I Watched Bacteria Eat Each Other. I Skipped Lunch.

Today I spent six hours watching bacteria do what I can’t: take what they need, no apologies. They stab their neighbors with these microscopic harpoons—T6SS, if you care about acronyms—and drain them dry. Survival, but make it brutal. I pipetted, logged data, and tried not to think about how much I envy their certainty. No hesitation, no committee meetings, no emails from reviewers who never sign their names. Just hunger and action. I haven’t eaten since breakfast. My stomach growled while I watched the cultures—maybe I’m not so different from them after all. The paper will say something about implications for antibiotics, but I’ll remember the way the bacteria didn’t wait for permission. I wish I could do the same. #LabBurnout #ScienceFatigue #GradSchoolLife #Science