上个礼拜，二老板让我写标书，希望我2，3天内搞定……“标书是什么？”我问他，他当即晕倒，原来标书是自然科学基金申请书，用来骗钱的，呵呵这个差事不错。于是仗着我多年不用的文笔，花了一加一晚上天时间写出了第一稿让二老板大吃一惊。据说他们主治要写两个月……不过一帮老头审后说题目太大，俨然一个973，于是我绞尽脑汁查破pubmed总算缩小范围……2老板最终拍板！这次是以大老板的名义申请，要他签字，打电话给他人在飞机场，于是2老板让我模仿大老板笔迹签字……这也行啊……倒！难得2老板器重，把我的名字排在主要负责人第一位，哎，这样也不知能不能骗到钱了……他就是太学术，自己的成果快被生理教研室抢光了！要是他们来问我要序列，打死也不给！！！这个阶段2老板和我对我自己还算满意，不管骗不骗得到钱反正锻炼了一把，争取以后我自己做申请人！

  上个礼拜的实验全面告负，心里空荡荡的……心肌细胞的提取是件不容易的事！我们没有Langendorff，只有去生理教研室协调，不过那个博士不大合作，我想是他性格内向的缘故吧……

  每次我尽可能的礼貌，对他有求必应，从实验室提一大罐去离子水给他们用，去科里拿注射器，输液皮条给他们用……一趟趟来往于生理教研室，教保处，科技楼……其中的心酸只有自己能体会到……我不会放弃，我相信好事多磨！相信不久在显微镜下我会看到自己捉住的那些象一个个小精灵一样搏动的心肌细胞！

  向3只牺牲在我手上没能给生命科学做一点贡献的大鼠致敬……！

 神经科学研究所蒋辉博士一篇论文被Cell正式接收，这是大陆近年来第一篇Cell文章。以下是蒋辉博士回复蒲慕明先生2004年元旦公开信的回信，他的信通过介绍自己在神所的学习经历希望激励更多的后来者。相信每个人看到蒋辉博士的信后都会有所启发和促进。

Dear all,

   After reading Mu-ming and Ninglong's message, I do feel shame that I did not speak up publicly during the past three years I spent in ION. I am the student that will give a low score if we take the poll Mu-ming mentioned in his message. 

    But I (and I think the most of us) waited for Mu-ming to do more, to  encourage students, to push PIs. While Mu-ming is asking PIs to give us more freedom to explore science, I see many of us are still waiting for  PIs to give them projects. I also see some students around me are  discouraged or turn their interests to stuffs unrelated to science.  I did not do anything to boost their interests before, while Mu-ming was  trying everything he can, even against PIs. I did think it is "inappropriate" for me, a junior student, to do such things.  But now, I will give up anything related to "keep modest","save face", and "respect  elder", and speak about my own experiences during the past three years. I think my experiences are of some values for new commers. I think it is the only way that I can help new students here, the only way that I can share some responsibilities from Mu-ming for students. I also hope other PIs/students can give your opinions. 

    Generally, I do not fully agree with Mu-ming's opinion that students  need not read much. Several disavantages make hard reading necessary:  Firstly, most new students cannot read scientific literature smoothly, especially outside the field that they are currently working on; Secondly,  undergraduate education in China  laggs behind the world over 20 years, and we need update our knowledge through reading. For example, several years ago, undergraduate students in Berkeley are asked to describe the mechanism and stucture of Arp2/3 in their final examination of cell biology. I am quite sure that most, if not all, students can not learn about Arp2/3 in their universities. Thirdly, people not knowing the progress in other field will possibly miss the chance to boost their own research. A recent example is the groups rushed into RNAi mechanism resarch. Compared with other groups in the RNA field, the labs took the opportunity boosted rapidly, like Hannon  lab, Cold Spring Harbor laboratory. I can say that if we do not read for the sake of reading itself, we are safe from loosing ourselves in the huge amount of literatures.

