“For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.” ——Plato
During my first week as a postdoctoral fellow, my lifelong mentor David B. Sacks, a senior researcher in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, handed me a book by Peter Medawar, winner of the 1960 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and encouraged me to read it carefully. this book, Advice for young scientistswhose weight exceeds its physical form. I chose the title of this post to pay homage to that book. Although I am not very far along in my career, I believe I have gleaned insights worth sharing with the next generation of scientists.
Practical Strategies for Scientific Growth
Starting in your first year of graduate study, I encourage you to keep a list of grants and scholarships to which you can apply. If you are an international scholar, please gather specific information about your qualifications. This list should evolve over your career, marking opportunities with specific eligibility timelines: one to three years in graduate school, one to three years after graduation, within five years of your degree, and opportunities with early career grants (within 10 years). Knowing deadlines and criteria early ensures you don’t miss out on important opportunities. Many international academics, myself included, discover too late that they are ineligible for certain funding. By tracking these opportunities, you can plan more effectively and maximize them.
Learn to pitch your ideas early. Selling your ideas—convincing others of their importance using clear, easy-to-communicate language—is a skill that spans all aspects of life and career. Start developing this muscle from the beginning.
Devote part of your daily routine to becoming familiar with new technologies and scientific resources. Document the tools and platforms you encounter, for example, in my field, antibody databases, protein-protein interaction networks, and pathway analysis tools. Regular updates and reviews of this resource library ensure you stay at the forefront of scientific advancements. However, not every new, more complex technology or technique is necessarily better. Don’t ignore a technology just because it’s older. Typically, established methods are more robust, reproducible, and cost-effective, making them invaluable in a variety of situations.
Documentation is the cornerstone of scientific work. A Western blot from 10 years ago might suddenly be relevant to a new project, fitting perfectly into an emerging story. Therefore, write detailed protocols and annotations as if someone decades from now might need to understand and reproduce your data. Keep records not just for your immediate understanding, but in a common, comprehensive format that anyone can follow.
Each published paper should be accompanied by a dissertation-style archive containing all primary original data and complete supplementary material. Raw data includes (if applicable) unprocessed high-resolution images, instrument output files, raw spreadsheets, code/notebooks, protocols, and metadata. Use a table of contents and clear instructions to organize this material. You should inventory every reagent you use, noting the lot number, storage conditions and supplier details. While modern online platforms facilitate this to an extent, maintaining meticulous personal records is crucial. Ask for feedback, observe the best practices of others, and refine your documentation habits over time.
The power of waiting
I understand the pressure many of you feel to advance your career quickly, land your next role quickly, and carefully plan your future path. As an immigration scientist, I am acutely aware that choices tend to narrow, and sometimes the options available depend more on circumstances than preferences. For those raising a family, the sense of urgency is heightened because the stipend of a graduate student or postdoctoral fellow barely allows for long periods of indecision.
Given the unpredictability of an academic career, cultivating a diverse network and developing a broad range of skills early on can create opportunities and provide stability over time. I remember a piece of wisdom shared by Mehdi Nematbakhsh, a professor at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, where I earned my MD degree. He often said: “A person should put himself in a situation where he has multiple choices. This is the way for a wise man to choose.”
This advice resonated deeply with me. The ability to choose from multiple paths reflects the time and effort invested in cultivating possibilities that are consistent with the end goal. It’s like planting dozens of seeds in the hope that a handful will sprout into lush leaves.
Resilience in the face of uncertainty
Scientific inquiry is inherently unpredictable. Sometimes experiments don’t yield results, hypotheses collapse, and a seemingly linear path forward turns into a maze of uncertainty. For young scientists, this unpredictability can lead to frustration or self-doubt. It’s important to remember that every failed experiment is not a setback, but an important part of the learning process.
My mentor David B. Sacks often reminds me that even the most accomplished scientists fail more often than they succeed. What makes them unique is resilience—readiness to rise, readjust, and move forward. It’s the hallmark of scientists who are not only dedicated to their craft but also understand that discoveries rarely follow a predictable schedule.
Keep up the marathon
The life of a scientist is not a series of independent tasks with periods of relaxation in between; It’s more like a lifelong marathon. Achievements such as earning a PhD or receiving a promotion are milestones, but they mark the beginning of a broader journey rather than the end of a task. Similar to the life of a clinician, the life of a scientist requires a long-term and sustained commitment. Although confidence grows with experience, it doesn’t necessarily get easier.
