Weird and Wonderful Postdoctoral Research Topics

Post doctoral research jobs can be the absolute best. That is because they are generally well paid, flexible and they provide post doctoral research students or faculty the opportunity to study and research some crazy and wonderful things. Here are some examples of the most weird and wonderful postdoctoral research topics, check them out!

• Imagine being paid to study space! Many researchers of course are and they are making amazing discoveries, like one researcher from the University of Washington, who concurs with other scientists that a companion star in a binary system could destabilize planetary orbits. What that means in layman’s terms is that processes that destabilize the orbit of a gas giant could be enough to change the plane of a planets orbit and move it close to the primary star. This would spell doom for any terrestrial planet in the same system. If he and his colleagues are right extraterrestrial life may be very rare.

• Another couple of really weird and wonderful postdoctoral research topics gleaned from the ‘Who’s doing the weirdest PhD forum’ online describes a former British masters ice dance champion, she is the first person in the United Kingdom to have received a PhD in figure skating.  She therefore epitomizes the rule, write what you know and love and is known as the Doctor of Skating at Essex University where she has completed four years of study.

• Another crazy postdoctoral research topic posting on the site describes someone who's PhD involved painting the feet of mice with different coloured paints and then letting them run around. They then measured the distances between the little multicolored paw prints. Unfortunately the writer failed to say what exactly it was the researchers were attempting to achieve!

Postdoctoral research topics involving animals always seem to be a little ‘out there’. One researcher for example chose to study the biomechanics of cheetahs running. The researchers spent their day’s videoing cheetahs.  Another researcher spends his days travelling the country to video horses with a twitch, indicative of the condition called head shaking. Whatever cranks your engine! One thing is certain, if you love research the options are amazing.