This is quick post to free some very cool bee icons my good friend Jose Luis Ordóñez drew for our video “What’s happening to the bees?“.

In the spirit of open science, feel free to use them under CC-by-nc licence for your research needs. Note that credit goes to Jose Luis Ordóñez and Ignasi Bartomeus.

Enjoy!

Animated gifs:

And the static versions:

There are important points in life that are prone to self-reflection. Getting tenure in the Spanish research system is one of them. Last week I won a highly competitive permanent position as a researcher at CSIC and I am incredibly happy to get the opportunity to work full time to advance science with the stability required. Since then, three contrasting thoughts have emerged in my mind.

First, I have an immense feeling of gratitude. I am completely conscious that the way I do science is only possible because I am not alone in this journey. A huge number of people has supported my ideas, gave me opportunities to try things, shared their knowledge with me. Thank you all! It was pretty flattering to get so many congratulations over the past week. Plus, I have to admit it the journey has been pretty fun so far.

Second, I still feel uneasy with the full selection process. All 20 candidates competing for the position deserved a stable research position. CSIC keeps evaluating quantity over quality and most positions get filled by researchers over 40, and often older. Being considered a “young researcher” at 39 and with two kids it’s not funny anymore. The hyper-competitiveness we are immersed is damaging careers, but also science itself. Sometimes I feel we are not longer doing science, but running on a hamster-wheel.

Third, I got this position by privilege. My parents supported me while doing my degree and always encouraged me to take risks and explore new paths. It’s easier to do when you have a safety net. Neither me nor my family had remarkable health of economic problems. I am a white man and as such I never experienced harassment of any type. Even with the wind at my back, it was bloody hard to survive in academia in Spain. This implies we are missing a lot of brilliant researchers that didn’t had it that easy.

Now is time to reconsider things. Inertia is very powerful, but now I have the freedom to decide (to certain degree) what science I want to do and how. Let’s use this power wisely. And let’s fight to change the system from the inside.