quarkademia

[quarkademia]

um guys, I think we need to stop waiting for ‘the right time’ and just start doing the things we want whenever because the right time’s never gonna come, and if we keep waiting it’s just gonna turn into an endless cycle

[quarkademia]

[quarkademia]

Can we talk about how the idea that STEM and the humanities are mortal enemies with no overlap is actually incredibly harmful and is not only preventing people from pursuing their passions but also part of the reason why the humanities aren’t given their proper respect? No, artists are not all snobby pretentious assholes who think they’re more cultured than everyone else and no scientists are not all emotionless robots who think they’re smarter than everyone else and it’s possible to be an artist and a scientist at the same time. By acting like you have to choose between STEM and humanities we are eliminating thousands of potential careers and causing unnecessary divisions in a time where nothing is more crucial than unity. I’m so tired of people acting like STEM majors are incapable of understanding art and humanities majors are incapable of understanding math when the two fields are crucial to one another. Who would design our architecture if it weren’t for artful engineers? Who would discover the rules of composition? At the end of the day we are all just people trying to learn and make a living, and all of these careers are important to humanity. People can’t say that STEM is more important than humanities if there’s no such thing as STEM vs humanities.

[quarkademia]

reblog to give a strawberry to the person you reblogged this from

[quarkademia]

June 22nd 2025

My to-do list gets bigger by the second but at least there’s iced coffee

[quarkademia]

Me: please let me sleep

The part of my brain that stores words I’ve heard but don’t know the exact meaning of: Daguerreotype

[quarkademia]

21 JUNE 2025. powering through med school application writing and basking in long sunny days

🎧: 'teardrops' - womack & womack 📚: our evenings - alan hollinghurst

[quarkademia]

22 June 2025

Hay fever is killing me this year and the OTC stuff is doing a 3/5 star job. Guess I'll have to start seeing an allergologist again (for the first time since I was like... 11? lol). I don't let it stop me from powering through chem tech though!! The final is tomorrow and I'm feeling pretty confident about it - I've studied quite a lot and I think I'll manage to fill in all the gaps in my knowledge today :)

[quarkademia]

saturday 21/07/2025

i have two physics exams, and a german presentation on the evolution of a star on monday i’m losing itt - grateful to be in berlin though, its nice and warm and i’m feeling summery

♫ despues de ti - friné ♫

[quarkademia]

preparing for the botany exam was fun 🌿

[quarkademia]

do you have any advice for reading journal papers? sometimes the material is so dense I find them difficult to read!

some of these coincide with general study tips but here's a list from my experience:

Printing out papers—I tried using a computer and it just doesn't work for me

Reading in the order of abstract—introduction—conclusion—results/discussion—methods. Reading the conclusion towards the beginning helps me connect things more easily

Having a "scrap" notebook to just jot down thoughts—It can be important stuff or just figuring out basic concepts or doodling. Allowing my brain to wander helps me process what I'm reading. Nothing needs to be neat or organized since I write up notes after anyways

Having a "scrap" notes doc for citations or links with brief descriptions of what it is. You can also use this to copy/paste important quotes and put a link/pg #. I get overwhelmed having too many tabs open—if you are not reading for a specific research project this is not usually necessary and can be too much if you are just starting to read journal papers

I recommend looking up things you are unsure of, even if they seem elementary—however if it's taking too long, just put a question mark and come back to it... Its a process to know your limits

Having a pomodoro-like timer—mine is set to 32m, with 8-16m breaks. Reading continuously makes it harder (at least for me). Sometimes I'll put it down and restart the next day if it feels like a bunch of jumble

Changing environment, being in public study spaces (e.g. library) helps me focus and other people studying puts pressure on me to not constantly check my phone

Check if your school has a journal club in your subject area. It can seem like a lot at first but it exposes you to the language and eventually you'll be able to connect the dots. Also don't be afraid to ask questions, journal clubs are specifically made for discussion of papers!

You can also ask questions to professors in that field, whether in class or by email (although a lot of professors tend to not be great at answering emails)

Trying to do too many things at once will overwhelm me so its mostly me finding ways to organize my brain. It's going to be different for everyone but hopefully some of these helps!

My current reading is centered around the same topic so I started with an overview paper (like a "review" paper) then I started reading more specific papers. Reading about the same topic goes faster since you are familiar with the language / concepts.

I will say some physicist (or some STEM people) are not... the greatest writers so it does make it a little bit more difficult to read. It's okay if it takes you a few days to read a paper, as with most things you'll get better/faster with practice.

[quarkademia]

how to stay motivated long-term

trust, me i know that long-term motivation and consistency is hard. long-term motivation might be difficult to maintain, but there are effective techniques to help you stay focused and determined. whether you're seeking personal ambitions, academic achievements, or professional success, here are some strategies to help encourage motivation:

understand the reason behind your goal ☆ does your goal contribute to personal growth or meaningful relationships? ☆ how does your goal impact others? ☆ is your goal meaningful to you? if your goal lacks meaning, it may be hard to maintain motivation.

positive and negative motivation motivation can come from different places ☆ positive motivation: the desire to experience pleasure ☆ negative motivation: the desire to avoid something (an outcome) both types of motivation have their place, so learn to recognise what type fits in where. (post on this coming soon)

set up systems use your initial motivation to set up structures: ☆ create routines, systems and habits that help you towards your goal even when your motivation fluctuates ☆ when your emotions wane, rely on these systems and disciplines to maintain momentum

break down goals ☆ tackle one goal at a time to avoid feeling overwhelmed ☆ set achievable milestones and celebrate each step forward ☆ keep the momentum going by focusing on manageable tasks

validate good work ☆ give yourself a little reward, or thank yourself, for completing hard tasks ☆ this reinforces motivation and encourages effort

remember--motivation isn't in a constant state, it ebbs and flows. these small tips will help to stay motivated. i'm going to provide more information in upcoming posts, and i will link them here once they are published.

luck on your journey ❤️

[quarkademia]

25/06/20

I am much more productive in the library, but data cleaning really requires more than one screen.

[quarkademia]

Pour one out for #studyinspo.

[quarkademia]

friday | june 20 14/100 dop (two weeks in!!) steps: 10.0k

officially done with the first week of my summer research job! i'm giving a presentation on my project next week, so i spent most of my workday prepping some slides. i also got in 50 minutes of strength training in the morning and made dinner with my housemates after work.

goals for the weekend include fulfilling some house-cleaning responsibilities, a bit of meal prep for the week, and spending a good chunk of time on grad school research, which i've more or less abandoned for the past week.

[quarkademia]

the least helpful study buddy

[quarkademia]

I think a key moment that early career researchers need to learn is to shake off the fear of looking stupid when you're giving a presentation and actually explain the background

I am guilty of this myself so don't take this as me scoffing from a high horse because I'm very much not but I see a lot of our undergraduates, masters students, and even the new phd students who assume the audience knows the context

and I'm not even talking about the science context, I'm talking explain what you're doing!!

if you're talking about how you've coded scripts to do the complex mapping then explain all the parts and how to use it

or if you've done selection cuts on a dataset explain how you came to those cuts, whether it theory driven or empirical

explain your terminology on your slides, even if it's a note at the side because I bet even if this is just a talk to your own research group there's gonna be at least one person who's missed the definition and doesn't wanna speak up!

peace and love and do good science