Five reasons why a career in STEM can change your family's trajectory

STEM careers span many parts of life: These scientists
at KU Leuven in Belgium help brewers make better beer.
Image copyright: Andy Extance 

by Gaia Cantelli, PhD

Have you ever thought about a career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)? You may know that jobs in manufacturing and farming are not predicted to do too well in the coming years. Such change is scary, but it could also be a great opportunity for yourself and for your family. More and more jobs require additional qualifications after high school, so you might be considering going to college, or getting a diploma in something that can help you. This is where thinking about STEM comes into play. Becoming a scientist or a doctor, however, may seem out of your league or too expensive. There are other options that seem more focused on landing you a good job – a job that can help you live a better life than your parents did. A business degree, for example, would scream “employable” from the top line of your resume, right?

Wrong. While in the US business and finance are predicted to open up around 900,000 more jobs by 2022, healthcare jobs are going to create over a million new jobs for nurses and physicians assistants alone. Meanwhile, the same studies showed that there are 1.7 open computing jobs for every unemployed computer science professional, which means that we need more computer scientists! Not only are there going to be many more science and technology jobs in the future, but these jobs are going to be secure and relatively high-paying. They may be your ticket to changing your family’s trajectory altogether.

Working in science is not what TV would have you believe – a bunch of egg-heads nerding out on a university campus. Most STEM professions are normal jobs for normal people. No matter how much time and money you are able to invest in your education, investing in STEM training is a great way to land yourself a bright future. 50% of US STEM jobs are available to those without a four-year degree and can therefore be very efficient and very wise investments, even if your means are limited. In the US, graduates of STEM programs earn on average 10% more than those with similar qualifications in other fields. They also enjoy the security of knowing that their skills are going to be in demand.

Here are a few ideas on how you can start working towards your STEM career right now, no matter where you are in life:

Is lab-grown meat really meat? Should DNA donors get to see their genome? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of July 9-15 2018 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

This week's best science posts include stories about weird particles occasionally passing straight through us - some we know are real, called neutrinos, and others we're less certain of, called dark matter. They also include the latest studies on new ways to produce food, and what we should eat and take for health. But there are many other topics touched on in ScienceSeeker editors' favourite posts within their respective areas of interest and expertise for the past seven days. Here is the full round-up of the ScienceSeeker Editors’ Selections:

Photodetectors under the South Pole  light up when neutrinos
travel through the ice. Credit: NSF/IceCube

• Supermassive black hole shot a neutrino straight at Earth by John Timmer at Ars Technica
• This Is How Much Dark Matter Passes Through Your Body Every Second by Ethan Siegel at Starts With a Bang 
• Kilauea Produces a Stunning Lava Whirl! by Dana Hunter at Rosetta Stones 
• The Floor Is (Usually) Not Lava by Arianna Soldati at Scientific American Observations
• To Understand the Growing Wildfire Threat, Look to the Tree Rings by Larry O'Hanlon at NRDC
• Rising ocean waters from global warming could cost trillions of dollars by John Abraham at Skeptical Science
• Australia’s Recycling Crisis by Jesse Crowe at Into The Void Science
• As Reefs Disappear, Some Fish Find Themselves Defenseless by Richard Kemeny at Hakai Magazine ‏
• Salamanders have ‘tricks up their sleeves’ for weathering climate change by Morgan Erickson-Davis at Mongabay
• New research proposes solutions for reducing environmental costs of feeding Earth’s 7.6-billion human population by Mike Gaworecki at Mongabay
• The Cattle Industry Is Having a Cow Over Whether Lab-Grown Meat Should Be Called Meat by Rose Eveleth at Slate
• If you give your DNA and tissues to science, should you get a peek at what they might contain? by Jennifer Couzin-Frankel at Science
• Healthy Diet May Lower Risk of Age-Related Macular Degeneration by Enrico de Lazaro for Sci-News.com
• An unusual method by Thomas Morris 
• Podcast of the week: The Chemistry Behind Nerve Agents with Ira Flatow and Rick Sachleben at Science Friday
• Polymer synthesis gets a jolt of caffeine Using the stimulant as a catalyst, researchers create new gels for drug delivery. Polymer synthesis gets a jolt of caffeine by Anne Trafton at MIT News
• Exposure to "Fentanyl" in the Field by Kevin Shanks at The Dose Makes The Poison 
• CRISPR-Enhanced Cancer Cells Induce Tumor Cell Killing by Dan Modano at Reliawire
• Mindfulness training increases strength of right insula connections. by Deric Bownds at Deric's Mindblog
• Unique brain 'fingerprints' may narrow search for autism subtypes by Damien Fair and Oscar Miranda Dominguez at Spectrum News 
• 1920s infoviz, and “Flapperism” as the culmination of Western Civilization by Seth Frey at Enfascination

Check back next week for more great picks!

