The sonar pings came back with perfect circles—holes in the lakebed, deep and clean, like someone had punched through the world and left nothing behind. We called them discoveries. I called them another reason to stay late, to chase something I couldn’t name. Everyone wanted answers: sinkholes, craters, upwelling, gas. I wanted a reason why I kept mapping the same stretch of water, why I kept hoping the next image would make sense of all the hours I’d lost. Forty holes. Forty mysteries. I keep telling myself it’s exciting. But tonight, staring at the data, I just feel empty. Like the lake swallowed the explanation—and maybe me, too. #Science #ScienceFatigue #ResearchExhaustion