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bronwynrhAlthough I say that with fists clenched, I'm actually smiling and laughing at how ridiculous this is. I've been collaborating with a PI and a post-doc at Purdue, looking at the efficiency of tumor formation by my favorite bug in several plant mutants (Arabidopsis thaliana for those who want to know.
What I was looking for was an increase in tumor formation by a strain that I made. This strain looked very promising as a potential tool in agritech and plant biology research. "Hello, Monsanto? I hate your ethics and your politics, but would you like to buy this thing for a cool million?" Anyway, I worked very hard to perform an assay that would tell me if I had what I thought I might have.
On the other hand, our collaborator is coming from the plant perspective. He hoped to find that the plant mutants didn't care whether I infected them with a wild type strain or my super-special strain. He wanted all the results to be the same.
So here we are, performing an experiment in which I and my PI (Clay) and our collaborators are hoping for opposing results. Either way, the results will be informative - silver lining - and will provide some insight. That doesn't mean we're not all cheering for our favorite hypothesis.
Well, our collaborator won. Dammit. It looks as though I may not get to call Monsanto (or they won't be calling me) just yet.
I'll just go back to work and watch my dreams of patents and great wealth swirl their way down the toilet. *WOOSH*
What I was looking for was an increase in tumor formation by a strain that I made. This strain looked very promising as a potential tool in agritech and plant biology research. "Hello, Monsanto? I hate your ethics and your politics, but would you like to buy this thing for a cool million?" Anyway, I worked very hard to perform an assay that would tell me if I had what I thought I might have.
On the other hand, our collaborator is coming from the plant perspective. He hoped to find that the plant mutants didn't care whether I infected them with a wild type strain or my super-special strain. He wanted all the results to be the same.
So here we are, performing an experiment in which I and my PI (Clay) and our collaborators are hoping for opposing results. Either way, the results will be informative - silver lining - and will provide some insight. That doesn't mean we're not all cheering for our favorite hypothesis.
Well, our collaborator won. Dammit. It looks as though I may not get to call Monsanto (or they won't be calling me) just yet.
I'll just go back to work and watch my dreams of patents and great wealth swirl their way down the toilet. *WOOSH*