What's the science of perfect pizza? How did life emerge on Earth? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of July 2-8 2018 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

Two of this week's best science picks are a little influenced by drugs, with the US authorities approving the country's first drug derived from marijuana, while we also get the lowdown on addiction. But there are many other topics touched on in ScienceSeeker editors' favourite posts within their respective areas of interest and expertise for the past seven days. Here is the full round-up of the ScienceSeeker Editors’ Selections:

• The physics of perfect pizza by Phil Dooley at Cosmos Magazine
• Big Bangs and Squibs: A Physicist Turns Pyrotechnician for the Day by Rebecca Thompson at Physics Buzz
• In a first, astronomers witness the birth of a planet from gas and dust by Dan Clery at Science
• What was it Like When the Universe was Inflating? by Ethan Siegel at Starts With a Bang 
• FDA Approves First Drug Derived from Marijuana by Nora D. Volkow at Scientific American
• Scientists finally have an explanation for the 'Gaia puzzle' by James Dyke and Tim Lenton at The Conversation
• Barriers Are Meant To Be Broken by Taylor Richardson at Stories in Science
• Implicit gender, racial biases may hinder effectiveness of conservation science, experts warn by Basten Gokkon at Mongabay
• There are a few things environmentalists actually do agree on by Nathanael Johnson at Mother Jones 
• How Eating Seaweed Can Help Cows to Belch Less Methane by Judith Lewis Mernit at Yale Environment 360
• Podcast of the week part 1: Water Conservation Through Better Communication by Meghann Percy and Jennifer Adler at Kiss That World
• Podcast of the week part 2: Dirt and Development, The Second Genome by James Gallagher at Discovery
• What Is Science for? A Portfolio by D. Graham Burnett and Mark Dion at The Point Magazine
• Addiction As a Brain Disorder of Emotion Regulation at Inside the Alcoholic Brain

Check back next week for more great picks!

What's the latest on alien life? What happens when a rattlesnake bites you on a vein? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of June 25-July 1 2018 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

This week's best science news includes many amazing measurements, including whether planets in other solar systems have moons, the magnetism of a supernova, and the carbon contained in a city's trees. But there are many other topics touched on in ScienceSeeker editors' favourite posts within their respective areas of interest and expertise for the past seven days. Here is the full round-up of the ScienceSeeker Editors’ Selections:

In this image from the Cassini, backlighting
from the sun spectacularly illuminates Enceladus'
jets of water ice, which contain organic molecules that
may be important for life. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI

• Joe and the Whale by Chelsea Murray at The Deep
• City forests store rainforest-levels of carbon, study finds by Morgan Erickson-Davis at Mongabay
• Did a massive eruption spur Christianity in Iceland? by Mary Caperton Morton at Earth Magazine
• Alien Life Could Look Up To A Moonless Night Sky by Brian Koberlein at Forbes
• Researchers Observe Magnetic Field Generated by Supernova Remnant 1987A at Sci-News.com
• Complex Organics Are Out There by Derek Lowe at In the Pipeline
• Brains Improved by Graphene Are on the Horizon by Dexter Johnson at IEEE Spectrum
• The Search for Cancer Treatment Beyond Mutant-Hunting by Siddhartha Mukherjee at New York Times
• A Rattle With Death by Kyle Dickman at Outside Magazine
• He's a superstar of the science world but no-one knows his name by Michael Slezak at ABC News
• World Microbiome Day: Journals Collection by Laura Cox at Microbe Post
• Dr Bob Sears medical license on probation resulting from his anti-vaccine views by Skeptical Raptor
• Dear Stewardship People: Can't We All Just Get Along? by Jasmine Marcelin at Controversies in Hospital Infection Prevention 
• HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis: What Is It, and Why Aren’t Women Using It? by Caroline Vrana at Sciworthy
• Estimated Global Disease Burden From US Health Care Sector Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Matthew J. Eckelman and Jodi D. Sherman at American Journal of Public Health
• 5 Facts About Catalysts You Might Not Know by Kevin Reed at Chembites
• The power of big data - insight by Ed Pinches at Insight
• The Supreme Court has decided on gerrymandering, what does it mean for the math and stats community? by Karen Saxe at Capital Currents
• Male scientists are far more likely to be referred to by their last names, impacting status and awards by Katie Langin at Science
• Podcast of the week: Pride: Stories about coming out in science by Charlie Cook and Shayle Matsuda at The Story Collider
• These are not “immigration” policies by Rose Hendricks

