[spartango]

You're absolutely right, it is possible and even important to structure your experiments in such a way that they don't dominate your life. It's something that I've learned to do pretty effectively (and my chosen discipline makes it easier).

I think there are certainly organizational things that can be done to facilitate more reasonable working hours, and I've seen this done well in industrial settings. From pipelined experiments to working with automation, technicians, and teammates.

With all that said, it's not easy, especially as a junior faculty member with limited resources. Building a sane lab environment is 100% worth it IMO, but it is challenging and comes with a few perceived compromises.

[dnautics]

I think the reason why it's not easy is because the academic selection process does not select for good managers.

[seanmcdirmid]

Biology could also be a very competitive field that seems to have devolved into basically a rat race. How do you compete with your equally capable peer when they work 80 hours a week and you work 40? Yes, its not sustainable, but maybe that's where we are right now (disclaimer, I don't work in Biology, but have friends that do).

[dnautics]

pick your projects smarter. Most people doing 80 hour weeks are not doing projects that are turning up publishable results. I was there.