Every week Dr. Karen Ring organizes a “sciparty” on twitter, where a scientists or science communicator who is active on twitter takes over the @sciparty account and answers questions for an hour on twitter.

Today, I hosted the science party and received a lot of questions about my decisions to pursue and drop out of an MD-PhD program and my experiences working on the podcast Science Vs and trying to get a start in science journalism. I’m going to try to share the questions and answers here, since it can be tricky to navigate them through twitter.

Me: I started in research as an undergrad studying electrosensory processing of the Little Skate Raja Erinacea.

Interestingly the primary sensory area of their brain for electroreception is structured like mammalian cerebellum. As these fish move around and breath, they stimulate their own receptors, as if every time you breathed your vision filled with static. but just one synapse into the brain most of these self-generated signals are canceled out. Skates learn how movements affect receptors.

After undergrad, I worked as a technician in a lab that used mouse models to study genes thought to cause psychiatric diseases.

After undergrad, I worked as a technician in a lab that used mouse models to study genes thought to cause psychiatric diseases. I knew I loved science but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, so I worked as a tech while I debated going to grad school.

[I’d previously written a bit about my decision to drop out of the MD-PhD program here.]

Anyways, I think that was most of the main threads! Hopefully, this is readable and useful, maybe as an example of what a twitter #sciparty is like.