CSI, how do you stay sane?

Ever watched those clever Sherlocks do their work? Well, probably not in real life, but how about on t.v.?

I am referring to the current fad of forensics shows. Let's see...there is "CSI: Las Vegas", and their offshoots "CSI: Miami" and "CSI: New York" (I still prefer the Las Vegas one, though the Miami version is a close second). Then there is "Crossing Jordan," "NCIS," "Bones," and the new show "Evidence." If you include the crime shows that dabble in forensics, there is a huge list added.

But back to my point: How do the real forensic scientists stay sane, processing all of those samples, day in and day out? Example: Let's say there is this bloody murder scene. To process the scene forensics have to take samples of all of the blood in hopes to find the "perp" (or "un-sub" as they are called these days). After taking all of the samples there might be 40 blood samples!!...that is a lot to process.

These thoughts go through my head every time I have to process samples during my research toward my doctorate.

Just yesterday I had to process 34 samples. Ignoring all of the work I did on these samples on previous days, it took me 5 hours of constant work with no breaks just to quantitate the amount of protein in each of these 34 samples. This involves adding different amounts of different solutions to each of my samples, working with volumes that are smaller than a drop of water. And that was just one step in the whole process to get some data. That frustrating part was that when I got to the end of the experiment, I found out that the whole experiment was a bust. So now I have to go back and start again. And after that is done I have to move on to the final set of samples, probably around 34 again, and work those up from scratch!

How to stay sane through this all?

"There is a fine line between genius and insanity," Oscar Levant was quoted as saying. I think we may have assumed wrongly about the steps to intelligence...that the steps go from average intelligence, to being smart, to being a genius, and if you go to far you hit insanity. I propose that in order to reach the state of being a genius, you first have to cross the valley of insanity!

Fortunately, or unfortunately, I most likely never reach the level of genius. Knowing that, I hope to stop mapping my path through the valley of insanity.