ASTRONUTS?? While many people may dream of becoming an astronaut, Popular Science magazine has recently named the coveted profession one of the worst jobs in science.

Popular Science magazine names the worst jobs in science

Popular Science magazine may become Unpopular Science after naming astronaut, an esteemed and coveted professions among scientists and engineers, as one of the worst jobs in science.

The November 3 article justifies its claim by pointing out that astronauts must not only face the risk of death, but also endure physical and psychological torture during training. (Not to mention the ingestion of strange digestive products.)

“Astronauts are subjected to the most arduous of tasks: sitting in high-G centrifuges so that doctors can study motion sickness, deliberately enduring hypothermia for hours on end, wearing rectal probes and central IV lines in all forms of stress training like so many guinea pigs,” says the article.

The magazine also names isolation-chamber tester, postdoc, U.S. stem-cell researcher, and fusion researcher in its list.

Intuitively it’s easy to see why isolation-chamber tester made the list, but what about the rest?

U.S. stem-cell researcher was tagged due to a federal ban limiting the supply of embryonic stem cells for research.

“It’s like handing an oceanographer a cup of salt water and saying, ‘Study only this,’” the article quips.

Fusion researchers are in a similar conundrum. Fusion as a power source relies on getting a reaction from combining atomic nuclei until it produces more energy than is put into it. After decades of work this goal is still about 20 years away (and always will be, joke insiders).

Finally, postdoc was chosen because the article paints it as a nerve- wracking limbo stage before securing a professorship, which is scarce and extremely competitive to land. To read more go to www.popsci.com/popsci/science/article/0,12543,484153,00.html

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