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Denmark's Øresund bridge—connecting Copenhagen to southern Sweden—symbolizes the country's strengths in connecting basic and applied research, and academic and corporate interests.

In the idealized career path, a scientist goes straight from earning an undergraduate degree to graduate school, and then on to a postdoc and eventual employment, without breaks between positions. For various reasons, however, not all scientists' career paths are nearly so linear.

Collectively, the US government is the largest single employer in America, filling approximately 1.6 million full-time, permanent positions; however, in reality, the US government consists of several hundred smaller employers, each of which has its own individual function and culture. As a result, the opportunities offered by government jobs are wide ranging, and the needs are diverse.

Understanding the brain is considered one of the grand quests of science, partly due to the conviction that the brain holds the key to what makes us human.

The year 2009 has been a time of change for the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. With a weakened global economy and dwindling drug pipelines, many of the companies that made the list of Science's 2009 top employers are finding that maintaining innovation through collaborations and partnerships is critical to success.

The global financial crisis has beaten down science budgets everywhere. So it's no surprise that science-spending forecasts for Europe are grim.

'Publish or perish' is the scientist's maxim—with good reason. Career advancement hinges on publications. But data generation requires dollars. And as the time it takes for investigators to become financially independent grows, the old adage may also motivate early-career researchers to capitalize on their youth.

"I think there is an increased awareness of the contributions postdocs make."

The selection of a doctoral program: it's not quite marriage, but it's a long-term commitment that could turn into a lifetime relationship, perhaps impacting—positively or negatively—the rest of your research career.

Intent on starting a business, Loleta Robinson (who has a medical degree and an M.B.A.), enrolled in ACTIVATE, a year-long University of Maryland, Baltimore program for aspiring entrepreneurial women.

The science job market in the London–Oxford–Cambridge triangle, after 10 years of rising public investment in the United Kingdom's science base, has never been stronger. But the shockwaves of the financial crisis are undermining the biotech industry and pharma restructuring is hitting R&D, while academia is refocusing research with a translational bent.

About 20 years ago Alice, a virologist, was up for a position as university president. She was one of three possible candidates. But during her interview things started to go a bit sour when the committee persistently asked her what she would be willing to give up should she be given the job.

Like it or not, each of us has only 168 hours a week to spend in whatever way we see fit, and most of us apply at least one-fourth of those hours—about half of our waking hours—engaged in some type of gainful employment.

On January 20, Barack Obama became the first African American to be sworn in as President of the United States. On that day television screens carried images of African American men and women moved to tears as they watched the historical event—one that many of them thought they would never witness in their lifetimes.

People well versed in environmental topics, or productive in developing methods that lighten the environmental footprint, will be highly sought, key players in the development of the new economy—and well rewarded.

While today's economic conditions are brutal, the forces shaping the drug industry's downsizing and restructuring have been at play for some time.