Blogger Genomic Repairman was none too thrilled when a visiting scientists from "huge famous university," with whom his lab collaborates, refused to accept the advice of senior PIs in his group. Specifically, he says, the visitor was working in his lab in order to gain technical assistance with — and preliminary data from — a mouse-model developed in Genomic Repairman's lab. When "a panel full of greybeards far more versed in this field" than the lab's guest suggested that she ought to screen for a particular protein in her samples, she dismissed the idea. "You come [to] my institution and to my lab. You plead for our help with experiments and our expertise, yet you are defiant and discount any suggestion or critique that we make to your work. This is not how scientific relationships are initiated or nurtured," Genomic Repairman says of the visiting scientist. "You are eschewing the generous advice of those that could be potentially reviewing not only your publications, but your grants as well," he adds.
Over at her blog, The Unlikely Grad Student says that, similarly, she's seen researchers neglect to consider colleagues' advice. When she recommended that her colleague refer to a paper that addresses "a potentially huge factor" in the system the student was studying, Unlikely Grad was met with "Nah. Too complicated. I'm just going to ignore it. I have to hurry and get results and get this paper written, because I want to graduate in December."