RATS!!!!

RATS are workshops for scientist and students interested in learning more about research and research related topics.  Research Administration Training Series are workshops and classes offered at the University of Utah.  Several (about 4-5) certificates are offered when groupings of these classes are attended.  I have been wanting to attend these classes and I finally found time last week.  I went to a workshop called Science in Society.  I thought is was very informative over all and I liked hearing what the scientists in the class had to say about some of the issues.  David J. Grunwald, Ph.D., who directed the workshop is a man who does research with zebra fish.  I thought he was interesting.  My biggest complaint is that I thought he could have hit on more controversial issues.  For example when we talked about what scientific topics have been rejected by society and why the topic of evolution was completely forgotten.  Its much easier to talk about global climate change as a controversial issues because the controversy has mostly passed but bring up evolution amongst any group of people and the room in sure to have at least one moral/religious dissenter. He did talk about cloning which is a very divisive science.

The next workshop that I will be attending is Biosafety Level 2.  I will write about that workshop soon.