This documentary (directed by Richard and Carole Rifkind) on the life of graduate students in a structural biology lab very nicely shows the fine line between success and failure, genius and madness, hope and despair, pressure and satisfaction when it comes to doing good science. It’s great if you’d like to convey the idea of what it’s like and what it’s about to friends and relatives who are wondering why the heck one is putting up with all of this when you could have had such a nice life as an accountant in the local bank. Also, if you are considering to go into science and eventually do a Ph.D. – this is a glimpse of the bumpy road ahead.
The page of the movie is here, and there is more in this blog-entry. (found via P212121)
A structure of the regulatory domain (fragment) of AMPK (the central protein in the movie) is here.