Dent: I wanted to when I was a kid, but my parents weren't too thrilled by the idea. I got interested in science when I took an advanced placement course in biology in high school. I drew a few other comic strips in high school and college, such as "Stoner Commandoes," and "The Sorcerer and I."

I didn't do any cartooning in graduate school, although I liked to play practical jokes, such as making humorous drawings and articles about my friends and colleagues.

The major target of these jokes was my PhD advisor (in fact, he was the model for one of the nine types of principal investigator - the "Laid-Back" one - in that cartoon). Luckily, he has a good sense of humor.

Q: Which of the Dent cartoons is your favorite?

Dent: My three favorites are "National Institutes of the Post-Doctoral Blues," "Evolution of a Postdoctoral Fellow," and "Diagram of an NIH Post-Doc's Brain" (July 1994, May-June 1995, and September-October 1996).

Q: Which "professional" cartoon strip do you like the most?

Dent: I read the comics in The Washington Post. My favorite cartoon is "Big
Nate" because I like both its humor and artwork. I also like "Baby Blues," especially now that I'm a father. There's one more strip I like, although I don't like to admit it.

Q: Which cartoon is it? Cathy?

Dent: No, no, no. It's "For Better or For Worse." The strip is not always funny, but you become familiar with the characters, and you want to know what's happening to them. I guess it's like being addicted to a TV soap opera. "Cathy" is pretty annoying. . . . I'm not really a big fan of "Dilbert" because I feel that the timing of the jokes tends to be slightly off. My least favorite cartoon is "Family Circus." It's horribly saccharine.

Q: Perhaps you would appreciate "Family Circus" more when your son gets a little older?

Dent: I hope not.

Q: Which piece of equipment in your lab do you feel most possessive about?

Dent: The tissue-culture hood. I hate it when people make a mess there and don't clean up. I also get upset when someone uses up all the supplies stored in the hood, such as pipettes and tips, but doesn't bother to restock it.

Q: If you were stranded in a lab on a desert island, which three pieces of equipment would you like to have?

Dent: My pipetman, of course. An agarose gel electrophoresis apparatus would be nice and, perhaps, a PCR machine.

Q: Do you have a lab superstition - like, do you routinely do something that you know is not necessary or reasonable, but you're compelled to continue doing it because you fear the wrath of the lab gods?

Dent: I have several lab superstitions. One of them is to avoid the number "13."
For example, I try not to use slot number 13 in the microfuge, and I avoid loading 13 samples on any type of gel or leaving 13 pipet tips in a rack.

continued in page 9