Monday morning, 11:03 am., my email pops up and there is a “New Email” waiting for me… it was the confirmation to start a blog here in Nature.
Great news! – I was at the lab then and I just wanted to go and post something. But that didn’t happened, I had to finish some lab stuff first.
Finally, it took my a couple of days to be ready with that, and then another couple of days to find out what I wanted to post on my first post ever… but as Corie said, I’ll introduce myself and write a little bit about some of the topics I’ll post about.
For me this is the perfect chance to combine two of my favourite things ever: science & writing.
I’m a vet from Chile … so, as you can see I’m not really a “hardcore scientist” (but I’m working on it). I left Chile in 05’ to go to UCDavis to do the MPVM program. Once I finished there I won a scholarship and came to Hannover, Germany in 06’. Here I’m doing my Ph.D. and working at the Pathology Institute, University of Veterinary Medicine. This is my last year, I’ll be finished in October 09’.
My scientific interests are as promiscuous as my travel agenda, so I divided them into 2 main groups: things that I must work with that I like, and things that I like but that I don’t work directly with. Right now, I’m working a lot with genetics, immunology and pathology in an animal model for multiple sclerosis. What I like to do besides my lab work are a thousand of other things such as epidemiology, wildlife/human’s interaction, wild life photography and science writing (among others).
Here I’ll be writing about several things, but I’ll focus mainly on the scientific (and inspiring) experiences I’m living in my two scientific worlds: Germany and Chile. I would also like to include from time to time some other postings about women in science, as well as the very important final phase of a Ph.D. student… what to do after all is finished?
Hope you like it and enjoy!!
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The Leatherhosen Paradox by María José Navarrete-Talloni
From where did you said you come from? Why are you in Germany?... Adventures of a Chilean scientist in the German scientific world... and more!
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About my first blog in Nature and other stories…
- Date:
- Thursday, 05 Mar ch 2009 - 13:20 UTC
Last updated: Thursday, 05 Mar 2009 - 13:20 UTC
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Comments
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Welcome, María José! I’d be happy to hear about all and any of the subjects you have set yourself, so I hope you settle in well, and look forward to reading your contributions.
(And photos are more than welcome, too.)
Thanks!!… I’m looking forward your comments and suggestions. Thanks again and read you around! ;-)
María José – I see you are in Hannover. The only other NN blog I know from Hannover is the estimable Martin Fenner who writes excellent blog posts. I therefore hold “Hannover” as a definite mark of respect, and will look forward to reading your future posts.
Hey María José. Welcome to the Nature Network :)
Looking forward to reading more about your eclectic science-life!
Welcome! You’ve got off to a good start.
I hope you post plenty of wildlife photos. This is Nature Network, after all.
Welcome!
Welcome MJ! Love the title of your blog…
Welcome, María José! It’s wonderful to see another blogger from Hannover here on Nature Network – I work at the Medizinische Hochschule Hannover. Of course I have to protest the Leatherhosen in your blog name, as Leatherhosen are more typical of Bavaria.
I second Martin – no Lederhosen on NN!
Welcome María! And there’s the even more important part: do we say María, or María José, or MJ?
Oh, I dissent. I want Lederhosen on NN. In fact, I demand it.
Welcome aboard María José. The life jackets are over there.
Life jackets? life jackets?
Feh. When we go down, we all go together.
Life jackets? life jackets?
Feh. When we go down, we all go together.
Life jackets? life jackets?
Feh. When we go down, we all go together.
In triplicate, apparently.
Ooh. That was weird.
Well, when you go down for the third time, you stay down, life jacket or no. So be more careful in future.
Fn—
sorry.
This is funny, because I had the impression that Richard was usually the pedantic one.
What are you saying Wilson – are you taking notes or something?
Wow!!… thanks for the welcome to all of you!…
Thanks for the comments and suggestions! (even the ones in in in triplicate triplicate triplicate, hahaha!!)… I feel at home!.
About the Leatherhosen thing on the title… I thought about it because people from Hannover doesn’t wear leatherhosen (actually lederhosen is the proper word for it) at all, but this is the very typical stereotype of Germans around the world, so I’ll try to demythify it through my future posts. Let’s see what happens next!
Ah!!… María José is fine (my usual name), María is also OK (here in Germany it’s easier to be called just María), MJ (for the english speaking people), Coté (my Chilean nickname)… so, I got lots of nicknames depending on the country and friends, feel free to choose any of them, I’ll get it anyway!!
Read you soon!!
And about:
Life jackets? life jackets?
Feh. When we go down, we all go together.
I’ll tell you guys… I love to swim and dive…
;-)
MJ is also a science-fiction writer. Just thought y’all should know that. I agree with Richard that lederhosen should be obligatory on NN. Alphorns, too.
Welcome, Maria Jose. Based on your first post, I’m really going to enjoy following your blog.
I remember years and years and years ago, when I was young (in triplicate, naturally – triplicate is the new black round here), I had a good friend – interestingly, a vet student (!), Regine, whom I visited in Munich, and she visited me in Cambridge/London – where I lived at that time. Whenever I went to Munich, she always poked fun at the “Franz Josef Schmidt” people (this dates us, clearly). I never quite knew how she identified this particular subspecies, until one day she revealed that it was anyone who wore….well, you guessed it.
I thought about it because people from Hannover doesn’t wear leatherhosen (actually lederhosen is the proper word for it) at all, but this is the very typical stereotype of Germans around the world, so I’ll try to demythify it through my future posts.
I would be extremely thankful if you could work on that. Nobody listens to me because I’m German. Please also tell them that the Oktoberfest is also typical for Bavaria (although I have to confess that the Maschseefest in Hannover is really nice and also involves beer and other alcoholic beverages).
But it is true that we all love David Hasselhoff.
I think it was Strauss, not Schmidt, by the way. He was “in charge of” Bavaria at the time – prime minister or equivalent.
What area of science does David Hasselhoff specialist in, Martin? ;-)
Ah, Maxine —what area does DH specialize in: the triple “B” of course! Beach, babes and booze…! Whether it can be approached scientifically is a completely different matter….. :)
Great work MJ!
Hmm, 3 Bs – obviously biology, biophysics and biochemistry ;-)
Oops, meant to add – in triplicate, then, like all the best people! (Ok, Ok, including rpg.)
Franz Josef Strauss was the most important Bavarian politician from the 1950s to 1980s – and a very colorful and outspoken figure. The Munich airport is named after him.
Young Germany is an English-language website aimed students and other “young” people moving to Germany.
Franz Schmidt (without the Josef) was a fine Austrian, late romantic, composer. I wondered what he had to do with the price of lederhosen.