Chris Waters | Internet culture

Bassler runs the lab more as a parent than as a boss. She’s nurturing her students’ careers, not ordering people around. Her goal is to guide them toward fruitful work, to help them work through any snarls along the way. “They’re suffering when they work on these experiments, because they’re working in the dark,” she says. “Mostly what I can do is recognize the difference between something that’s total crap and something that’s creative and off the beaten path.”

Her pride in her students’ work is much more than professional — it’s personal, maternal. Even when she grouses, she’s proud. Chris Waters is going to put me out of business. Sine may be the smartest grad student I’ve ever had.

Ideally, when they leave here, they’ll be able to run their own labs, fund their own work. But when they’re stuck, Federle says, “We’ll call Bonnie.”

When Bassler’s students talk about their work, a moment comes when they confess how much they rely on her emotionally. I never leave her office feeling like our idea isn’t going to work. She doesn’t take us for granted. I’m not afraid to go in there crying.

Like their biological mothers do, though, she sometimes annoys them. She walks in with big news about Internet culture, and they laugh. My mother sent me that weeks ago, they think. Sometimes she gives them unwelcome advice, insistently. And when they don’t listen, she worries.

“It’s totally like motherhood,” she says. “And my fantasy is to populate the field with all my offspring.”