NewCareersintheFieldOfBiology

Biology is the study of life and how organisms interactwithone another, how livingthings function, and how they change over time. Pursuing a career in biology can be incredibly excitingand rewarding.The work ofa biologist is to increase our understanding about the world around us and to help us address issues of personal well being and worldwide concern, such as environmental depletion, threats to humanhealth, and maintaining viable and abundant food supplies. Studying biology teaches us to critically analyze evidence, question and make observations of what we see aroundus, aswell astotry andsolve problems. Biologists may study whales in the Atlantic Ocean, plants in the tundra, human pathogens, insects in a forest, or bacteria and cells under a microscope. Some common careers for a biologist can be in research, health care, environmental management and conservation, education, or such exciting new careers as biotechnology, forensic science, politics, business, industry, economics, mathematics, art, and scientificwritingandcommunications.

Research
Todays research scientists getto workwith the latest scientific instruments andtechniquesas they work to better understand our world andthelife upon it. Many of thesescientists find themselves workingin someof the worlds most beautiful places such as the Amazon Rain Forests, the temperate forests of North America,themountainsofEurope,orthevastandbeautifultundraofAsia! Todays research scientists are often funded to travel around the world asthey work tounderstandthis vast world!!

HealthCare
Health care biologists are found on the leading edge of discovery on such issues as AIDS, cancer, and pathogenic bacterial infections. Rarer diseases such as Ebola and Malariaarealso hunted downbythese men and women of science. These professionals work to betterhuman life andprevent diseases and death. Somehealthcarebiologistsholdsuchcareersas Nurses Physicaltherapists Dentists Doctors Medicalandpharmaceuticalscientists. Many of these jobs focus less on research and more on helping people in need. For those who have a passionforhelpingpeopleandcaringforothers,acareerinhealthcarebiologymaybeforyou!

Environmentalmanagementandconservation
Environmental biologists are scientists who study areas in who help to solve issues of environmental depletion and destruction. They can range from park rangers to zoo biologists. This is acareer forthose

that like the outdoors, working with animals in their natural habitats, or caring forthose that areendangered. Environmental biologists are those who are the first and last ones on the sceneofenvironmental disasters. They do extensive field work and are intimately aware of the world aroundus. Manyareoftensaid to have a specialbondwithanimalsandnature.

Education
Students, teaching, and changing lives education also requirepeoplewith a background in biology. Todays life science educators are those who challenge people intothinkinginnewways andlooking atthe world in anewway.Theycanbefoundat Colleges Universities PrimaryandSecondaryschools Museums Libraries Zoos Parks It is their job to help every day people to grow in their knowledge of science. Those with a passion for biologyandteachingwillfindtheirplaceasalifescienceeducator.

Biotechnology
Careers combine the science of life with new technologies to better life in areas like food, medicine and agriculture. This area of biology has grown immensely in the past several years, especially the area of agricultural biotechnology. These fields have been only barely understood and researched. For example, if you like insects then you mightwant to consider studyingentomological biotechnology.This field examines howinsectseffectplantgrowthandhowtoengineerbetterdefensestocertaininsectpests.

ForensicScience
Mystery, logic and details Forensic scientists work with law enforcement agencies to investigate crime scenes making it a career forthosewho enjoy mysteries anddetailed work. This is acareer that often ends withthesatisfactionofknowingthatyouhelpedbringaboutjustice. Thanks to todays media, much attention has been drawn to forensic scientists. Manyoftodaysyouthare drawn to this Hollywood lifestyle of mystery and intrigue. Despite the fact that it is not what Hollywood makesittobe,forensicsisindeedanexcitingandquicklygrowingfield.

Politics
Political and industrial advisors are necessary for most companies andpolitical offices. Consider jobs such as these as consulting positions. The consulting field is consideredone of the fastest growing andhighest paying availabletoday, however competitionis very intense. Every company requires a consultant inthefield of science or biology. Jobs such as these can also be accompanied by managerial duties. An advisor for industry could be looking at the environmental effects of a given companies product, or lookingatthelegal

ramificationsastheyrelatetobiologyandthelaw.

Businessandindustry
Biologists work with drug companies and providers of scientific products and services to research and test newproducts.Theyalsoworkinsales,marketing,andpublicrelationspositions.

Economics
Trained professionals work with the governmentandother organizationsto study and address the economic impactsofbiologicalissues,suchasspeciesextinctions,forestprotection,andenvironmentalpollution.

Mathematics
Biologists in fields such as bioinformaticsandcomputationalbiology apply mathematical techniques to solvebiologicalproblems,suchasmodelingecosystemprocessesandgenesequencing.

