Fatal Reaction

eliminate those adverse side effects. Given that, what would you think is the first thing we’d need to know?”
    “The molecular structure of ZK-501?” I ventured, feeling that it was much too early in the morning for a pop quiz.
    “Good answer, but the molecular structure of ZK-501 has been known for several years. Right now, what we’re concerned with is trying to figure out the structure of ZKBP.”
    “What is ZKBP?”
    “It’s short for ZK-501 binding protein—that’s the receptor protein that ZK-501 attaches to in the body. I’m sure you’ve heard Stephen’s standard speech about how designing new drugs is like making keys for locks— diseases are the locks and drugs are the keys. In this case, ZKBP is an exact replica of the relevant lock. Since we’re trying to make a better key, knowing how the lock is put together is the critical first step. Ideally, a drug should fit its target perfectly, like two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.” He clasped his hands in a token marriage to demonstrate his point. “That way there are no side effects. From the way it works we now know that ZK-501 doesn’t fit perfectly with its target because while I it works, it’s also practically poisonous. That’s why knowing the exact configuration of the target is so important. Once we know it, we can change the structure of ZK-501 to improve the fit and eliminate the side effects. Once we solve the structure of the receptor, the rest of what we have to do will be all mapped out and we’ll leapfrog ahead of the competition.”
    “So how close are you to solving it?”
    “Unfortunately the protein has been something of I a ball buster,” replied Carl apologetically. With his plummy Oxford speech he managed to make even this J sound like a refined observation. “So far we’ve been able to isolate only tiny amounts from human tissue, and crystallography’s attempts to divine its structure have so far been, shall we say, inconclusive.”
    “What about Mikos? Do they have the structure yet?”
    “Rumor has it that so far they have the receptor, I nothing more.”
    “Will you beat them to it, do you think?”
    “At the rate we’re going we’ll be lucky if we all emerge from this with our sanity intact.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “Let’s just say that so far everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. We’ve been plagued by failed experiments, power outages, scarce reagents, unduplicable results, and primary investigators who seem to spend more time at one another’s throats than they actually do in their labs.”
    “It can’t be as bad as all that,” I protested.
    “Let’s just put it this way. If it’s true that, in science, it is better to be lucky than to be good—this project has been doomed from the get-go.”
    “Why do you say that?” I asked, with a terrible sinking feeling in my stomach.
    “Stephen handpicked the scientists on this project because of what they can do. But when you put them all together and make them work together, you keep on bumping up against who they are.”
    “And who are they?”
    “Half of them are academic scientists. By that I mean researchers who until now have held university appointments and had their research funded by government grants. Most lay people think academic scientists are propelled by some kind of noble search for the truth.”
    “And are they?”
    Carl gave a derisive snort. “No,” he replied. “They are looking for something else entirely.”
    “And what is that?”
    “Oh, academic scientists want quite a lot of things.” Carl ticked them off on the fingers on his hand. “Important publications, more funding, bigger labs, travel, star power, tenure... But in the end it all boils down to the same thing—peer recognition. Believe me when I tell you we are talking about people who are willing to claw one another’s eyes out over who gets listed as first author on a research paper that only two hundred people in the entire world are capable of understanding.”
    “What are the other half like?” I asked.
    “The rest of the investigators on the project are all experienced industrial scientists,” replied Carl. His respectful tone of voice indicated quite clearly with which group his allegiances lay. “For industry scientists, unlike their academic counterparts, success depends not on reckless self-promotion, but on keeping their best work secret. They are driven not to get their name in print, but to get the drag