It is easy to recognize the usual problems with being a scientist during the early 21st century: low pay, lack of job security and no clear path towards career advancement.  In comparison, being a medical doctor is simple and lucrative, with well-worn paths marked by certification exams and gradual pay rise.  The scientist-in-training must establish a new methodology or  open new ground - one that is rich in possibilities for medical application.  This is no longer about intelligence but, rather, a combination of luck, perseverance, and political acuity.  Luck is needed to land the right project.  No matter how skillful one is, having a project based on false assumptions that leads no where would generally result in failure.  And there is so much failure in science.  However, it is almost impossible to judge a project from the outset, so one also needs perseverance and not quit too early.  Finally, political acuity is required to take control of the project from competing hands, as well as to acquire new projects as they arise.  This many-bodied problem is impossible to solve and just like the early spanish explorers, the scientist-in-training must boldly tread with their own feet into the new world, hunting for gold on the grassy wastes and sulfurous swamps.  However, once the gold is found, more troubles arise.  The supervisor who trains the scientist suddenly becomes a competitor: he covets the new findings for himself and does not want the scientist to take it away from his laboratory.  Other scientists from around the world also rush around the finding, a violent conflict arises as they compete with each other to secure the next step.  What the scientist-in-training thought was his own discovery quickly becomes taken by everyone else and he is quickly forgotten.  And in time, he can no longer leverage his achievements to become an independent researcher with his own lab, which is the ultimate goal.  From this, it is apparent that scientific progress is the mass movement of all scientists competing with each other fueled by egotistic ambitions.  Unfortunately, these ambitions are seldom rewarded and the individuals, even the grand prize-winners, are quickly forgotten.

What then, are the rewards for being a scientist?  Earlier this year, I solved the first crystal structure of a viral protein with a novel fold.  As I stared at the untamed electron landscape, I was overcome first by the beauty of the structure and second by a deep dissatisfaction with what is there.  There was no meaning to the architecture - especially since it had been amputated from the biological assembly of the virus.  I wanted more, more, more.