Thoughts and flowers from the lab
To which protein
I owe my day?
To the social that makes me breath?
To the tiny that shuttle energy?
Or to the millions outside my body?
Many and unique,
Little soldiers with limited life and a focused target,
Proteins give me everyday
That molecular food
I cannot find on my table.
Regular and precise
Like a shiny Salt Crystal
Feel the changes in the air around me.
Melting away I let my energy spread
While strongly I hold on to the skills and ideas
Hiding inside but not vanishing.
Noise and broken sentences
Crawl in my mind
Worrying why the job I used to enjoy
Is now a reason off dark dreams and tears.
Have I seen a part of it that disgusts me?
Is it just this broken environment I am in?
Is it inside me? Is it the situation?
I reject the whole package
And my life gets impossible,
and gets on.
The invisible fragments
Swim free in pure sterile water
Ready for the magic.
The monstrous plasmid is coming
and the reaction will start
Hot, agitated, repetitive.
A single mutation will change the course of the experiment.
A tiny step of in vitro evolution.
I lye satisfied on the concrete
Washed by the sea and the sweetness of reward
After a year of thoughtful work.
The heat unfolds my thoughts
and my skin relaxed,
finally breathing.
Reason alone in a corner,
Curled up in thoughts of limitless costs
And added your innovation bloom
Like when you were
A just arrived first-year student.
Thoughts of Time and money
Chain your unique ideas
To a desk at the end of the classroom
Buy few steps
Will take you forward.
Dear Lord,
Make me a protein today
To express myself in all settings.
I wish for time to make me more resistant.
I demand the stability
In a simple watery situation.
I yearn to be hard-working
And fast reaching
While selecting my companions
For a perfect fit.
Another day has passed
Through my clicks and my printings
In the busy lab
Who looks forward.
Lab animals feed on planning the future
And snack on tiny bites of promising mistakes
While the mission proceeds.
The illusion of organization
Is fooling us
On our benches, in our offices,
In our freezer.
The uncontrollable magic happens
When the light is switched off and the drawer closed.
Our proteins in their tubes
Initiate the revolution
Out of our sight, behind our back
And subvert the order we imposed
To samples supposed to respond to our command
And follow our hypotheses.
The geometric rationally organized drawer
Is each night the land of anarchy
And the cause of headaches and endless hunts
In the morning.
You cannot predict or imagine
The science that takes life
Outside the lab.
When the background changes
Innovation is born
And the colours of bravery and craziness
Become feasibility and will to risk.
Each risk is a step you take
And a chance to yourself
You cannot miss.
Proteins come in families
And ask you to choose your favorite,
As families do.
You value efficiency, you appreciate stability,
But colour and shape can dictate their popularity
Like little heroes in a fantasy novel
That becomes reality.
Science and life in the lab
Proceed by steps and jumps
Hunting and chasing
Unnoticed Connections and timid molecules.
Each day writes a paragraph
And each manuscript a chapter
To your autobiography of science.
Each phase of your life is reflected
In a discovery and a struggle
You soon forget even if it steers your life and career.
You will write it
One day
Your personal biography in science
Of when an uncontrolled temperature
Took you a new protein
And when that old enzyme
Played a new trick.
Powder sugar on the cake,
The last working day has arrived.
Fireworks in the lab
Are mysterious proteins and high yields.
They enlighten the way
And reveal the happy corners
in the winding sunny path that next year will be.
Dear Santa
hanging from that balcony
Be brave and purify my protein
That is really what I want.
You know my heart and see the future
You know that green protein can really help me.
All proteins are equally pretty
And with functions of majestic importance
But only the green one has glitter on its wings
that can cheer up my 2017.
The unexpected happened
Once again under your eyes
At the most inappropriate moment
Of course.
What to do is not clear.
Smile for the surprise
And start chasing the mystery.
Superpowers hide
In the folds of small papers
And in the bars of your graph.
Superscientist runs and calculates
With hands and mind
Digging for gold in a pile of errors.
Superboss imagines and visualize
The scene behind the corner
Before tomorrow comes.
SuperStudent looks deep and polishes
The corners that unattended bring shadows to the investigation.
Caring today and imaging tomorrow
Make the story.
The unknown is always there
Written its power and its curiosity
It pulls you towards the edge
Of knowledge and creativity.
The call is rhythmic
And white noise to a life in science.
You cannot avoid it
And you fear where out takes you.
What looks abundant
Is sometimes useless
In a way you cannot perceive.
Proteins are there
But they do not behave
According to your plans
Like stubborn donkeys.
You make them, you treat them,
You feed them
Yet they rebel.
Small molecules can tame them
But the discovery is not immediate.
Delight is in the small things,
In the vivid color of solutions,
In the panicky stirring of a magnet,
In the regular wobble of a shaker.
Brief moments staring at the beauty
Rewards you for the effort
And make you chase your scientific elegance.