    Starting period: getting out the situation of innocent.  I was almost  innocent about neuroscience before I joined ION. I only had some pieced knowledge about action potential, axon. I knew nothing about neuroanatomy, neurodevelopment, and high-level functions such as vision. The first  research paper I read is a Cell paper from Yi Rao lab. It took me a week to stumble through it! I was so upset and discouraged at that time. I thought I was inappropriate for neuroscience. I think some of the new comers may share the same feeling as me. Finally, I passed through that period. What  I did was that I spent three months in our library without doing any  experiment. I randomly picked up papers from CNS, neuron, J.Neurosci. Before reading them, read the related chapters in Principles of Neuroscience, then go to the papers. I read them sentence by sentence. It was really hard initially, but soon I felt encouraging, because I found that I could read faster after several weeks.  At the end of three months, I found I learned something unexpected: I can feel the quality of papers, that is, I can tell the paper is J.Neurosci or Neuron according to my own judgement. I never had the experience again, because I  had experiments to do now.  I don't know how other students passed through  this period. I think the only way to be not innocent is hard reading. I  hope other students/PIs can give your opinions. If most of you have the  same feelings, I hope students can be allowed to spend more time in  library.

    Improvement: systematic reading When I was OK for reading itself and critical reading, I held an ambitious goal: to be an expert of every aspect of neuroscience. Of  course, I gave it up finally, but I really explored  many aspects. And the process is still not finished yet. I took up two strategies: textbook oriented and people oriented. I read Principle of neurosciences chapter by chapter, and read my interested original papers listed after each chapter, especially reviews.  I also searched Pubmed for the names cited often, because I wanted to know what publications can make someone "giant". I still remembered that I gasped at the beautiful publication list of Tom Jessell and some others.

   Another approach of systematic reading is people oriented. I downloaded materials about neuroscience winners from the Nobel Prize website. Firstly, see what they say about their fields. Then I will try to find out  their students, and see what they are doing now. I often make "lineage trees" for those peoples. I can still remember the excitement when I made the list of Kuffler, Hubel & Wiesel, Shatz&Stryker&Katz... The names on the NAS site are also useful. I also made my reading list from Journals: Cell, Neuron, J.Neurosci editorial board members, Current opinions, Triends editorial borad members. You will find the world is really small: many of them are in multiple boards. Notabally, what I read were mostly reviews, but I ensured at least one research paper  for each of them. This kind of readings brought me many funs, I felt very  intimate with some of them, although I never met them. Sometimes, I can  guess the content of their next paper.

    Furthur improvement: One way I found can keep improving me: Look at lab websites of those  "giants". Several things need to be done: find out what they are doing  now; is it the most important question addressable in his field; can it be  improved or difficult problems can be solved by introducing some new  techonologies or cooperation with another lab (I always think of doing two  rounds of Postdoc for one important question or field). 

      Discussion: I have the chance to closely discuss with stimulus mentor, which is not available for most students. My experience is not appliable  for all, so I will not talk about it here.

      I think if you have clear vision of your field, you will easily find  interesting questions and hypothesis to work on, and need not wait for  assignment. 
       I hope my experience and feeling can help a little for those wondering what to do at their beggining period. There must be other good ways. I  hope you can share your experiences with us students. I do hope the students can hold ambitious goals, it is one good way to prevent you from been depressed by current problems.

      Best,
      Hui

摘自生物谷

  这是一篇精彩绝伦的文章，蒋博士让我们知道了作为一名科研工作者应该怎样推动自己的工作。不要害怕涉足自己不熟悉的领域，多读文献多泡图书馆，看看其他同领域的牛人们都在作什么，对自己有什么启发，不要介意自己有ambitions goals，这是我们必须要有的！最重要的是：try to move forward ourselves,never wait for assignment！相信这不仅仅适用于生物医学方面的研究，对其他工作也会有启发！Let's do something big！