A Tale of Persistence, Patience, and Peers

Courtesy of William Ju

EARLY TO RISE I munch on a Krispy Kreme donut after arriving at the lab, and chase it down with a cup of coffee. I feel the caffeine kick in as I scan the E-mail I've received overnight. Like most of my colleagues, I verge on the border of being obsessive and paranoid about being scooped; I try to scan as many journals as I can, hoping that nothing has been published that even vaguely reports on something I am investigating. It's 6:30 a.m., time to really get going. I will have about two hours of solid bench work before the other postdocs and technicians filter in. I'm hoping my latest rounds of cloning and PCR have paid off, and I set up my restriction digest with high hopes. As the newest kid on the block, I have to prove myself and quickly establish my niche...