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2 How Can I Tell If I Am Cut Out to Be a Scientific Research Worker? People who believe themselves cut out for a scientific life are sometimes dismayed and depressed by, in Sir Francis Bacons words, The subtilty of nature, the secret recesses of truth, the obscurity of things, the difficulty of experiment, the implication of causes and the infirmity of mans discerning power, being men no longer excited, either out of desire or hope, to penetrate farther. There is no certain way of telling in advance if the day­ dreams of a life dedicated to the pursuit of truth will carry a novice through the frustration of seeing experiments fail and of making the dismaying discovery that some of ones favorite ideas are groundless. Twice in my life I have spent two weary and scientifically profitless years seeking evidence to corroborate dearly loved hypotheses that later proved to be groundless; times such as these are hard for scientists-days of leaden gray skies bringing with them a miserable sense of oppression and inadequacy. It is my recollection of these bad times that accounts for the ear­ nestness of my advice to young scientists that they should have more than one string to their bow and should be willing to take no for an answer if the evidence points that way. It is especially important that no novice should be fooled by old-fashioned misrepresentations about what a scientific life is like. Whatever it may have been alleged to be, it is in reality 6 How Ca n I Tell . . . ? I 7 exciting, rather passionate and-in terms of hours of work-a very demanding and sometimes exhausting occupation. It is also lik