I Hate Wild Geese

Most of you are aware that I work in a chemistry lab. 99% of the time, I love it. Right now, I hate the scientific community. Why? Let me tell you.

There is often no need to reinvent the wheel. Protocols and procedures are always published in other articles, and most people just cite them as their procedure. That's ok, as long as visiting the reference provides what is claimed to be there. For instance, today I wanted a protocol for purifying protein...

Paper A refers to Article B.

>>A wild goose chase in the library (about a half hour) leads me to Article B<<

Article B is about an entirely different subject and only references the topic I'm after in a one-liner buried in a chart. WTF. However, it gives way to Reference C.

Reference C, in so many words, gives way to Citation D.

Citation D points me to Paper E.

Paper E cannot be accessed for free. FML.

Thank God for margarita night! Maybe Matt won't move his cup as I refill his drink, causing him to dump beer on me in "retaliation."

UPDATE: Paper E references Source F, as in "mother f****r."