Jolie

One year ago today, I opened my laptop to write the first piece of what would become The Distressed Scientists' Department. I'd spent months watching shifts and changes in the scientific research community — funding being taken away, decades of work upended, careers displaced, brilliant people suddenly unsure. For years, I found joy speaking to scientists: mentors, peers, friends, and found them to be the most interesting people alive. They hold theories that can rewire how the rest of us see the world — but almost none of them had a platform, or an audience in public that thought to listen. Research is one of the most formative and important endeavours a person can give their life to. It is the pursuit of knowledge and advancement of human flourishing. Everything around you is a byproduct of scientific research: your desk, your bed, the phone in your hand. There is a richness, culture, and history behind the people and places that make this possible. I often refer to the Renaissance and the World's Fairs as eras when the public held science as a cultural artifact, admired it, respected it, wanted to invest and take part in it. TDSD will be part of the vehicle bringing this back in the 21st century. Beyond grateful to Jim and the OSV team. A year in, and many more to come.

Announcing The Distressed Scientists Department - a living notebook to make research a playground again. And because knowledge is more than the PDF. I turned down a “safe” PhD this year when I internalized that grants truly do take longer than experiments and that 5 years in grad school can lock you into 50 years of the same niche. I wasn't excited to do science anymore. I was ready to abandon the field completely, but watching it spiral from a distance felt worse. So I made myself a deal. One year, a lab on digital paper, dedicated to sharing the art & architecture, ache & absurdity of doing science in 2025. The Dept. has three hallways to start: → The Logbook: journalling notes, thoughts, and research; → The Paper Trail: dissecting the canon formative to scientific progress; → The Dossier: cases of organizations, ideas, and scientists - often overlooked and underrated. Some pages are already in the shelves - feel free to roam the corridors, scribble in the margins. Links below. Welcome to the Department.