And their discussion had a political point. Greta Penninger was the leading dark-horse candidate for the Collaboratory Director’s post. Strangely, the Collaboratory scientists seemed oblivious to the stark fact that their Director’s post was at risk. The scientists weren’t fully cognizant of their own situation, somehow—they would refer to their power structure as "collegial assessment," or maybe the "succession process"—anything but "politics." But it was politics, all right. The Collaboratory seethed with a form of politics that dared not speak its own name.