I was tired, and had lapsed into a reverie about real-estate agents handing out coupons for free beachfront properties when someone asked me what I do for a living. I'm a biologist. My wife is a graduate student at the same university. My father is a scientist, as was my grandfather. My wife's father is a professor of mathematics.
Academia runs through our families five clans broad and three generations deep.
That doesn't make the job any easier, however. The hours are necessitated by the ferocious competition for funding in the field. And no matter how many times I enter the isolation facility, the fact that I work with live H.I.V.-1 virus still gives me pause. Nevertheless, I love what I do. The intellectual challenge, the wonderful colleagues, the sense of purpose, the excitement of new data and surprising results.