This journey requires developing lifelong habits: reading to update your knowledge base, maintaining daily discipline, and cultivating sustainable practices that align with our core values—for example, if you value rigor, keep full lab notebooks and version-controlled code; if you value openness, share data and protocols; and if you value mentorship, have regular one-on-ones and set clear author expectations. If you think of science as a long-distance race, the importance of developing sustainable habits becomes obvious. Like the slow and steady turtle in the old story, consistent effort over time is the key to long-term success and fulfillment.
work with time
We are limited by time and space; maturity lies in learning how to navigate within these limitations. In the long run, excessive stress narrows perspective and forces superficial decisions, while excessive relaxation can lead to drift and missed opportunities. As the “Tao Te Ching” says, you must be like water: yield to constant pressure at the right time in order to make progress – pressure when the channel is narrow, and eddying when the water flow is turbid.
The goal is rhythm, not grinding; let stress build, not burn; let rest restorative, not plateau. Inspired by Oliver Berkman four thousand weeksview time management as a humane practice rather than a perfectionistic project. Plan enough to choose your moments, but don’t let scheduling become a source of anxiety. Go with the flow of time, lead it carefully, and let focus (not urgency) determine the pace of your work.
Carrying the unknown art
Being able to face and carry the unknown with you is an essential skill. Thinking about the unknown or things that are startlingly different from what we predict is a critical process. Enduring this state allows time for the unknown to unveil itself.
If this ability is not developed and we are rushed or forced to overcome it, we risk introducing biases and even sowing the seeds of inappropriate behavior. This doesn’t mean avoiding action to better understand the phenomenon; rather, it means cultivating an inner acceptance of the state of “we don’t know” and leaving it there when no concrete light can be seen. Balancing what we know with assumptions and ideas that leave room for the unknown to unfold is crucial to true scientific discovery.
The art of extracting the essence
A vital but often overlooked skill in science is the ability to extract the essence from information—whether it’s a paper, a presentation, or experimental data. This deep insight enables you to find key information that captures the essence of the knowledge provided. It takes time to develop the discipline needed to avoid being distracted by irrelevant details and focus on what really matters.
Make this focus a regular practice with everything you encounter, and apply it rigorously when designing experiments. Well-designed experiments that take into account the nature of your research question will get you closer to the answers you seek.
Mentoring and networking
No scientist can reach his destination alone. The mentors we meet along the way shape not only our scientific trajectories but also our professional personalities. My mentor’s influence extends far beyond technical guidance. They teach the values of integrity, persistence and humility. I urge young scientists to seek out mentors who inspire not only technical proficiency but also personal growth. A true mentor will take the time to guide you outside of formal settings, offering valuable advice after journal club or in informal conversations.
Highly qualified mentors are rare. You should look for at least two mentors. The first one should be a junior mentor who is at the stage you aspire to reach in four to five years. Science moves rapidly, and junior mentors can provide practical, up-to-date advice for navigating your field. The other should be a senior mentor, someone you want to emulate in 20 years. These mentors serve as guiding lights, providing long-term vision and perspective that may differ from your current perspective. Their guidance can help you align with your broader goals. A small deviation in your path may seem inconsequential for a few months, but it can lead to major disagreements decades later.
In addition to finding mentors, take the time to cultivate a lasting network. These connections will develop as your career progresses. Cultivate personal relationships with colleagues that extend beyond science. Sometimes this involves writing at least 50 personalized New Year’s emails. These relationships become the thread that weaves a strong scientific community and enriches personal and professional lives.
Conclusion and summary reflection
Science is neither a solitary pursuit nor a race to an arbitrary finish line. It’s been a journey filled with doubt, resilience and occasional triumph. To the young scientists reading this, I encourage you to embrace uncertainty, develop patience, and trust in the seeds you plant today. The landscape of science is constantly evolving, and your contributions, no matter how incremental they may seem, have the potential to shape the future.
As Medawar reminds us, a young scientist’s best ally is time, but time cannot be wasted. Choose your path carefully, but don’t be afraid of the unknown. Waiting, failure, and quiet moments of reflection are as much a part of the scientific endeavor as discovery itself.
