Documentary - Naturally Obsessed

Naturally Obsessed is a documentary about a molecular biology lab at Columbia University. It shows the journey of three PhD students and their mentor and professor, who guides them along throughout the film. Instead of focusing on the scientific work of the lab, the film follows the success, heartbreak, and day-to-day emotions of working in a lab. It brings the prestigious world of scientific research into perspective, showing truly what it takes to work in a lab and that the people that work there are real.

In the opening scene of the movie, we meet Rob Townley. He has wild hair, is generally unkempt, and describes himself as 'a loose cannon'. According to him, he was kicked out of several labs before he begged Shapiro to take him on as a student. Before pursuing a PhD at Columbia, he was a graduate at the University of Illinois at 28 (he dropped out three times before completing his undergraduate work). Throughout the film, Rob uses his own video diary to show us his research and often comments on his current state of mind. He checks every day to see if someone else has published what he is researching on, because that means he would have to scrap years of research and start on a new thesis. He often holds different bacteria up to his camera diary (such as bacterial strain 790) and tells the audience, "this is what is going to get me out of here!"

Rob is researching the protein AMPK, that is linked to diabetes and obesity. It is like a switch that turns on when our bodies need more energy. If Rob can find the structure of the protein, he can then explain how the protein works to give our bodies more energy. He then has to modify the protein to get crystals from it. Next, the crystals are diffracted with an x-ray, which in turn is put through a photon beam that shows the diffraction pattern. Rob can then figure out the position of atoms in the protein from how the crystal is diffracted. The process sounds simple, but Rob has been working on his thesis for three years, two and a half which he says he wasn't getting any crystals.

Part of the way through the film, we also learn that Rob's other passion in life besides science, is climbing. He and his wife relate much of their graduate experience to climbing: "You get to a point where it's much harder than you expected, and you just want to fall but you can't and you have to gather that extra bit of energy to get through the tough part." Rob also adds that "it's not always about the smarts or creativity, it's about sticking to it." Which is a theme that is apparent that he follows in all areas of his life.

Kilpatrick Carroll is another PhD student under Shapiro. His main focus of the film seems to be money, and defending his pursuit of a PhD. He says that he could be making money on Wall Street, yet he gets to get up every day and go to the lab to do something he loves. However, he still seems worried by the thought of money, saying that the 24,000 dollars a year isn't conducive to his him moving on with his life and getting married to his fiancé. The uncertainty both financially and otherwise, of his career choice eventually drives him and his fiancé apart by the end of the film.

Gabe Cubberley is the third PhD student that is filmed and the only girl in the bunch. She also has a different background from most of the students as she was a technician

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