Scientist's block

I copy from Webster's dictionary:

Writer's block: a phenomenon involving temporary loss of ability to begin or continue writing, usually due to lack of inspiration or creativity.

carrying on from Wikipedia:

Writer's block can be closely related to depression and anxiety, two mood disorders that reflect environmentally-caused or spontaneous changes in the brain's frontal lobe. This is in contrast to hypergraphia, more closely linked to mania, in which the changes occur primarily in the temporal lobe.

I do not really know which lobe or other topological entity of my brain to look for, in order to better define my state of mind, one which I would dare to call "scientist's block". I apologise for this somehow poetic definition but it's the closest thing that my tormented frontal, back and side lobes can come up with, having gone through two frenetic working weeks with minimal if not disappointing outcome. If in the last post I was metaphorically "introspecting", looking at the interior patio of the Institute, today I can only look at it like in this photo, extending upwards, too steep to climb, too tiring just to think about going up there, and that is both metaphorically and literally.

Scientist's block has not so much to do with loss of ability to work. All the contrary, in my case at least it appears to be highly correlated with working overtime. During the last tow weeks, I found myself spending far too much time in the lab (including late shifts and Saturdays). In all, it has been a period during which I felt rather active and prone to work but -alas- it appears that the excitement one looks for in science, (this little spark that comes when looking at a long-anticipated plot) is not so easy to achieve. In the end, a load of data fell into place, some scripts were better organized, a few new R functions were perfected but that is not so much of progress and falls far from being qualified as success.

Then came fatigue and an increasing craving to take my iPod and my copy of "Voyage au bout de la nuit" to the Ciutadella park and lay on the grass until it gets dark. And perhaps I should do exactly this. I tend to tell people that working in the lab and thinking are two mutually exclusive activities and although their usual reaction is a smile of consolation, deep inside they know, that like myself, they have had their best -or like myself their less mediocre- ideas exactly when they took some time off work, a small pause to ponder and reflect about a problem of scientific nature. Therefore, having just introduced the term "scientist's block" I would tend to say that it is more connected to "mania" and "hyperlaboria" than the contrary (if not caused by them). And I would go even further to cite some of the most prominent symptoms, which apart from the obvious (fatigue, frustration, depression, denial, appearing in this order) include object-specific side-effects like : failure to blog, persistence in playing chess on the web instead of attending seminars and self-inflicted damage of the inner ear by listening to Rage Against the Machine full blast.

Such is my case. Good thing though the catholics stuck with their calendar. This means Easter Sunday is this week and a long-awaited holiday is just around the corner. Let's hope I take advantage of it to do some serious work. And by this I mean, having ouzo and "mezedes", while waiting for a decent idea to pop up.

.....
Oh and in case it doesn't, I don't care.