A hilarious juxtaposition of letters

Not much #chemjobs-related news in this week's C&EN, but two letters that are pretty funny when combined:

Who Will Hire Pharma Grads? 

With AstraZeneca closing its research facilities in neurosciences, who is going to hire those seven to 10 neuroscience postdocs paid for by AstraZeneca when they finish their terms at Tufts University (C&EN, Aug. 5, page 22)? Certainly not AstraZeneca. It doesn’t sound like a sustainable model for big pharma to support postdoctoral researchers who will not have prospects for a job in industry. 

Patrick J. Bednarski
Greifswald, Germany

Following right after Dr. Bednarkski's letter, a letter on a different topic (emphasis mine):

Get More Teachers Into Industry Labs

Now that we’ve seen high school science teachers successfully working in industrial labs during their summer breaks, we need to expand this effort to include grade school and junior high teachers (C&EN, Aug. 12, page 34). With some industry science experience, these teachers can inspire, mentor, and foster even younger students to have an early interest in chemistry and chemical engineering. There are excellent job opportunities in the chemical industry. 

Chemistry is different from nearly all of the other sciences taught in school. A child can work with both hands and mind. We still have chemistry sets for children; there must also be a school experience. I note that industrial work in the U.S. continues to decline, but the chemical industry seems to be flourishing.

Warren L. Dowler
Pahrump, Nev.

Ah, yes, flourishing. That's exactly what I would not call it, but hey -- what do I know?