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"Those who succeed are well-grounded people who have seen success and believe they can do it too. They are not the type of people who worry too much or are easily intimidated," says Virginia Tech professor Michael Hochella.

The challenges are both logistical and emotional, and if training and productivity are compromised, scientific careers can be derailed.

The trouble is that if you start off without much space, your ability to produce good science is seriously compromised.

"Friendships and work relationships have different social norms, and workplace friendships are fraught with fragility and ambiguity," says organizational psychologist Rachel Morrison.

"Laughter is highly relevant to scientific inquiry because it creates a safe and playful atmosphere for intellectual development." --David Sloan Wilson

"As I look back at my busy life, I would not have been happy giving up either—career or family," says Margaret Dalzwell Lowman.

"Attention is our way of devoting a limited resource (our time and energy) to the most important information. By almost any measure, productivity hinges on this most basic of skills," says G. Andrew Mickley, professor of psychology.

"I'll admit to occasional heavy use of both alcohol and marijuana when my experiments go bad, my relationships suck, and my car needs new brakes and tires, but do I have a problem with it?" says postdoc B.

Shyness can easily be mistaken for aloofness, coldness, or disinterest. So make the extra effort to smile and to make eye contact to help put the other person at ease.

Given how important sleep is to your health and emotional well-being, it makes sense to monitor your own schedule and make sure you aren't operating at a loss.

"Take time for family or for whatever your passions are. If you’re mentally relaxed, your work will be more effective," says astrophysicist Charles Danforth.

You may be able to do it for days, weeks, or even months, but over the long haul, no one can continually juggle an unrealistic set of roles and responsibilities.

The challenges of scientific career advancement can be especially daunting for women, foreign trainees, racial and ethnic minorities, and first-generation college students; mentorship can help bridge this gap.

Several forum contributors saw marriage as a source of emotional and financial stability rather than a dangerous undertow.

"Rarely does science run a straight, predictable course. Some of the detours and accidents proved to be the greatest breakthroughs," says Debbie Mandel, stress management expert.

"This is a great time to be an economist. Interesting, socially relevant, and empirically grounded research is now widely appreciated in the discipline." --Christina Fong

"Go through the work in progress and come to an agreement about which parts of it are nearly complete and which parts may be completed by others." --Frederick Maxfield.

"No one is perfect, ... that's why pencils have erasers." --Author Unknown

If your supervisor expects everyone to be on deck all day, make the case that a brief respite to recharge your batteries will benefit both you and the laboratory.