Having the opportunity to attend private seminars given by some of Duke’s most premiere researchers has been by far one of the most rewarding aspects of being an HHR Fellow. And it’s rewarding for two reasons: because I get to learn about really cool science (duh!) and because I get to learn about various life experiences and paths that lead these people, who at one time were young undergraduates like me, both enthralled and somewhat terrified by the prospect of becoming a member of the global scientific community, to become the investigative inquirers that they are today.
In contrast to what I expected given the often cookie-cutter profiles that my generation of prospective researchers is often encouraged to build in order to maximize our chances of attending the “best” graduate schools, the background and developmental stories of these researchers were as diverse and their research. Some began their college careers wanting to do things as unrelated to science as something can possibly be. Others set off wanting quite the opposite. But in no two cases were the paths the same. In fact, the only constant that I noticed within each narrative was a certain element of serendipity. Now, I don’t mean to devalue the effort and struggle put forth by each presenter. I instead point out this seemingly ubiquitous fortune because its presence, and the fact that all of our presenters capitalized on the serendipitous moments presented to them, indicated to me what I think is one of the most poignant tidbits of wisdom that can be drawn from the life-story portions of our seminars: be open to and prepared for the favorable opportunities that life presents.
To me, this is a comforting message. I find it so because I am becoming more and more acutely aware of the difficult struggle that lies before me on my path to researcher-hood. I will have to work and struggle to succeed as our various presenters have trailblaze my path. It is the struggle inherent in trailblazing that frightens me most, so it’s comforting to know (or at least to think and hope) that fortune might smile down on me somewhere along the way and nudge me toward a fulfilling objective.
Ok, enough with the deep, philosophical garble. On to some cool science!
One of my favorite seminars was given by Dr. Frederick Nijhout, who studies, among many things, polyphenic development in insects. To provide a touch of background, polyphenism refers to the generation of two or more phenotypes from one genotype based on environmental conditions and influences. Dr. Nijhout’s research involves investigating both how the phenotypic outcome of polyphenic traits is determined in butterflies and how, once determined, that particular phenotypic outcome is achieved in a system designed to create more than one outcome. So far, his research has led him to investigate ecdysone and juvenile hormone, both of which seem to play an important role in mediating the impact of environmental factors on genotypic expression and in bringing about different phenotypes that result from these environmental factors.
Because my project involves the manipulation of gene circuits via environmental cues, which has sparked my interest in epigenetics, Dr. Nijhout’s research was especially intriguing. Dr. Nijhout’s ability to explain, at least in terms of hormones, why members of the same butterfly species are either black or brown depending on the season in which they are born is fantastic. In doing so, he has contributed a small but important bundle of information and ideas to the age-old discussion of nature vs nurture. I think that’s pretty cool.
