Gugi, in that case, your point makes sense. My take on much of what she did (originally-she's progressed a long time since I was in the lab a few years ago) was a company (usually) would be interested in what effect X would have on Y, or some such; usually the *ideas* were achieved by a team effort, and the PhD was often assigned by the lab/company/school etc. to "manage" the project more so than to come up with the ideas him or herself. While the PhD is perfectly capable, the "grunt work" (ideas, problems solved, etc etc.) are often done by the team he or she is in charge of. 3 more years of school may or *may not* make a lot of difference when it comes down to who has the best idea. Of course such is the rule with everything. Perhaps in other environments the PhD does all the work and just has everyone else do the simple menial stuff ("Hey, throw this stuff in the centrifuge, then measure 2cc of..."blah blah blah you know what I mean), which is what it appears you are referencing. Not having a PhD or any such myself, I can only speculate. Got accepted to school but we were broke at the time. Times were better when my younger sis went up, and the rest is history. Of course, I'm still quite opinionated on many of the applicable topics, and do have a degree, but nothing so up there as hers, and I"m really proud of her.
John P.
