas were used (borrowed, *nudge nudge wink wink* you know what I mean dear fellow PhD student) in grant proposals!! Not to mention the faith of a CS student working with other scientists: I created my own share of little apps.. So here I was creating apps, working on the projects and tasks given to me, sharing all my ideas with my advisor and co-advisor...
One day, my advisor tells me he doesn't see enough PhD worthy progress because I have no published papers! After all the work I did, all the ideas borrowed, all the products and grants in hand, there I was with nothing! Because: I had no papers published! Then it hits me, I really don't have any evidence to prove that I came up with ideas and solved problems other than the emails, and the internal two pagers, the products, and the paper drafts!!!
There I was: working my butt off, and getting nothing in return, and at the edge of loosing everything that I worked for up until now!
Then I did a little bit of soul searching, a little bit of thinking, and realized that a scientist can also be thought as a scientific writer.. As Matt Might said it just right on his blog (http://matt.might.net/articles/successful-phd-students/). I wish I came across with this article way earlier.. But I guess it is never too late, or at least I hope it is not too late..
So now, I will babble here, as a newbie, a scientist-wannabe, a student..
Wish me luck!
