A classical sculpture depicts the Greek Titan Atlas bent awkwardly under the weight of an immense globe. The same sculptor might depict Mariano Barbacid, director of Spain's National Center for Cancer Research (CNIO), carrying an additional weight: Time. Like other Spanish scientists who have returned from the United States and Europe to build their country's biomedical research system, Barbacid must push time forward to an age when Spain attracts legions of Titans in the life sciences. In the

Mary-Dell Chilton had journeyed from the West Coast to New York City in September 1977 to demonstrate her discovery to one of the most important plant scientists in the world, Armin Braun, a professor at Rockefeller University. Braun theorized that Agrobacterium somehow triggered a developmental change in plants, resulting in the tumors associated with crown gall disease. Subsequently, at the University of Washington in Seattle, microbiologist Gene Nester, plant viral RNA biochemist Milt Gordon,

Melvin Silverman, professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, recently got a call from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The CIHR surveyor asked the scientist who would benefit from his studies of diabetes and membrane function, and what the intermediate and final outcome of the work would be. To Silverman, the questioner had asked him to justify the funding of basic biomedical research according to its direct community health benefits, rather than its scientific significance.

A principal investigator at a veterinary research institution carpeted her office with the lab technician's reports and refused to sign the technician's time card. When such subtle statements failed to adequately convey the boss's consternation, the PI assigned the technician to work a machine already occupied by a graduate student, forcing the staff member to start her own work after closing time. The PI failed to use the most common technique for influencing the lab tech's working practices: E

Joseph Schlessinger would hardly fit most people's definition of the unworldly scientist. Originally a physicist, Schlessinger has conducted groundbreaking work in identifying and characterizing molecules in the signaling pathways of receptor tyrosine kinases. Elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2000, Schlessinger, William H. Prusoff professor and chairman of pharmacology at Yale University, has achieved the acclaim some scientists yearn for. Yet in 1991, when he set out to build a c

Venture capitalist Brenda Gavin offers simple advice to life science inventors seeking funding for new projects: Be clear, brief, and persistent. "You've got to call more than once," Gavin, president of SR One, a GlaxoSmithKline venture fund, exhorted participants at a venture forum sponsored by Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) in October. Gavin said she gets about 25 calls a day. "Don't spend the voice mail talking, and if I have to play my voice mail 15 times to get your message, I'm

Magnus Höök, a professor at Texas A&M, worked for more than 20 years perfecting an antibody that attacks protein adhesins on bacterial surfaces. But when Höök and his colleagues sought to move their trademark proteins into the market, he says his "lack of knowledge" surprised him. "You start out thinking this is a cool idea, and it would be useful," Höök relates. Höök is a director at Inhibitex Inc., an Alpharetta, Ga.-based company that is now testin

Call it a nerd's world. The explosion in genomic and proteomics research has ignited the demand for life scientists who can write computer code or make sense of the complex algorithms of genome sequencing research. The bioinformatics discipline preceded the genomic revolution, but because of the human genome research and its related studies, scientists with a yen for binary code can just about name their salaries at the world's burgeoning biotech companies. Feeling constricted by commerce? Big

Go directly to the Multinational Lab Survey results Courtesy of Robert NakamotoRobert Nakamoto (front and center), assistant professor of molecular biology at the University of Virginia Medical School, celebrates the cultural differences of his multinational lab members. A US university postdoc loses track of a cuvette and spews invectives at a Chinese coworker. That night the Chinese colleague, quaking in an apartment, tearfully telephones the principal investigator. Would the postdoc attack w

The highest paying jobs in life sciences involve clinical research, bioinformatics, or bioengineering, according to an earnings survey by The Scientist and Abbott, Langer & Associates Inc. The median salaries plus cash compensation for jobs in these disciplines, from $75,000 to $77,000, are 36-40 percent higher than the $55,000 median pay for the 7,902 life scientists who provided usable responses. Salaries for doctorate bioinformaticians who also hold medical degrees prove to be even higher

Dream inventions may fizzle. Managers and marketers can interfere with research and nudge scientists out of key decisions. Commercial product development is fraught with problems. But inventors in academia urge their colleagues to brave the risks and take their ideas to market anyway. At least that's the sentiment emerging from a reader survey conducted by The Scientist. "Do it," insists one respondent, even though a university developed a product based on her research without compensating, or

For Ella Ofori, the dream of scientific research required more than the usual long hours: she had to work full time and squeeze night courses at the Community College of Philadelphia into her schedule. Often arriving home after 10 p.m., she'd study until the wee hours. But all that changed when Ofori received a letter from the college explaining she had qualified for a special training program. Two years later, Ofori, 25, has nearly two years of laboratory experience. She routinely performs ELI