We all know those dark days of graduate work. A three-week experiment has failed. You dropped your perfect gel. The questions after your presentation made you feel as if you had the brains of a hamster. You think of leaving and opening a fast-food franchise.

I have learned the importance of including something else in my life to keep me from disintegrating after a dark day of science. This something else must wipe all thoughts of the day of disaster from my mind. Justifying the time spent on extra-curricular pursuits to one's supervisor can be daunting, but some labs incorporate these pursuits into everyday life (see Nature 427, 268 – 269; 2004).

Rowing indirectly brought me to my graduate life, and it still propels me through days of data despair. If I fail to focus on balancing the boat, I am certain to become a soggy scientist. Biological chemistry graduate student Josh Finkelstein hunts for harmony with his band of rock‘n’roll chemists, and physics postdoc Etienne Boaknin lost and found his balance on the judo mat. The time and energy invested in our hobbies clears our minds, gives us something else to have nightmares about, and provides another subject for conversation in job interviews.