The transition from undergraduate to graduate school demands a dramatic change in the way students learn and interact with science. Instead of focusing on what is known, students are challenged to explore what is not known. They must ask questions that nobody knows the answers to, and figure out how to answer them. While adjusting to this new perspective, students must also address several new practical concerns, such as how to best pick a mentor, a lab, and a project, and later, how to cope with the pressure to publish without undermining their curiosity and freedom. This collection of interviews with twelve life science professors at the University of Cambridge aims to orient students to this new environment so that they are ready to get the most out of their early graduate school experiences.