When fate plays its hand

Chapter 0640

Beckett’s expression finally softened. “Should we try to placate Christine?”

“No need. I know Chris well, she’s not one for power struggles or internal conflicts. She’s one of the rare few who are deeply committed to academia,” said Hendrix.

“What about her three students and the lab everyone’s talking about in the papers…”

Hendrix tapped the desk, where a copy of Elgerson Daily lay open on a page covering the story of Miranda and her team’s self–built lab. He stayed quiet for a long time.

Beckett remained silent as well.

At last, Hendrix spoke, “We’ll just let them be. These three students…. Well, they have resources, they have land, and they managed to get their approvals through So they indeed have the skills to back it up.

“But just building a lab doesn’t guarantee academic output. It’s too early to tell what their future holds. Even if they do produce results, it will still reflect on the college, so it’s not a concern.”

Beckett chuckled a bit dismissively. “Three first–year graduate students producing significant results? Sure, Miranda has a ‘Science‘ publication, but it was only a review, not original research. It’s not on the

same level.”

Yet Beckett was quickly proven wrong.

Half a month after the lab’s establishment, the paper titled “Computational Principles and Challenges in Single–Cell Data Integration” that was co–authored by Miranda, Madison, and Sebastian, was published in Nature Biotechnology.

The news shook the entire college.

“Nature Biotechnology“, also known as NBT, was one of the world’s leading academic journals under the Nature” series. They specialized in the latest advancements in bioinformatics and were ranked among the top journals in the life sciences field, boasting an impact factor of 33.1.

In short, it was an extremely prestigious publication, leagues beyond the “Hebranian Journal” Yasmine had once published in.

Notably, the paper was credited solely to Infinity Lab, without any affiliation to the college. There was no mention of ‘Bedford College” or the “Faculty of Bioinformatics” in the acknowledgments section.

When Beckett received the news, he was stunned. Are you sure it’s ‘Nature Biotechnology?”

“Yes, sir. Here’s the journal index–it’s searchable now, Annie replied, turning her laptop screen toward him:

Beckett looked at it and felt his legs turning weak. After a pause, he managed to say, “Aren’t they just first- year graduate students?”

Aileen hesitated, then nodded. “Yes, they are first–year graduate students.”

*Are first–year students capable enough to publish in ‘Nature Biotechnology?”

Aileen remained silent. Technically, they shouldn’t be able to, but clearly, they had. There was just no right

Chapter 0640

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way to answer him.

Beckett, though, began to see it differently. After all, having first–year graduate students publishing in Nature Biotechnology” could be a huge point of pride for Bedford College,

–

“Well, well,” he said as his face brightened with pride. “Talented students bring honor to the college; this is truly a cause for celebration!”

“The thing is, Mr. Haddock… there’s something I’m not sure how to tell you.” Alleen hesitated.

“Go ahead. What is it? And remember to inform the team to log this as an academic achievement.”

After all, it would be a vital statistic in the yearly college rankings.

Aileen looked increasingly uncomfortable. “Well… it seems that this paper wasn’t credited to the college.”

Beckett’s face froze. “What?”