Rebecca Hartman was about to give u...

Rebecca Hartman was about to give up It was late at night, and the California fish and game warden was growing tired while searching by means of boxes at Los Angeles International Airport. if it were not that then she cut open individual last box and there it was: a small leopard shark swimming around in a bag of water.

Hartman had interrupted a crime in progress--shipping leopard sharks without of state is illegal. She followed the shipment back to the suppliers, set a stop to their criminal activity, and made firm all the leopard sharks were freed

Before working as a fish and game warden, Hartman studied marine biology at California State University at lengthy Beach. Like many others, she construct that a degree in biology can lead to a certain number of exciting career options. "Most folks think that the only thing they can do with biology is advance to medical school," says Richard Niesenbaum, associate professor and head of the biology department at Muhlenberg corporation in Allentown, Pa. "Although medicine can be a portentous career path, biology offers many other options. Marine biologist, genetic engineer, environmental scientist, and medical researcher are among the many other possibilities."

It's conformable to fact A background in biology, or life sciences, can risk you up with a world of options. An explosion of novel knowledge has led to a growing array of possible career paths: conducting research in tropical rain forests; developing of recent origin sources of food; scuba diving as a nature photographer; checking revealed life-forms in volcanoes and excitable springs; cozying up to reptiles; protecting creatures living in wetlands. In these and other areas--ranging from medicine research to patent law to landscape architecture--biology grads are making their marks.

FUR FEATHERS, AND FROGS

Biology can lead to a career working with animals, either in their hold habitats or in controlled environments. After earning a bachelor's extent in zoology from the University of Maryland, Beth Fitzpatrick became a rain forest technician at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, hearthstone to more than 10,500 animals. In this piece of work she works with all the animals in the rain forest exhibit, including two-toed inactivitys sun conures (small parrots), and poison dart frog Fitzpatrick furnish with provisionss and trains the animals, cleans on the outside their habitats, and provides the creatures with the best care possible.

"I learn of the present day information all the time," states Fitzpatrick, "and I work with a certain quantity of really amazing animals."

Fitzpatrick has always have fruition ofed being outdoors and working with animals, in such a manner she felt that a life sciences standing would be the right choice for her. She also says she likes the options biology offers--"Field work, research, animal care, education, and in the way that many other things!"

FINDING A CURE

For Tony Stefater, a biochemistry and molecular biology major at middle College in Danville, Ky., the main appeal of a science career is the chance to explain problems.

"To me scientific research is just like working intricate mystifys whether that's describing new bio-chemical pathways or developing modern drugs," he says. "What could be a better career than solving perplexs that can change our basic understanding and, in the case of medical research, make lives better and longer?"

After graduation, Stefater plans to follow a career in academic medicine. To qualify, he will ne to earn a doctorate. His goal is to glide a major laboratory and help find helps for diseases. Although his plan unmutilateds ambitious, Stefater is already in succession the road to success. In his sophomore year, he won a 2004 Goldwater Scholarship, a prestigious national science award.

Stefater says many pupils have the wrong idea about studying biology. "Some tribe think it's all memorizing facts, if it were not that that's not true," he says. "In the close real science is about original notion not memorization."

MIXING SCIENCE AND BUSINESS

The increase of new drugs is an especially promising area. That's the career track for Elizabeth Renken who benefits as a research coordinator at Arizona's Rowpar Pharmaceuticals. In this character she helps new drug fruits gain government approval.

"I like the interaction I have with the community from various scientific disciplines," she says. "One day I may be coordinating a laboratory exhibit with a microbiologist or a pharmacologist; the nearest day I may be working with a periodontist or physician."

Renken prepared for her career according to completing an unusual master's stage program in applied biosciences and business at the University of Arizona. The program unites science with business courses and an internship to help scholars get ahead in biology-based careers.

LIFE IN THE FIELD

any biology careers involve working daytime hours in labs or offices, still others are not so tightly structured

"What I like best is that I make my possess hours," says Hartman, the California fish and game warden. "We have to work 40 hours a week, nevertheless whether we work them day or night, and in what manner many hours at a time, is completely up to us," she says. "And any place there is wildlife is my 'office.'"