As part of my doctorate, I was hired as a lab assistant working with pediatric treatment.

We were working on a paper measuring the exposure effect of a potential contaminant.

While my colleagues were working on the measured effects on adults and the elderly, my team

would work with children.

The potential disruption to developing adolescents was deemed important enough to have a separate

set of experiments and measurements.

The study garnered unilateral attention and funding of not only one but four different

pharmaceutical companies.

Hatchet Pharmaceuticals being the main contributor.

I was hired pretty late in the process.

I wasn't even sure what the contaminant was, as it was just designated as the contaminant.

Apparently it was something that resided just under the top soil in a large residential

area.

To not taint our measurements, my colleagues and I were given minimum information about

the symptoms to look for and what to expect.

Instead, we were provided a set of experiments and willing participants.

It was all fast and appazard.

Most of us started on one day and Tuesday the following week was the day of our first

experiment.

Little time to prepare, get settled or even understand.

Still, this could be big, big enough to launch a career.

The experiment described as cognition and ocular development assessment, Coda, was to be

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