A man is a wolf to another man, said the Romans and later Hobbes. Maybe they didn’t study Canis lupus as carefully as they should have, says Naturejobs journalism competition winner Sofia Otero.

In an article last year from The New York Times, Rick McIntyre, a biological technician at the Yellowstone Wolf Project, explains that wolves are civil to each other — the alpha male is confident, self-assured, non-aggressive to the pack. He’s a champion with nothing to prove; a leader with a calming effect.

Every lab is a pack of wolves, with a hierarchy determined by your position and the time you’ve belonged in the group. I think we can all learn something from them.

The alpha wolf is tough at the right moment: he fights to protect the territory and the group. In the lab, a good principle investigator (PI) is the alpha male (or female — here the wolves could learn something from us) who defends the research: the scientific territory. Continue reading →