A friend of mine was the head lab technician at a large prestigious research university.

I always assumed that the research being done at these schools was done by top tier scientists with grad students who cared deeply about the research, had excellent attention to detail and impeccable scientific process.

From talking to my friend, I realized:

- most of the grad students were people who didn't want to get a corporate job

- they wanted to extend their college experience as long as possible

- the absolute lack of discipline and rigor they showed to their experiments was astounding

- the lead academic was usually someone passionate and dedicated and often had to "herd cats" to get anything done ON TOP OF coordinating funding, lab space etc

Really opened my eyes to "how the sausage is made" when it comes to research.