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"The market [for science Ph.D.s] is enormous and the options are huge." --Paul Redmond, University of Liverpool

You may discover that lab technicians or the person ordering supplies can profoundly affect the course of your research and the quality of your experience, so be sure to give everyone the respect that they deserve.

Is it ineptitude or something worse?

"It might be okay to take a shortcut if you're trying to decide which peanut butter to buy, but in the area of career decisions, shortcuts are dangerous." –J. Edward Russo

You, and others, can assess and document the influence of your work by looking at the characteristics, as well as the number, of the citations.

The roads of Brittany were littered with cyclists who failed to live by this rule; so are the roads of science.

Part of the insecurity for both scientists comes from the fact that molecular gastronomy still has some way to go before it is fully accepted as a scientific field.

Good management ability is essential to productive scientists, but most receive no formal management training prior to starting their own lab.

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

Within about 4 months, J. received three offers for faculty positions.

"If [a career framework] is just going to be a lot of woolly phrases that don't help anyone, then there is no point." --Lee Higham, Newcastle University

The last year of your Ph.D. is distinctly different from the ones that have come before it, because you'll focus primarily on transforming your hard work into thesis chapters.

Sandrine Etienne-Manneville "knew exactly what she was doing, where the project was going, and what needed to be done," says former postdoc supervisor Alan Hall.

Most people would say I've made all the correct calls, but I'm still disappointed with how it's all come out, even if I have learned a lot in the process.

"Low salaries make many bright people decide to leave research because the joy of discovering something new is simply not worth it when you face problems like having a family and paying a mortgage." --Petr Svoboda, Institute of Molecular Genetics, Prague, Czech Republic

"Andrea treats me like someone who’s intelligent enough to run a laboratory experiment by himself, but she’s always there for questions. She’ll have a long conversation with a former student who’s visiting from med school, or talk to us about our futures, or hang out and discuss TV. She’s your friend, and she cares about you." --Matthew Mansh

The trick is to meet conflict head on with the goal of managing it, not winning.