Secret #1: Science should be fun.  If not, try a different approach.

Jim's Dissertation in Haiku Form

A shadow puppet show about the origin and ecology of Florida's springs (by friend of the lab Kathleen McKee)

The Bernhardt Lab Olympics

XKCD 

PhD comics

What should we call grad school?

My life as a professor

Secret #2: Nobody works alone.  Here are some of our good friends and colleagues.

At Duke:
Duke River Center
Emily Bernhardt
Martin Doyle
Brian McGlynn
Duke Wetlands Center
Duke Center for Nonlinear and Complex Systems
Nicholas School of the Environment
Nicholas Institute for Policy Solutions

Friends and colleagues elsewhere
David Lewis
Matt Cohen

Other organizations
Florida Coastal Everglades LTER (Long Term Ecological Research) site
Triangle Urban Long Term Research Area (ULTRA)
Quantifying Biology in the Classroom (QBIC) at FIU