Check back next week for more great picks!

Why can booze or food tempt us? How can AI help betting and medicine? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of June 18-24 2018 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

I'm fascinated by the question of why, when we know we shouldn't consume something, we so often do. Are there different parts of our selves that disagree? Or are there chemical processes overwhelming us? This is just one of many topics touched on by ScienceSeeker editors' favourite posts within their respective areas of interest and expertise for the past seven days. Here is the full round-up of the ScienceSeeker Editors’ Selections:

• 

  My brain made me eat it - but if my brain is a part of me,
  is that a good excuse? Credit: Valerie Bennett
  used via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0 licence

  Your brain absolutely cannot resist doughnuts – here’s why by Alison George at New Scientist
• Scientists Pinpoint Brain Region That May Be Center of Alcohol Addiction by Bret Stetka at Scientific American
• Spectacular Strawberry Science! by Kat Day at The Chronicle Flask
• NASA’s Kepler K2 Mission Discovers 78 New Exoplanet Candidates at Sci-News.com
• The Surprising Reason Why Neutron Stars Don’t All Collapse To Form Black Holes by Ethan Siegel at Starts With a Bang
• A Geological Review Of 'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom' by David Bressan at Forbes
• To beat Vegas bookies at the World Cup, these statisticians turned to artificial intelligence by Amanda Grennell at PBS News Hour
• Could Artificial Intelligence Take the Art out of Medicine? by Pamela E. Hepp at Scientific American
• New therapy helps your own immune system kill cancer cells by Emma Pettengale at The Biochemist
• When Do Children Become Right- or Left-Handed? by Richard Berks at The Geekfather
• Global Insect Extinction – a never ending story by Simon Leather at Don't Forget the Roundabouts
• Bees get stressed at work too (and it might be causing colony collapse) by Amélie Cabirol and Andrew Barron at The Conversation
• Think Your Body Is Infested With Insects? You're Not Alone. by Erika Engelhaupt at Gory Details
• Putting a Weapon in Reverse by Karen Bonuck at The Doctor's Tablet
• Trump’s new oceans policy washes away Obama’s emphasis on conservation and climate by David Malakoff at Science
• Animals are becoming night owls to avoid humans by Shreya Dasgupta at Mongabay
• How to recognize and stop your need for magic: the cautionary tale of vaccines and autism by Gaia Cantelli at Science Blog
• As I predicted, the exploitation of desperate patients using right-to-try begins by Orac at Respectful Insolence
• Why Does Exploding Dots Work? by James Propp at monthly writings in and around mathematics 
• Science Rendezvous by Cat Lau at Art the Science
• Is globalization causing inequality? by José Luis Ferreira at Mapping Ignorance

Check back next week for more great picks!

What is the surprising way football can help with health? How can we reach our climate goals? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of June 11-17 2018 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

Did you know that if the World Cup trophy was solid gold it would be too heavy to lift? Maybe you don't like football - if so we've got some interesting articles for you about how the universe works. These subjects and many other topics are among ScienceSeeker editors' favourite posts within their respective areas of interest and expertise for the past seven days. Here is the full round-up of the ScienceSeeker Editors’ Selections:

