Over several years working in labs, I've noticed that the hierarchy in laboratories is a lot like feudalism.
The PI is the lord/king/queen/etc and the graduate students, post-docs and techs are all working a tract of land bestowed upon them by the PI. The PI always gets credited on research papers published even if he/she never pipetted 5 microlitres of water. But that's not only because the lab is theirs, they're the ones guiding each and every research project. As a PI once told my co-worker and I in jovial humour, "It's your job to make me famous!" haha.
Anyway, while you feel like a serf working a tract of land, it is a very cool feeling knowing that no one in the WORLD is doing the same exact thing you are. Everyone in academia is exploring a slightly different thing, and what you're doing is unique, since every PI wants to publish something new and exciting.
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