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An excerpt from a book I am reading - "A Force of Nature- The Frontier Genius of Ernest Rutherford"
"The progress of science of [is] like the progress of man going through a swamp, with islands of firm earth in between. The advances would be very slow from week to week, but at the end of a year it would be great, and at the end of ten years, enormous..."
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Though somewhat painful at the time, I find that a manuscript invariably improves after a comprehensive review at a decent journal (even if it is rejected after review). Sometimes it improves a lot, making arguments clear and helping you see the differences between what you think your data says and what your data REALLY says (and the way others look at it).
However there are times when "peer reviews" are completely worthless, especially when they are provided as one-liners to the author (usually meant to help editors decide whether the paper is good enough for further review or not). One of the best one-liners I got from an esteemed cell biology journal was "The data are novel, but expected.....not suitable for the journal". Ponder upon that one. "In the classic movie It's a Wonderful Life, George Bailey is at the point of despair but regains his confidence through the wisdom and perspective of a guardian angel, Clarence. Doubt and setbacks also are bound to happen in science (as is true of other careers), but pessimism should not rule the day. It is a great profession and there are many happy endings."
Commentary by Ron Vale...read it at least once a month to make sure it sticks: http://www.molbiolcell.org/content/21/1/11.full Commentary on Susan Lindquist's views that I endorse.
http://www.nature.com/news/prions-and-chaperones-outside-the-fold-1.10026 (Colin Macilwain - Cell 2012) 
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Some old ones Reposted...8/18/13 - A Classification of PI's - find yours' in the list!
7/6/12 - Way to a "Science paper" 5/30/11 - 20/20 Hindsights 9/30/11 - Evolution of a bizzare, new Idea 11/17/2011 - Rationale for curiosty-driven research... lessons from a 4 year old 1/28/12 - "GTFM" - hilarious article on grant writing! The PI BlogThis blog exists because my wife seemed a bit tired of being the only recipient of my random pontifications on life and Science for many years; and gently encouraged me to vent in a blog instead. From time to time, I put down thoughts that occur to me as I naiively stumble through a life in Science - bestowed upon me by accident (literally!). Please keep in mind that these musings are rather obvious things of little or no use to anyone, and are certainly not personally targeted in any way, even though they are obviously derived from my experiences. OK, enough said. Archives
December 2020
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