My Nature Paper
When I was a postdoc a few years ago, I found myself on a team of researchers exploring the possibility of life in the middle of the antarctic desert. To be honest, the study wasn't very promising. I mean, by definition, deserts are inhospitable to life. Our chances of finding anything substantial were slim-to-none.
Also, our methodology was a little problematic. We were marching around in the bitter cold, picking ice to put into petri dishes. It was an awful, awful time. The only thing that kept us going was the fact that if we did find significant life in the area, we'd get a Nature paper for sure. That's one of the top journals. In my case, that would be enough to start applying for professorial positions at the most prestigious universities in my field.
Also, the company wasn't too bad. In particular, Bob and I hit it off pretty well. We'd joke about anything and everything to get our minds off the work. Jokes about our bosses and how warm they must be back home. Bad dad jokes that you only laugh at to mask your own depression. Just whatever came to mind.
One day, I saw a chasm and said, "Hey Bob. Watch out. That one's pretty dangerous."
He said back, "Well, falling is probably preferable to finishing this project anyway."
He was out of my immediate vision at the time, so I just laughed and made sure the rope tied to him was taut. A few minutes later, I hadn't heard Bob in a while and looked back to see what was going on.
He was gone. Just gone. The rope had snagged against a rock and cut straight through.
I panicked and ran back to base. We searched. We called for help.
When they finally arrived a few days later, there was no hope left. Bob was dead.
I didn't have much of a taste for antarctic expeditions after that point and applied for teaching positions at some local universities when I got home. It's not like I stopped researching. I just stopped doing dangerous stunts that would get me killed.
Now, it's kinda hard to explain to non-researchers what happened next, but I'll try.
There's a website known as the arxiv(.org) that hosts a variety of scientific papers, usually before peer review and publication. It's more or less the daily newspaper for researchers. Some people ignore it completely, but I find myself on the site for a few hours every day, just seeing where all the different fields are going.
I'll read about computer graphics, physics, biology. Whatever I am interested in at the moment. Today, I stumbled upon something odd. A paper entitled:
On the generation of oxygen and electricity from the sub-antarctic basin
There is no sub-antarctic basin. My curiosity piqued, I opened the link and read further. It was massive. Big enough that it took me a significant amount of time to download. The abstract read:
This paper details the discovery and exploration of the sub-antarctic basin, a region that exists underneath the point of inaccessibility on the antarctic continent. Though previous reports indicate such a location should be barren and inhospitable to life, it has been found to sustain a rich ecosystem composed of fish, plant life, and even small mammals. Importantly, it is possible to create a geothermal electric generator as well as an antennae to connect to various Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites for internet access. ...
What a huge discovery! It was precisely what my postdoc research was all about. I silently cursed myself for not finishing the study when I was there. Then I read the author list. It was a single person:
B. S. Schucher
Bob.
I quickly shot him an email:
Hey Bob.
Firstly. Happy to hear you are alive.
Secondly, I certainly did enough work to be considered second author, at least.
Cheers,
Jerry