 What are day-to-day operations like in a research lab? There's so much diversity in the kinds of things that people do, I just want to focus on a few commonalities. First commonality, the lab notebook. Everybody is supposed to have one, and document exactly what they are doing in each experiment. In the lab notebook, you'll see careful notes and tables, cut and pasted Kodak photos of gels, auto radiography film, and printed out reports from instruments. Most postdocs will have an entire shelf filled with lab notebooks, and they will show the signs of constant wear. Second commonality, the meetings. An astounding number of meetings are always going on. Departmental meetings, lab meetings, journal clubs, human resources meetings, phone conferences with collaborators, academic meetings, focus groups, training sessions on new equipment, invited speakers on scientific topics, students defending their dissertations, and my least favorite, institutional review board meetings for animal and human subject research. Sometimes a researcher has to pick and choose which ones to skip. Third commonality, the computer and email work. Even if you have no teaching responsibilities, you will still be responding to emails from collaborators and colleagues. If you're in a writing position, you'll spend a lot of time with documents and PowerPoints. You'll need to write condensed versions of the work you've been doing for various purposes. Everyone needs a computer in the lab, in some cases even to do their research. Fourth, math. That's right, research biologists do a surprising amount of algebra, arithmetic, calculus, and most especially statistics, and at every level. I won't get into all the applications, but significance tests are the bread and butter of most research. Students' t-test and ANOVA's, no kidding. What about the culture of a lab? As I've already mentioned, the lab is filled with young people, often from all parts of the world, which you really notice if you stop by the lunch room around noon. Other than the US, researchers are often from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe, Africa, and Australia. Some have very colorful backgrounds, some are loud and outgoing, some are quiet and intellectual. There's sometimes a class of cultures. As you might expect, there are the jerks and the angels, as in any other workplace. One of the features of bench research in an academic environment is the occasional downtime. Many steps in biological analysis require incubations or run times over an hour. Some people take advantage of this to use their time efficiently, and some use it to goof off. On the other hand, some labs are occupied from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. by the same postdocs. One of the other features of research are the odd hours. If an incubation is 12 hours, you may be back at midnight to check on it. I've been in the lab on Christmas and Thanksgiving, feeding cell lines or cleaning mouse cages. What are the perks of research? How about seeing your name in a journal at a university library? What about seeing other well-respected scientists citing your work? It feels good to get that level of recognition from your peers. One of the other perks are scientific conferences, a chance for scientists to get together and swap ideas. Grad students are sent with large posters presenting their work thus far, and they stand next to their posters answering questions during poster sessions. After hours, a large crowd of overeducated scientists hit the town. These kinds of experiences lead to a sense of community in the academic research world. Another perk is the constant mental challenge. This is one job where you don't get paid to be mindless. Your ability to think critically will be used every day. The sharpened your thinking to a razor's edge. Research can give you a rush you won't find in most other jobs. It's the pure thrill of discovery, of being the only person in the world who has the understanding that you do. It takes a long time for the first payoff, but once you get your eureka moment, it's hard to think about any other career. No one goes into it for the money. They do it for the joy of learning, teaching, and discovering. There's also a wonderful sense of being part of something important, vital to our continued existence as a culture, something noble and immortal, the human quest for knowledge about the natural world. The practical advantages are rewarding too. I've worked in cancer centers where the lab was situated in a patient area. It's very motivating to think that the research you're doing can someday benefit those affected by cancer. Research saves lives. It can make them better too. The discoveries in science lead to direct benefits to every area of our lives. So take a moment today to give some thanks to the researcher. And if the idea of lots of work for little pay, 10 plus years getting degrees, and the rush of discovery is exciting to you, perhaps you might be destined for research too. May God have mercy on your soul. Thanks for watching.