00:11
So we've been talking about different labs, how different cultures exist and such.
What was it like in Japan when you were a PhD student or when you were in undergrad
and joining the lab? How was it like? Because I have no idea what it's like.
Yeah, that was only a couple years ago when I was a PhD student.
No, that was actually... No, because you're a bright 24-year-old.
Unfortunately, that was a long time ago.
But it was really... We don't need to tell the listeners how exactly long ago it was.
I'm not going to, but...
Well... Some time ago.
Some time ago. It was quite fun when I did my PhD.
We would actually hang out a lot with my colleagues.
How big was the lab?
It was probably about six grad students in the lab and one postdoc.
There weren't many postdocs because that was my PI's kind of...
He had this...
How do you say it?
Policy?
Postdoc...
When a grad student got a PhD, they would go outside.
And also he...
But did you have postdocs coming from other labs to your lab?
No, actually, not really.
Maybe because he didn't hire... I don't think he hired postdocs.
We only had collaborators, but he didn't really hire postdocs, I don't think.
Okay, so all together, seven or eight people, something like that.
Yeah, and most of them were students.
Sometimes after getting PhD, they stayed a little bit longer to do postdocs.
Right, like in between their PhD and their next job.
Yeah, but basically, we all kind of...
After getting PhD, we would go to another lab to do postdocs.
Right, okay, okay, okay.
So it was fun because...
But we all kind of...
Oh, that's good, yeah.
Because I heard that in some labs, they had to forcefully participate in nomikai.
03:10
And that was kind of...
I don't know if it's Showa-like or Heiwa-like.
Heisei, no.
Heisei.
I don't know, I guess I don't know.
Like here in my university, like my lab, we're not super big on nomikai.
We would get lunches, sometimes dinner,
but almost never really involve alcohol.
Just because many of us don't really drink.
But they're just tamatama.
And there are other labs, they do Monday night group meeting.
And that's so that they can go to happy hours afterwards.
But it's like so weird because they would start drinking at the group meeting, right?
So they'll have beers at group meeting at like 8 p.m. on Monday.
And it's Monday.
And they go to happy hours after.
Yeah, I don't know why, but it's just always like Monday night, like 6 or 7 p.m., maybe 8 p.m.
And they start their group meeting late and then they all go to get some more beer, I guess.
So there are many different types.
But so your lab, you just kind of had organic nomikai?
Like, hey, let's hang out.
It was more like friends hanging out and, you know, driving to somewhere to get dinner,
like late night dinner.
Like, we would drive two hours.
Yeah, it was fun.
It was adventure.
And because I think that played a role to not to be stressed out from the pressure.
Were your boss there?
No, no, no, he's not there.
He's never there.
He was super busy.
Yeah, PI, he would travel a lot.
He would teach outside the university a lot.
So he wasn't there very often.
Yeah, so it was just grad students hanging out.
And yeah, it was fun.
So you mentioned that your PhD was in a little bit of a suburban area, like a little bit inaka.
06:09
Like, is that maybe why?
Because there's not much thing going on nearby that you guys would hang out with each other?
Oh, that's a good point.
Maybe because it wasn't really a large city.
You didn't get sick of each other?
Like, you know, you see each other every day and then hang out extra time outside of work?
Because it doesn't happen very often.
And we all, yeah, we kind of share all the pressures that we get from, you know,
we have to get data experiments, results and publications.
And we kind of share this thing.
So it wasn't, yeah.
And the camaraderie, yeah.
So what about with like other labs in the department?
Oh, that's a good, I think it depends.
I did have good friends outside the lab.
So we would, I used to go dancing with one of the, yeah, friends.
Yeah, so.
That's fun.
It was fun.
So that, yeah.
So it depends on the person, I think, how you, yeah.
Yeah, like, I sometimes wonder, you know, what it was like being a grad student at a
different time in history.
Like, not just Heisei, but like a long, long time ago, you know, when I, pre-internet era,
how was research, you know, would I have been more productive?
Because sometimes I'm like, I want to be able to publish by just like finding simple
things, you know, all the things, at least in my field, many of the easy experiments
have already been done.
Like, you can't just like, say, hey, I did this and report, right?
You need to do this very complicated experiment, very complicated data analysis in order to
publish something meaningful.
Whereas, you know, not too long ago, like, I don't know, 30, 40 years ago, people were
able to publish like, hey, I have a new laser material and like, just publish it, right?
Or like, hey, I found a new way to split light into different things.
Yeah.
Like, just publish that.
And like, those days are gone.
But also, I am extremely grateful that I have internet to do my research.
I have citation programs that I can keep track of.
We should talk about citation, like, what is your preferred applications and such.
But like, I'm, you know, I'm so glad that I don't have to go to the library to search
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for volume, search for papers.
That sounds incredibly convenient.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I, at the same time, like you mentioned, I kind of think about the time when people
had to write, like, draw figures by hand, you know.
You had to ask the illustrator to draw things for you.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Or, yeah, like, making dots or like, bar graphs, handwriting bar graphs.
Yeah.
Like, in chemistry, it's not uncommon for people to have to ask, like, apparatus setup.
You know, like, this is where you, like, this is how the collection of this chemical
happened.
And they have, like, sometimes the whole point of the paper would be, like, the new way to
purify things or something.
And they would have a specific person in a department who would do the scientific drawing
to do that kind of drawing, like, that kind of apparatus setup.
Whereas, like, now it's, like, us, we're expected to come up with it because we have,
you know, AutoCAD, we have PowerPoint or Adobe access to it.
It's kind of our job to come up with these things now.
Unless, I don't know, maybe in your research institution, you can hire somebody to do the
cover art for you or something.
But yeah, at least in, like, individual university lab level, you can't have that.
And, you know, there used to be people who blow glasses for glassware apparatus.
In every university, they used to have glass blower and they would teach students how to
blow glasses so that they can make their custom glassware for the experiments.
That doesn't happen anymore, probably.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So.
Pretty insane to think about.
Yeah.
Well, that's pretty funny.
It was, I don't know, I just wanted to hear, you know, your experience of being a PhD at
different time and place, because, you know, I have no idea how a Japanese university is
like, and I have no idea what it was like being a scientist, you know, x many years
ago.
All right.
That's it for the show today.
Thanks for listening.
And find us at EigoDeScience on Twitter.
That is E-I-G-O-D-E-S-C-I-E-N-C-E.
See you next time.
