Hmm. The way I see benchwork scientists being 'productive' is an endless slog - your cultures grow at their own schedule, and don't respect the boundaries of th

Hmm. The way I see benchwork scientists being 'productive' is an endless slog - your cultures grow at their own schedule, and don't respect the boundaries of the work-life balance. Of course, this isn't true for everybody, but was one of the reasons pushing me away from benchwork towards bioinformatics. Our work also tends to be much more insular, gnawing away for years on our own little piece of the problem. I suppose I'm personally at a fairly "creative" point in my career - I have absolute free reign in my study, and my PI encourages it.