Sciencewritingandcommunication
Journalists and writers with a science background inform the general public about relevant and emerging biologicalissues.

Art
All the illustrations in your biology textbook, as well as in newspaper and magazine science articles, were createdbytalentedartistswithathoroughunderstandingofbiology. Just about every field ofstudyimaginableutilizes biologyso that no matter whatsomeone has a passion for they can combine it with biology in a career that they will enjoy. Several biology related careers are expected to grow faster than normal over the next several years (increase of 18% or more). Among them, including their average salary, are physical therapists, environmental scientists and hydrologists, dietitians andnutritionists,optometrists,chiropractorsandoccupationaltherapists. Newcareersinbiologyalsoincludecareerintheemergingfieldslike

Enzymology
Began as a field primarily of interest to biologists who wanted information about metabolic cycles and the proteins catalyzing physiological reactions. However, as soon as relatively pure enzymes were available, organic chemists joined the fun, trying to delineate mechanisms through organic synthesis and physical

chemistry principles. They were quicklyjoinedby physical chemistsand physicists, bringing inthestrength of kinetics, spectroscopy, and structural biology. The advent of cloning and sitespecific mutagenesis has sparked further advances in the field. Drug development based ondetailed knowledge of enzymology began very early on and continues to be an important area. Enzymology was once considereda demonstration of the strength of interdisciplinary research. However, today single individuals are simultaneously carrying out research in all of the fields mentioned above, and any modern biochemistry/ molecular biology department shouldhavealloftheseskillsrepresentedonitsfaculty.

Neuroparasitology
If you know about Toxoplasma gondii the catspawned parasite that alters both rodent and human behavior then you know about the work of neuoparasitologists. The fact thattheseeerie parasites now havetheirveryownscientificdisciplinedevotedtothemshowsjusthowprevalenttheyareinnature. These parasites typically alter host behavior as a part of their reproductive strategy (often by being consumed and excreted by a thirdparty).A good example isEuhaplorchiscaliforniensis,whichcauses fish to shimmy and jump so wading birds will grab and eat them. Heartworms, which live inside grasshoppers, eventually need to leave their hosts to continue their life cycle. Rather than leave peacefully, however, they release a cocktail of chemicals that makes the grasshoppers commit suicide by leaping into water. The heartwormsthenswimawayfromtheirdrowninghosts.

QuantumBiology
This is a freaky one but then again, anything with the word "quantum" in it is bound to be weird. Physicists have known about quantum effects for well over a hundred years, where particles defy our sensibilities by disappearingfromone place and reappearing inother,or by beingin two placesatonce. But these effects are not relegated to arcane lab experiments. As scientists are increasingly suspecting, quantummechanicsmayalsoapplytobiologicalprocesses. Perhaps the best example is photosynthesis remarkably efficient systems in which plants (and some bacteria) build the molecules they need byusingenergyfromsunlight. It turns out thatphotosynthesismay in fact rely on the "superposition" phenomenon, where little packets of energy explore all possible paths, and then settle on the most efficient one. It's also possible thatavian navigation, DNA mutations (via quantum tunneling), and even our senseof smell, relies onquantum effects. Though it's a highly speculative and controversial field, its practitioners look to the day when insights gleaned may result in new drugsand biomimetic systems (with biomemetics being another emergent scientific field, where biological systems andstructuresareusedtocreatenewmaterialsandmachines).

Exometeorology
Like exooceanographers and exogeologists, exometeorologists are interested in studying natural processes which occur on planets other than Earth. Now that astronomers are able to peer more closely into the innerworkings of nearby planets and moons, they're increasingly able to track atmospheric conditions and weather patterns. Jupiter andSaturn,withtheir impossiblylargeweathersystems, are prime candidates for study. So is Mars, with it's regularly occurring dust storms. Even planets outside our solar system are being studied by exometeorologists. And interestingly, exometeorologists may eventuallyfind signs of extraterrestrial life on an exoplanet by detecting organic signatures in atmospheres, or elevated carbondioxidelevelsapossiblesignofanindustrialagecivilization.

Nutrigenomics
Also known as nutritional genomics, this is the study of the complex interplay between food and genetic expression. Scientists workingin this field seek to understand the role of geneticvariation,dietaryresponse, and the ways in which nutrients affect our genes. And indeed, food has a profound effect on our health and it starts quite literally at the molecular level. Nutrigenomics works both ways our genes influence our dietary preferences, and viceversa. A key goal of nutrigeneticists is to establish personalized nutrition matchingwhatweeatwithourownuniquegeneticconstitutions.Morehere.

