前些日子一位助理教授没有评上终身教授，把实验室关掉了，自己去找了一份与写作有关的工作。从他这几年发表的文章来看，应该是很不错的，通讯作者的文章分别发表在ScienceSignaling, Molecular Cell, JBC, MCB等，加起来有十多篇。关实验室的原因也是经费的问题。

现在的基础生物学标书基本上都要有一段“medicalsignificance”，必须要说说你做的东西跟人类的疾病有没有关系。也就是说，你做狗皮膏药可以拿钱，但要做那些很难、大同行可能看不懂也不知道有什么用的课题，那就危险了。

不过，事物之间总是有联系的，要把基础生物学与医学意义联系在一起，应该不是很难的事情。慢慢地大家也都习惯了。色情业都敢向政府要bailout，做学术的人瞎说几句废话也没什么嘛。

但美国学术界还是有那么一帮认死理的人，他们认为scienceis science，不强迫自己去做一些粗糙的、自己不想做的事情。这些人之中，也许有极少数的可以在二三十年以后成为英雄，但大部分的就这么沉没了。

个人的命运跟时势有关系，但跟性格的关系更大。我把生物学界这么一帮认死理的人的现象成为Konopka现象。RonaldKonopka在上世纪70年代跟随SeymourBenzer，并发现了第一个调节动物节律的基因period，后来在加州理工当上了助理教授。但他凡事追求完美的性格耽误了自己的学术生涯，最后黯然离场。

The career of Ronald Konopka provides a poignantexample. Although he won a faculty position at Caltech on the basis of hisexceptional discovery of the period mutants, Konopka failed to get tenure andhad to leave. Weiner explains this by saying that “his colleagues weredisappointed by Konopka’s reluctance to publish. Konopka was a perfectionist,and he did not feel he had anything perfect to say about period.”Konopka then took a position at Clarkson College, where he continued to work onperiod. But again tenure was denied. Konopka is now out of science and:

lives a few blocks away from the Caltech campus,alone in a small house half hidden by palm trees and magnolias, as anonymous asKafka’s K. He spends his days collecting butterflies now, tipping his foreheadsharply forward to peer at them over his glasses. He also collects GratefulDead tapes and photographs of local waterfalls.
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The career of Ronald Konopka provides a poignantexample. Although he won a faculty position at Caltech on the basis of hisexceptional discovery of the period mutants, Konopka failed to get tenure andhad to leave. Weiner explains this by saying that “his colleagues weredisappointed by Konopka’s reluctance to publish. Konopka was a perfectionist,and he did not feel he had anything perfect to say about period.”Konopka then took a position at Clarkson College, where he continued to work onperiod. But again tenure was denied. Konopka is now out of science and:
lives a few blocks away from the Caltech campus,alone in a small house half hidden by palm trees and magnolias, as anonymous asKafka’s K. He spends his days collecting butterflies now, tipping his foreheadsharply forward to peer at them over his glasses. He also collects GratefulDead tapes and photographs of local waterfalls.