[Quoting Michael Wigler,] “‘Too often, people give up on those things they realize they don’t have a genius for. That’s especially true of very bright people who start out wanting to be scientistis. I think a lot of young people get discouraged when they find that they’re not an Albert Einstein or a Laplace. So [...]
“A postdoctoral fellowship is the most critical and intense period of a scientist’s career. It’s the professional equivalent of the SAT’s: it doesn’t last long, but the results have unnerving resonance. ‘A postdoc can afford to blow the first year or eighteen months of his or her fellowship,’ said [Robert Weinberg]. ‘It’s expected that one [...]
“‘I don’t care about papers, and I don’t care about making a name for myself,’ [Snezna Rogelj] continued. ‘That’s not important. What’s important is that I prove to myself that I can do this.’ She jabbed her pipette again. ‘I have to prove to myself that I’m a scientist, that I can design a difficult [...]