Long gone are the days when learned gentlemen (and they were almost exclusively men) of science pondered the natural and physical world around them, and discussed the latest discoveries and inventions, often over dinner and a glass of fine wine. Even fifty years ago, science seemed a rather gentler activity than it is today. Then it seems, there was time to take tea and linger in discussions on fascinating topics. Compare this to the frenzied world of research today. In the twenty-first century we not only have to conduct successful, competitive research, but also fund it, publish it, talk about it (often to the public as well as to colleagues), patent it and exploit it – and all this while juggling the pressures of teaching and an ever-growing burden of administration. Anyone who really knows about research could be forgiven for feeling that it's a tough life for scientists – yet those outside still think we take eight week summer vacations!

Of course our ‘rose-tinted view’ of the scientific past ignores the struggles and challenges facing our scientific forefathers; and science offers the same, and perhaps even greater, challenges and excitement as it always did. Nevertheless, scientists now need a range of new skills, and they need to learn them quickly in order to be successful. Many universities provide courses for graduate students on communication and presentation skills, publishing, obtaining grants and fellowships, ethics and the many other aspects of research.