Conference Prep

"So why do you see cells more resistant in this case ?" Mira asks in that smug tone of his (he's a faculty btw)

"Well, there's adaptation" I reply. That's what all the literature said for glucose.

"Why isn't that happening with extraneous cases ? There's time for adaptation there too ?" Mira is most irritating when countering your answer.

"Well...", I begin, but he's got the upper hand. "There's so many generations. Why don't they adapt ?"

"It's not adaptation", is what all this leads up to. "That data you're citing is from glucose fermentation, not xylose fermentation. So how do you figure this happening ?"

Dr. M nods in. This is odd. Who's side is he on ?

"Ok", I say "I don't know why then. Why is it ?"

"I DON'T KNOW EITHER", he says, like it's a giant joke. Dr. M laughs with him. "The point", he says. "is that noone else does either. You need more data to find out. And you don't need to explain THAT with your poster"

"So", I'm struggling here, "if someone asks, I say"

"You say "I DON'T KNOW"!!!!"