I am a scientist and I can proudly say that this field is littered with people who are just crazy enough - including myself.

A lot of people think science is a dry, boring occupation filled with beakers, logic, and lots of equations and crap on white erase boards.

It isn't. It is a creative, vital, dynamic vocation and some of the breakthroughs have come at the hands of people who fall slightly out of the gaussian distribution of sanity. It's fun. Everyday is different.

I work with them everyday. The single-minded, the twitchy, the aspergerish, the depressed. Underpinning all that is a strange kind of genius that has helped a lot of people.

Make no mistake, we do carry a burden. Depression can wreak havoc on your CV, but it is manageable. We have fights, fail to communicate with each other on so many levels, and there is a lot of pacing.

Meetings are hilarious because most of us either can't speak, can't sit still, blurt out wild ideas, or are just overtly antagonistic. I work with a gentlemen who has to whistle "if i only had a brain" everyday, all day. Another has slap a part of his body (usually his legs) to manage stress.

Somehow though, we manage to support ourselves, move the field forward and muddle through.

There is a lot of cursing, mumbling and coffee.