Cliodynamics
Coined bytheUniversity ofConnecticut's Peter Turchin, cliodynamicsis aninterdisciplinary area of research that combines historical macrosociology, economic history (cliometrics), the mathematical modeling of longterm social processes, and the building and analysis of historical databases. It's basically Asimov's psychohistorycometolife. The name is a portmanteau of Clio, the muse of history, and dynamics, the study of changes over time. Simply put, it's an effort to quantify and describe the broad social forces of history, both to study the past, and as a potential way to predict the future. An example of cliodynamics was Turchin's recent paper forecastingsocialunrest.

SyntheticBiology
This is the big one, and it's the emerging worldchanging scientific discipline that many of us are already familiarwithandisoneofthegoodcareeroptionsinbiology. Synthetic biology is the design and construction of new biological parts, devices and systems. It also involves the redesign of existing biological systems for any number of useful purposes. Craig Venter, a leader in this field,shookthebiologycommunityin2008by announcingthat hehad manufactured the entire genome of a bacterium by piecing together its chemical components. Two years later his team created "synthetic life" DNA createddigitally,andthenprintedand inserted into aliving bacterium. And last year, synbioscientistscreatedthefirstcompletecomputationalmodelofanactualorganism. Looking ahead, synthetic biologists will sequence and analyze genomes to create customdesigned bootable organisms and biological robots that can produce chemicals from scratch, like biofuels. There's also the potential for pollution devouring cyborg bacteria, and the downloading and printing of recently updatedvaccinesduringapandemic.Thepossibilitiesarealmostendless.

RecombinantMemetics
This one's quite speculative, and it's technically speaking still in theprotosciencephase. But it'll only be a matter of time before scientists get a better handle on the human noosphere (the collective body of all human information) and how the proliferation of information within it impacts upon virtually all aspects of humanlife. Similar to recombinant DNA (in which different genetic sequences arebroughttogether to create something new), recombinant memetics is the study of how memes (ideas that spread fromperson to person) can be adjusted and merged with other memes and memeplexes (a cohesive collection of memes, like a religion)

for beneficial or socially therapeutic' purposes (such as combating the spread of radical and violent ideologies). This is similar to the idea of 'memetic engineering' which philosopher Daniel Dennett suggested could be used to maintain cultural health. Or what DARPA is currently doing via their narrative control'program.

QuantitativeBiology
If you like both math and biology, thisone's for you. Quantitative biology, asitsname implies, isan effort to understand biological processes through the language of mathematics. Butit also applies otherquantitative methods,likephysicsandcomputerscience. With the advances in biological instrumentation and techniques, and easy access to computing power, biology is generating large amountsofdataatan increasing speed. Acquiringthedata andmakingsense of it increasingly requires quantitative approaches. At the same time, coming from a physicist's or mathematician's point of view, biology has reached a stateof maturitywhere theoretical models ofbiological mechanisms can be tested experimentally. This hasled tothe development of the broad field of quantitative biology. Wealsohavemanyothercareeroptionsforbiologistsinthefollowingfields.

ParkRanger ConservationOfficer WildlifeBiologist SafetyManager StateParkResourceEcologist DesertEcologist ZooBiologist HabitatDesigner MolecularEndocrinologist

BusinessandIndustry CareerOptions: Biochemist Bioengineer FoodTechnician/Technologist IndustrialHygienist Journalist/Editor/Photographer(Sciencepublication) MolecularBiologist PestControlConsultant PharmaceuticalSalesRepresentative RetailManager TechnicalWriter Trainer

MedicineandHealth CareerOptions Administrator,HMO Bacteriologist BiologicalResearcher Biostatistician DataAnalyst Epidemiologist GeneticEngineer HealthPolicyConsultant MedicalIllustrator MedicalLibrarian MedicalTechnologist NuclearMedicine OccupationalTherapy Optometrist Pharmacist PhysicalTherapy Physician Physiologist Podiatrist Toxicologist Veterinarian Environmental CareerOptions Botanist Conservationist Curator,BotanicalGardens Ecologist Entomologist Environmentalist Fundraiser,EnvironmentalOrganization Ichthyologist MarineBiologist ParkNaturalist Zoologist GovernmentandPublicSector

CareerOptions Administrator,NuclearWasteProgram Aquarist CityRecyclingManager EnvironmentalProtectionSpecialist FoodandDrugInspector HungerPolicyAnalyst Parasitologist ParkRanger Professor PublicHealthOfficer Teacher(K12) WaterQualityInspector