Paola G. Caballero León

RISE Program Creative Writing Competition 2014 - Short Story

Losing Perspective

Papers. More papers are falling off of my desk. I feel the already familiar burning in my

eyes due to the continuous vigorous reading I have been doing lately. The clock tells me it is

2:39am. I should probably just give up for the night…morning? It’s too dark to be morning, yet

it is a new day. These are the hours of limbo and confusion. I could not be more confused in this

moment of my life. Instead of focusing on the research and the meeting with the funding agency,

I am focusing on divergent thoughts. It’s the lateness of the night….or the earliness of the

morning. Either way, it will be wiser to go to sleep. Yet I cannot! I cannot fall asleep if I have

not established a solution to this problem. How? How can I come up with a way to make

enzymes (enzymes!) function as micro pumps? It is a pretty unconceivable idea. Nonetheless,

my Ph.D. depends on it, which is pretty much the fundamental reason why I cannot fall asleep

now. I searched in every possible article something that could enlighten me in this. All of these

papers talk about fuel substrates, self-propulsion, bio compatibility, and so much more. These

papers are the evidence that enzymes are potential motors. On the other hand, my job is to turn

them into micro pumps. This is always the hardest part about research: coming up with the

solution and knowing how to prove that solution by means of experiments. I have already

finished reading every single paper…and I still do not know what to do…

A big splash causes me to wake up with a jolt. I look around and realize I never made it

to the bed last night and slept on the floor. Splash. There is that sound again, followed by

laughter. I guess my co-workers decided to enjoy a nice pool day full of fun. Fun, I do not even

remember the last day I had fun. My research has consumed most of my time, leaving little to no

space for fun.

Something blue in the floor catches my attention. I crawl over to one of the papers and I

was instantly filled with confusion. Did I highlight “you are” in this scientific article? Why

would I even highlight that? It definitely does not contribute much… I look over the papers and

saw a second one marked, not far away. The word “losing” was highlighted in blue. A third

paper was marked in the same way, but the highlighted word was “perspective”. I take the three

papers and place them side by side on the floor. “You are losing perspective”. This must be a

really bad joke because why would I mark those words. I do not remember ever doing that. “You

are losing perspective”. The words run through my mind, like a carousel song with no end. “You

are losing perspective”. I guess my subconscious knows something I do not.

Splash. It is so unfair that I am dealing with this stress and everyone is having fun at the

pool. To make things worse, the window of my dorm has a perfect view of this scenario. They

appear to be playing hide and seek. Peter has his eyes closed, counting. Everyone else is

swimming to different parts of the rectangular pool. Peter turns around with his eyes closed, half

walking and half swimming towards the people in hiding. I focus on the water. How it helps him

propel faster towards our peers when he swims than when he walks. The movement of his arms

from front to back makes the water push him forward. This reminds me of enzymes and how

they are self-propelled in one direction after catalyzing a reaction with the substrate. But just like

Peter, this self-propulsion has no directionality. One moment they could go left and the other

moment they could go up. This is the precise problem with enzymes as motors! I keep watching

my peers enjoy their game, analyzing their swimming strokes and tendencies, watching how the

water moves accordingly. An idea has started creeping into my mind. If Peter were to stay in one

place and move the pool water with enough force to create some kind of wave in the correct

direction, it would eventually drag one of our peers even closer to Peter. Following this line of

thought, enzymes (represented as Peter) will be more efficient in pumping substrates (our peers)

if the enzymes are immobilized in one spot, without interrupting their catalyzing reactions. The

force of the propulsion will move the medium (pool water) and the other substrates will come

eventually into contact with the enzymes. In an isolated system, this process could go on until all

of the substrates have been consumed.

Even though reading the papers did help me understand the nature of enzymes, it was

when I applied the concept in a macroscopic scenario that I was truly able to come up with a

solution to the problem. It is important to also analyze the big picture. Sometimes, focusing too

much in the close-up picture can make you lose perspective.