Image credit: Compound Interest

• The chemistry of the World Cup by Andy Brunning at Compound Interest
• World Cup Ban on Radioactive Chemicals Frustrates Russian Biochemistry Labs by Quirin Schiermeier at Nature
• Football is a winning treatment for elderly people with prediabeties by Magni Mohr at ScienceNordic
• Does Depression Accelerate Aging? by Viatcheslav Wlassoff at Brain Blogger
• Raw is risky: Meghan Markle had to give up eating favourite food after marrying Harry by Doug Powell at Barfblog
• After a decade, new Gardasil ad campaign gets it (mostly) right by Ashley Andreou at STAT
• ASCO endorses the integration of quackery into breast cancer care by David Gorski at Science-Based Medicine
• Gene therapy makes inroads to help patients - and clear its name by Jovana Drinjakovic at Signals
• This Is Why Physicists Think String Theory Might Be Our ‘Theory Of Everything’ by Ethan Siegel at Starts with a Bang
• The Standard Model (of Physics) at 50 by Yvette Cendes at Scientific American
• In her short life, mathematician Emmy Noether changed the face of physics by Emily McConover at Science News 
• Artificial intelligence can predict how you’ll look decades from now by Matthew Hutson at Science
• Species recognition shifts into auto with neural networks by Sue Palminteri at Mongabay
• Crop pollination depends on wild AND managed pollinators by Manu Saunders at Ecology is not a dirty word
• Climate change could be killing Africa’s giant baobabs by John Cannon at Mongabay
• Cities Look to "Virtual Power" to Reach Climate Goals by Benjamin Storrow at Scientific American
• Alien Anthropocene: How Would Other Worlds Battle Climate Change? by Lee Billings at Scientific American
• Could cyanobacteria terraform Mars? by Andrew Masterson at Cosmos Magazine
• Review needs a revision by Thomas Wagenknecht at Elephant in the Lab
• Sparking Interest in STEM Careers in Middle School by Amy Cowen at Science Buddies

Check back next week for more great picks!

Can we resurrect dinosaurs? How can we use ocean plastic waste? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of June 4-10 2018 #sciseekpicks #scicomm

As Jurassic World explores the return of dinosaurs that had no problems in killing their prey, could humans in modern society face killing for food too? These subjects and many other topics are among ScienceSeeker editors' favourite posts within their respective areas of interest and expertise for the past seven days. Here is the full round-up of the ScienceSeeker Editors’ Selections:

Resurrecting dinosaurs might not be so easy.

Credit: pixabay/azdude, CC BY-SA

• Jurassic World: Can We Really Resurrect a Dinosaur? by Darren Griffin and Rebecca O'Connor at The Conversation
• “Life finds a way”: What Jurassic World teaches us about modern wildlife by Roisin Conn at Seeking Science
• Tardigrade mysteries by Jon Farrow at The Thoughtful Pharoah
• ‘I’m only going to eat animals I kill myself’: Q&A with Louise Gray, author of ‘The Ethical Carnivore’ by Joshua Parfitt at Mongabay
• Did Han Solo Use A Trick Of Einstein’s Relativity To Make The Kessel Run? by Ethan Siegel at Starts With A Bang
• Evidence Builds for a New Kind of Neutrino by Clara Moskowitz at Scientific American
• Gravitational Waves Were Used To Look Inside Neutron Stars by Alfredo Carpineti at The Astroholic
• Finally, scientists have found intriguing organic molecules on Mars by Eric Berger at Ars Technica
• Nanodiamonds are forever by Sue Vorenberg at Argonne National Laboratory 
• Political Emotions. The Role of Affect in Social Movements by Katja May at Imperfect Cognitions
• "The Love of Neuroscience" and the Neuroscience of Love by Neuroskeptic at Discover
• California legislation will require polyester clothing to have a microfiber pollution label at Microfiber Pollution Project
• Reminder: Plastic Doesn’t Go in the Compost Bin by Michael Allen at Hakai Magazine
• The Island Paradise Where the Roads Are Made of Plastic by Monica Pelliccia at Oceans Deeply 
• The cancer cell next door by Maya Emmons-Bell at Equilibria
• Cancer: a many headed beast by Emily Harrison at OncoBites
• Cancer Vaccines: Educating Your Immune System since the 1800s by Sara Musetti at OncoBites
• Singapore could become the second country to legalize mitochondrial replacement therapy  by Sandy Ong at Science
• Intestinal bacteria can work better than antibiotics by Nancy Bazilchuk and Ingrid Spilde at ScienceNordic
• From the duh files: Human behavior and corporate culture impact on hygiene, food safety by Doug Powell at Barfblog
• Here are the data and code for that study of Puerto Rico deaths by Andrew Gelman at - Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science

Check back next week for more great picks!