Cohen Lab

Sailing through graduate school

When a few Cohen Lab members found themselves listlessly floating through the doldrums of graduate school, Barak came to the rescue. Quickly navigating rivers and creeks and roadside puddles, he sailed across Illinois and arrived in lab to the shock and awe of the other landlubber labs. His new crew gave a quick “yippee” and climbed aboard.

Might there be merits to guiding the ship into international waters where the rogue scientists could set up a nautical lab? Benefits would include easy access to fresh seafood, plenty of salt water for buffering our enzymatic reactions, and the inspiration of the fresh sea breeze. That said, we may need to invent new nautical approaches to sequencing DNA, discover internet-free ways of reading new papers, and identify some Atlantis-based funding source.

For now, we’ll keep residence within our lovely coffee-laden abode and escape to Carlyle Lake when the siren song becomes too much. But when the floods arrive again, look to the Cohen Lab for the beginnings of the NNIH: the National Nautical Institutes of Health.