compliment

I went to a talk on single-molecule live imaging of transcription today that combined experimental and theoretical approaches.  It was rather exciting because it confirmed some of the predictions from my previous project about the dynamic nature of the formation of the transcriptional complex.  But what made me super-happy was that when I talked to the speaker afterwards and alluded to the project, he instantly recognized it: "The PNAS paper?  Oh, that was a very good paper."

I suppose this must happen to senior scientists all the time, but today was the first time that anyone has recognized a project of mine (or at least that I've met anyone who read about it that wasn't already involved in the work), much less complimented me on it.  I appreciated the boost in confidence because starting graduate school has been like starting all over again.  Learning so many fields as an MD/PhD student is fantastic, but what is very hard is as soon as one starts to approach confidence or some modicum of competence in one area, one then switches into some other area of study that requires not only a different but completely opposite skill set.  As often as not, it requires unlearning the skills that were necessary for success in the first field.

Needless to say, this was the highlight of my day.