title: A good life.
abstract: Following a career in science involves long hours and hard work, but as Eve Marder explains in the first of a series of columns, it can also be extremely rewarding.
authors.affiliation: is an  eLife  senior editor, and is in the  Department of Biology and the Volen National Center for Complex Systems ,  Brandeis University ,  Waltham ,  United States marder@brandeis.edu.
authors.forename: Eve
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Marder
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research; D002321:Career Choice; D006801:Humans; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012201:Reward; D012586:Science